Doing My Bit

As part of the new Building Regulations all new build houses must provide details of energy efficiency they are targeting at design stage and then have this checked for compliance at completion.  In addition you also need to conduct an Air Leakage test too.  There are yet more professionals offering up services to complete these for you and by the sound of it it's not something you can DIY.

It pays to shop around.  NHBC wanted approx £500 for all of the reports but I managed to get the lot for just under £300.  It also pays to ask questions and as my mum always used to tell me "if you don't ask you don't get".  In particular a really cheap and easy way of increasing your chances of passing the Air Leakage test and upping your houses Energy Rating is simply to ensure that all of the joints between your internal brick work is fully pointed up.

The guy at EPS Group was really helpful and he told me a story of a self builder who went round at the end of each day and filled in all of the gaps in the pointing on all internal walls and at the end of this his house was the air tight he very nearly had to install additional mechanical ventilation so he didn't suffocate - a bit extreme but none-the-less I'm all for making my house comfortable and cutting down on those unpleasant drafts from under the skirting boards and around windows.  Let's see if this makes any difference at the end.

This is no criticism of Derek or Pauls work and in fact when I checked their work there was hardly a gap in sight - great work guys ;¬)

Still it matters not a jot if you can't lay a level course of blocks!

It's all starting to gather pace now and decisions are having to be made very quickly.  The house is now turning 3-D and the rooms are starting to take shape.  In the picture above I'm standing in what will be our Lounge - OMG!!!!

Walling Up

One things for sure I'm starting to pick up the building trade lingo now - life will never be the same - I've even started noticing the different types of stone course used, whether it's dressed or sawn and I can now name the quarry certain houses are built from.  You start comparing build quality and can see where builders have cut corners by not mixing the stone off pallet.

Anyway I digress this week I have been on holiday...well for me it's been more like a Busman's holiday!  I spent a few days helping the gang with walling the foundation blocks - well actually labouring with James.  OK I admit making cups of tea and doing a bit of digging and fetching all helps BTW.

Whilst Paul blasted out meter after meter of walling (and trust me the foundation blocks weigh a bloody ton), Kerry spent the day "faffing" with the Bay Window - still it looks nice Kez honest!





After a couple of days the walling had been completed, levelled off ready to take the Byson beam flooring - a recent innovation in the building industry now common place with majority of new build houses.

It comprises of an inverted T concrete reinforced beam that sits on foundation walls and is in-filled with concrete blocks to create a solid flooring system on which internal walls are built to frame your rooms.

Things are really starting to take shape now and for the first time the paper drawings done by the Duncan (my Architect) come to life albeit still very much in 2-D.

It was at this stage that we got the urge to extend the size of the kitch and make it even wider so my wife could have an island feature in the middle of the kitchen-diner area.  We drew out the extension with blue ground spray paint and started sketching the kitchen layout on the floor - it looked amazing.  A quick call to Duncan on Sunday and he popped out to inspect and confirmed it was feasible from a structural design perspective BUT advised we discuss with Derek and our building inspector as planning amendment was likely.  Not perturbed by this I made a call to a friend of mine who is on his 40th house build already and he said that for extensions (which is what this effectively would be treated as) you can increase the footprint by 3 square meters for a semi-detached and 4 square meters for a detached property without requiring planning permission.

DILEMA - if we were to extend now was the time to do it so we either asked Derek to crack and extend the footings and foundations and then seek retrospective planning permission and building regs approval OR we engage all the relevant stakeholders first and risk stopping the build dead in it's tracks.  Decisions....decisions...my wife and I then recalled our moto - "keep it simple stupid" and instead of letting our heart rule our head we decided against the extension - besides which Derek flipped his lid and started spouting words of wisdom - the time to change is during design not build - and then I remembered all of the heartache I had as an IT Project Manager whenever the business changed requirements mid-way through.

I may live to regret this BUT if I do at least I'll be sat in my new house reflecting on what might have been rather than risk the entire build and not have anything to show for it - risk management real world!

Anyway the floor is now down and we are officially out of the ground - major milestone accomplished with relative ease and we're £7K under budget (Derek take note for when I start over-specifying on the finishes
!).

Weather has turned slightly this week and with all the site machinery running too and fro my lawn is starting to chew up...so in time honoured tradition - Custers last stance and all that we erected our defence!

Trench Warfare

They say that the two areas where money is made or lost when building is getting out of the ground and internal finishes.  You have far more control over the latter by simply compromising on the luxury items such as the100" Plasma TV you've always dreamed of, the grand staircase, the antique oak flooring, the granite worktops etc.

BUT the one thing you cannot compromise on is the foundation work.  Once you have committed spade to soil and start digging the footings (the trenches that will take the foundation walls) you have to solve every problem mother earth throws at you...it becomes a war...you have to get out of the ground otherwise you can't built your dream home.

Of course you can buy all sorts of fancy professional services that will assess likely problems before you encounter them - mining reports, contamination reports, percolation tests, drill-holes to locate depth to solid ground.  The list goes on and they are not cheap - you can literally spend thousands trying to mitigate the risk but the bottom line is you have to commit at some point - it's often a bit of a leap of faith.

Fortunately lady luck was on our side when Derek and his team started digging the footings - oh and the weather has been fantastic - long may it last!

Within a short space of time we had hit relatively solid clay-based soil and a quick assessment from the Building Inspector and NHBC Inspector confirmed that they had reached acceptable sub-soil depth and could continue excavating per the house footing plans.

The whole process was made real easy with the machinery.  The bucket on the mini-digger was set at the right trench width, the mini-dumper was nimble enough to shoot around the site dispersing yet more muck whilst James ensured the trench bottom was nice and level.

Amazingly by the end of the day all trenches were completed ready for the concrete pour.

I had only been working in London for two days and by the time I got back 2 loads of concrete had been shot into the trenches, laser-levelled, foundation blocks ordered and the site cleared ready for Monday to start walling the foundation blocks on which the entire house will sit.

There's no messing with Derek - he runs a slick and tidy building site and my lawn still resembles a lawn (for now).  He keeps telling me it's all in the preparation and planning and with a site this large it costs money constantly moving materials around so he likes to have everything exactly where it needs to be when it's needed.

 How neat is that!!!