After a bit of re-jigging we're nearly ready to pour the ground floor. The changes we made went in after the foundations were poured, so thankfully these limited the extent of what could change. Now the next Radon barrier and floor are ready to go in on the areas not over the basement section.
We need to get the plumber back on site to install the pipes for the kitchen, bathrooms and utility areas, of course I should have really known this and arranged it earlier, but my inexperience shows through. Luckily he's able to have a look today, and hopefully able to install soon after that, but the builder is a little unhappy at losing days. In fairness though, I'm not hassling him on the days here and there he isn't on site (he's very reliable though) so a little leeway here from him should be expected, although I can understand he may be a bit frustrated after the delay with plan changes. After this though, it should all be in his control and no more delays - the only other thing will b the 1st floor plumbing.
I also have to get a the HRV and central vacuum points arranged for this floor before the ICF is poured. I have a fair idea where these will go, but the HRV in particular is a little more fuzzy as the designer refused to believe that the vertical service shaft would line up. Of course he also refused to look at the updated set of plans I sent. Net result is that for the basement it wasn't a complicated run and we could extrapolate the duct run to the shaft, but the ground floor is more complex and I'll have to chase him for this.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Week delay
Moving the walls a bit has certainly delayed us. Because of these changes the builder quite rightly wants a set of drawings that represent these - for himself and also for other suppliers (hollowcore floors for example) that need to measure off and use them. Problem is getting time from the architect to sit down and go over the changes, as opposed to catching him on the road where he can't see the drawing.
As a result, we're nearly a week delayed. The builder is getting antsy over the stall, and so am I - I wanted to start the roof in mid-July and it's now slipping to August. Since the roofer isn't around the 1st 2 weeks of August, it could mean the roof takes to the end of September - and we're heading for Winter.
As a result, we're nearly a week delayed. The builder is getting antsy over the stall, and so am I - I wanted to start the roof in mid-July and it's now slipping to August. Since the roofer isn't around the 1st 2 weeks of August, it could mean the roof takes to the end of September - and we're heading for Winter.
Monday, June 21, 2010
2nd Foundations poured
With excellent weather there has been no reason to hold back and with the last of this section of groundworks completed it's a blessing with no delays for rain or the tracked vehicles tearing up the surface. It's dry and compacted all over the next build area. With a few days left of the sunshine forecast, hopefully we can get a solid start on the ground floor walls and bring up the house another level.
The changes to the walls mean that we owe our builder a revised drawing, I prefer he demands that rather than winging it, but any reason to stop is painful. Hopefully our architect can jiggle these in CAD over the weekend and we can get started. Neither of us can wait to step into the next floor, and no doubt the room sizes will be a topic of discussion. If we're lucky, we could see the next 2 floors on within the month.
The changes to the walls mean that we owe our builder a revised drawing, I prefer he demands that rather than winging it, but any reason to stop is painful. Hopefully our architect can jiggle these in CAD over the weekend and we can get started. Neither of us can wait to step into the next floor, and no doubt the room sizes will be a topic of discussion. If we're lucky, we could see the next 2 floors on within the month.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Basement enclosed
With much excitement we headed down last night to have a look at the basement with the hollowcore floors on top - seems like a small step compared to the last few weeks of effort but it seems to represent a notable waypoint in the construction. The walls have been clearly visible for sometime, but as we pull up to it and walk inside the volume each room contains becomes tangible, finally. The 3m high garage area suddenly has a massive ceiling, and feels much higher than anticipated, and we're already altering the uses of the rooms in the basement based on their look and feel. But all in all we're both very happy and can't wait to start getting into the house.
Here is our engineer and Lorraine debating the age old topic of room sizes. Yesterday, our engineer had prepared the layout of the next floor in red spray in order to direct where the foundations for the next floor need to sit. It was a great opportunity to see how the whole house will sit. We took the chance to move these virtual walls a bit, extending the rear wall and side wall a300mm out to create a slightly bigger kitchen. Today we should get these dug and poured, and the ICF sits right into the foundation so we can then start the ground floor.
The next major part to decide upon is windows and stone. Both of us like the real wood/alu-clad window, but the price of these may be out of our reach. It's something like 30% more for wood than PVC, and then 20% over wood for alu-clad. We have about 4 weeks until we can even start to measure the openings, so until then we'll have to visit some showrooms, cruise around peoples window and generally make a decision. Never easy.
Here is our engineer and Lorraine debating the age old topic of room sizes. Yesterday, our engineer had prepared the layout of the next floor in red spray in order to direct where the foundations for the next floor need to sit. It was a great opportunity to see how the whole house will sit. We took the chance to move these virtual walls a bit, extending the rear wall and side wall a300mm out to create a slightly bigger kitchen. Today we should get these dug and poured, and the ICF sits right into the foundation so we can then start the ground floor.
The next major part to decide upon is windows and stone. Both of us like the real wood/alu-clad window, but the price of these may be out of our reach. It's something like 30% more for wood than PVC, and then 20% over wood for alu-clad. We have about 4 weeks until we can even start to measure the openings, so until then we'll have to visit some showrooms, cruise around peoples window and generally make a decision. Never easy.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tidy up and go again
So with some long hours over the weekend we managed to complete the planned works and have the basement backfilled. We also insulated the wall at the end with some wall-cavity insulation, more for peace of mind. The biggest job was refilling in abut 200m3 of clay that we'd taken out, and also to bring up the natural fall of the hill to allow the ground floor a level area to sit on.
That alone was about 1 1/2 days with an excavator and a 20 ton truck to tip into the area. Thankfully we have a lot of filling to replace the missing volume or we may of had to buy in more. Also, the internal block work is complete and you can see the floor plan above.
Today, the blocks are being raised in the garage/car-port partition to allow a steel beam to sit across them for the hollowcore floors to sit into. We waited until the steel was onsite as a single column of block is not stable without the steel beam to sit on top and tie in. The hollowcore is due for delivery tomorrow morning, and then we can dig foundations and go up again!
That alone was about 1 1/2 days with an excavator and a 20 ton truck to tip into the area. Thankfully we have a lot of filling to replace the missing volume or we may of had to buy in more. Also, the internal block work is complete and you can see the floor plan above.
Today, the blocks are being raised in the garage/car-port partition to allow a steel beam to sit across them for the hollowcore floors to sit into. We waited until the steel was onsite as a single column of block is not stable without the steel beam to sit on top and tie in. The hollowcore is due for delivery tomorrow morning, and then we can dig foundations and go up again!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Backfilling
This week we've been backfilling the house - getting the basement back surrounded by the earth. Its a heavy job and I took a few days off work to get on the end of a shovel and get stuck in. While we're using an excavator, it can't do everything nor can it be 100% exact for some of the detail - therefore the shovel is the only way to get it tidy.
The initial excavation was neat and there isn't a massive amount of fill to go against the wall. The tricky thing is that we want a layer of drainage stone all the way up the wall, but as it's expensive we can't just use that - we need to build up with caly and stone. In order to do this we need to build up slowly with a plywood board providing a seperation. Some stone, then clay, then stone all piled in from 3 meters overhead. But we get it done. and I get a free workout from it. At the bottom of all this is a drainage pipe, and we manage to exhume the original drain at the side and feed the this drain into it. All that took a full day with me, Tom and a digger, while the builder and blocklayer continued to bring up the walls inside.
Today, we're bringing up the level for the ground floor to sit on, that's a full day to refill a large qty of earth with a digger and a 20-ton truck tipping it in. Tommorow we can then backfill the last section of the retaining wall.
We also noticed a little 'detail' that we'll resolve. Where the blocks of the internal wall meet the concrete retaining wall there is a cold bridge that will leak heat. Where the block meets ICF it's insulated, but where its block on concrete it isn't. So when backfilling we'll place a 60mm insulation layer in between the deck-drain board and the bituthene membrane to mitigate that. It's more a mental thing to be honest, knowing its there is worse than the actual effect of it.
The initial excavation was neat and there isn't a massive amount of fill to go against the wall. The tricky thing is that we want a layer of drainage stone all the way up the wall, but as it's expensive we can't just use that - we need to build up with caly and stone. In order to do this we need to build up slowly with a plywood board providing a seperation. Some stone, then clay, then stone all piled in from 3 meters overhead. But we get it done. and I get a free workout from it. At the bottom of all this is a drainage pipe, and we manage to exhume the original drain at the side and feed the this drain into it. All that took a full day with me, Tom and a digger, while the builder and blocklayer continued to bring up the walls inside.
Today, we're bringing up the level for the ground floor to sit on, that's a full day to refill a large qty of earth with a digger and a 20-ton truck tipping it in. Tommorow we can then backfill the last section of the retaining wall.
We also noticed a little 'detail' that we'll resolve. Where the blocks of the internal wall meet the concrete retaining wall there is a cold bridge that will leak heat. Where the block meets ICF it's insulated, but where its block on concrete it isn't. So when backfilling we'll place a 60mm insulation layer in between the deck-drain board and the bituthene membrane to mitigate that. It's more a mental thing to be honest, knowing its there is worse than the actual effect of it.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Internal walls and tanking
Nipped down to the site last night to have a look at the progress. Internal walls are half way built, both the load-bearing 6" and the partitions on the basement. This means we can now stand in the rooms and get a real feel for the size of the floor area in each. Up to this point the best we could do was mark off sections on the floor slab, but without the walls to catch your eye it's a struggle to imagine it properly.
As you can see the rain is back and with the elevation we're right in the clouds on this particular evening. You can just make out the stand of trees across the road, normally from here Mt Leinster is looming in the background! This is exactly the wrong time for it as well as we're getting the retaining wall tanked - the primer paint and bituthene membrane can only go on when the wall is dry. This weather is only forecast to last a couple of days, but really it's the worst couple in terms of the schedule over the previous and next week.
The tanking can be seen below - a layer of primer paint, a rubber-like bituthene membrane, a deck-drain board, a layer of round drainage stone and finally backfilled with earth
We're trying to get it done as together as possible - we don't want to leave any of the layers exposed for too long without backfilling to keep pressure on these layers against the wall.
Once the weather picks up we can polish off the backfill and start bringing up the levels around the house, as well as dig the foundations for the load bearing walls on the ground floor. The slabs that sit on top of the basement are ordered for Monday. Then we go up again.
As you can see the rain is back and with the elevation we're right in the clouds on this particular evening. You can just make out the stand of trees across the road, normally from here Mt Leinster is looming in the background! This is exactly the wrong time for it as well as we're getting the retaining wall tanked - the primer paint and bituthene membrane can only go on when the wall is dry. This weather is only forecast to last a couple of days, but really it's the worst couple in terms of the schedule over the previous and next week.
The tanking can be seen below - a layer of primer paint, a rubber-like bituthene membrane, a deck-drain board, a layer of round drainage stone and finally backfilled with earth
We're trying to get it done as together as possible - we don't want to leave any of the layers exposed for too long without backfilling to keep pressure on these layers against the wall.
Once the weather picks up we can polish off the backfill and start bringing up the levels around the house, as well as dig the foundations for the load bearing walls on the ground floor. The slabs that sit on top of the basement are ordered for Monday. Then we go up again.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Cash flows
Finally we hear word that the bank has released the first stage payment. After a very panicky 2 weeks where we managed to apply for, get approved and draw down a mortgage in record time (since 2008) the cash is en route to our solicitor and of right now has arrived! That removes one cause of recent sleepless nights, perhaps cutting back on the coffee habit might get another hour or two.
Of course, as soon as we want to start groundworks and tanking, it starts to rain. We have the first meter of bituthene sheeting up and its well stuck on - we can now add the drain around the back and fill with stone up to the level the water is weeping from the rock. The rain is handy as it will help identify where that is, although we did mark it last time it rained... unusual to think that was some weeks ago in Ireland!! Hopefully the interior load-bearing block wall is completed today as well and we'll be ready for the for basement roof slabs. The interior wall is block because unfortunately the architect forgot to account for the width on drawing the plans :/. An ICF wall would be thicker at 200+mm, so we're using a 6" concrete block wall instead ~ 150mm. This has an impact on the corridor, having that too narrow is pointless.
Also, we think we may have found the stone and window combination we like for the areas on the plans marked in as stone. We have seen the stone on a hotel while on the prowl for suitable stone, so the next challenge is to try and ring them and identify where and what the stone is. Window wise we're thinking about a two-tone window - cream/white on the inside and black on the outside. The stone is a yellow-y colour and will be warmer than a more traditional grey stone.
We've also put some thought into putting stone on the inside of the house - primarily on the wall of the living area that will be double height and contain the windows housing our main view. I think it'll add a touch of rustic quality inside and having seen such in another house really liked the feel. In doing so though, we had to preplan for the walls in the basement section to be reinforced to take the load of the extra weight - so not something we can just decide on the fly. Mixing this with light woods and white interior might just do the job on that room and be light and airy. Anyway - that's a good bit away at this stage so better keep focus on grubbing around in the dirt!
Of course, as soon as we want to start groundworks and tanking, it starts to rain. We have the first meter of bituthene sheeting up and its well stuck on - we can now add the drain around the back and fill with stone up to the level the water is weeping from the rock. The rain is handy as it will help identify where that is, although we did mark it last time it rained... unusual to think that was some weeks ago in Ireland!! Hopefully the interior load-bearing block wall is completed today as well and we'll be ready for the for basement roof slabs. The interior wall is block because unfortunately the architect forgot to account for the width on drawing the plans :/. An ICF wall would be thicker at 200+mm, so we're using a 6" concrete block wall instead ~ 150mm. This has an impact on the corridor, having that too narrow is pointless.
Also, we think we may have found the stone and window combination we like for the areas on the plans marked in as stone. We have seen the stone on a hotel while on the prowl for suitable stone, so the next challenge is to try and ring them and identify where and what the stone is. Window wise we're thinking about a two-tone window - cream/white on the inside and black on the outside. The stone is a yellow-y colour and will be warmer than a more traditional grey stone.
We've also put some thought into putting stone on the inside of the house - primarily on the wall of the living area that will be double height and contain the windows housing our main view. I think it'll add a touch of rustic quality inside and having seen such in another house really liked the feel. In doing so though, we had to preplan for the walls in the basement section to be reinforced to take the load of the extra weight - so not something we can just decide on the fly. Mixing this with light woods and white interior might just do the job on that room and be light and airy. Anyway - that's a good bit away at this stage so better keep focus on grubbing around in the dirt!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Basement ICF Poured
Yesterday afternoon saw the pour of the basement ICF walls. At this point of the build these pours are the piece I'm most nervous of - I've seen an ICF build that had a noticeable wave in the wall due to movement of the ICF blocks during the pour (and failure to correct after). This has knock on problems later with internal and external plaster costs increasing.
There was only about 13m3 of concrete to go in and with the use of a concrete pump this is a quick process. With 2 cement trucks lined up to go we set up the pump on the top level of the cleared area, and the swing arm has plenty of reach left when we were pouring.
The pump itself is quite an impressive machine. While pouring, the pump nozzle is constantly being moved around to keep the levels from building too far in a section of the wall. After the first cement truck was empty the concrete was vibrated to remove some of the air trapped in the concrete. The second load is added and concrete poured into the window cill openings. The whole lot is floated off at the top and cills and the trucks head offsite, after an interesting display of "hide the sponge" while the pump is getting cleaned.
The next part is truing up the walls. The jacks that are holding up the ICF are adjustable and there is a race against time to get the walls inline before the concrete hardens too much. There is a builders line at the top of the wall that is used to check its horizontally aligned, and a level against each section to get it vertical. After a number of adjustments things look good, and we leave the wall to cure.
Into the wall we've set a number of ducts - 400x200mm areas for dual HRV ducts, 4" pipe for electrical cables - both of these are set into the ceiling area. For the vacuum there is a set of 55mm pipes in the subfloor area. Hopefully these are all correctly set and we won't be breaking through the walls later.
So next week we're back on groundworks and a few other bits and pieces. We need to tank and backfill against the retaining wall, install a drain at the back of the wall and raise up some of the level that the top section of the house will sit on. Foundations for load-bearing walls on the ground floor also need to go in, floor slabs on top of the basement and for the ground floor and then we're ready to raise up again.
All going well, ideally we'll be looking to get the roofer onsite in about 4 weeks.
There was only about 13m3 of concrete to go in and with the use of a concrete pump this is a quick process. With 2 cement trucks lined up to go we set up the pump on the top level of the cleared area, and the swing arm has plenty of reach left when we were pouring.
The pump itself is quite an impressive machine. While pouring, the pump nozzle is constantly being moved around to keep the levels from building too far in a section of the wall. After the first cement truck was empty the concrete was vibrated to remove some of the air trapped in the concrete. The second load is added and concrete poured into the window cill openings. The whole lot is floated off at the top and cills and the trucks head offsite, after an interesting display of "hide the sponge" while the pump is getting cleaned.
The next part is truing up the walls. The jacks that are holding up the ICF are adjustable and there is a race against time to get the walls inline before the concrete hardens too much. There is a builders line at the top of the wall that is used to check its horizontally aligned, and a level against each section to get it vertical. After a number of adjustments things look good, and we leave the wall to cure.
Into the wall we've set a number of ducts - 400x200mm areas for dual HRV ducts, 4" pipe for electrical cables - both of these are set into the ceiling area. For the vacuum there is a set of 55mm pipes in the subfloor area. Hopefully these are all correctly set and we won't be breaking through the walls later.
So next week we're back on groundworks and a few other bits and pieces. We need to tank and backfill against the retaining wall, install a drain at the back of the wall and raise up some of the level that the top section of the house will sit on. Foundations for load-bearing walls on the ground floor also need to go in, floor slabs on top of the basement and for the ground floor and then we're ready to raise up again.
All going well, ideally we'll be looking to get the roofer onsite in about 4 weeks.
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