Another year draws to a close...

Good evening readers!

At the start of the month we set off early on Saturday to go and collect all our rafters from 2 places in London. Which were weirdly the cheapest places to get wood from in the country!

Unfortunately, the weight distribution wasn't quite right after picking up the second load, which meant the Landie had 2 epic snaking episodes (frightening the life out of me) before we pulled over and had to sort it out. Sorting it out meant un hitching from the trailer, sending me to find a Wicks and pick up some saws, then spending the next 2 hours in a lay by just before the m25 turn off unloading all the wood, sawing it down to the right size and re-loading. Which did the trick. We set off from home at 5am that day and returned home at just before 5pm. We slept well that night.

The roof progress is going well. Andy has especially made some headway over the last few days, as he has had time off. With the dark & cold nights, he has not been overly enthused so he's done a little here and there. Weekends throughout this month have unfortuenty not been readily available due to various parties and dinners with friends and families.

That's it then! No more updates til next year. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to yours from ours! Bring on 2017 - the year we finally finish the house!

We have walls!

Hi!

So we have walls! Yay!

The Beco system is incredibly easy to use and we actually had most of it up on a weekend (not filled with concrete!). The bits that took longer were where the walls were going to link to the existing building.

We'd been meaning to get our electric supplier to move our mains cable to the left about half a metre so that it was no longer outside; which we needed to do before getting the walls poured.

We left it a bit late to contact them and had to wait a few weeks. It wasn't too expensive; a couple of hundred quid I think. 

We finally got a date they would be coming and then booked our final concrete pour for the very next day.

And it actually all went according to plan!

At 7.00am on Friday just gone, the concrete pump started for a final time.

By 8.30 it was all done!

To reiterate: we have walls! Yay!

With the wallform system, you can do what you want! Render it, clad it, brick slips, actual bricks...Whatever you like and you'll never know what's underneath. 

We are going to be getting a brick wall all the way around up to window height with a top like this:

Then vertical wooden cladding. It's going to look fabulous and not stand out so much like it does now just being white!

Next job is to start on the roof rafters! 

In other news; I've discovered we may be able to claim our VAT back! Not on everything, but most of the materials. I was flicking through a self build magazine and one article caught my eye about claiming back VAT. 

I google'd it and then thought it wasn't applicable as it seemed to be for new builds or conversions. Then I found another bit on the government website that mentioned homes that have not been lived in for a decade or more are also eligible....which is us! The problem now is trying to find some proof...

This house wasn't the permanent residence of the previous occupants but they seemed to continue paying council tax and electric and all that all the time they weren't coming here. So if anyone has any bright ideas let me know! We have some time as after we are finished we have 3 months to submit our Vat claim!

Officially out of the ground!

Greetings readers.

The last few weeks have been spent getting our floors ready for concrete. 

This has involved levelling the floor area, building up a few layers of the ICF blocks, putting steel rods in, casting the steel rods in concrete (by hand filling the ICFs) and then putting DPM insulation and steel mesh down.

It's been a bit of a ball ache but this is what our engineer has asked us to do. 

We had huge issues after the DPM went down. As soon as it rained, the rain was trapped on top of the DPM, and underneath the insulation and mesh. We had to find a way to pull up some of the insulation and pump the water out, as the steel was in place, it wasn't easy to untie it all and take it out.

Andy tried to cover it all over with the excess DPM which did help. 

Whilst we could have put the DPM on top, because our concrete floor was going to be 125mm, if we wanted to drill anything into the floor, we would have pierced the DPM. 

Andy also decided it was a good opportunity to put the waste pipes for the toilet, shower, and bath in place. This meant the position of the bathroom apppliances had to be finalised. 

Building control came out and saw that everything was in place and gave the ok to for us to pour the floors.

After booking the concrete pour, Andy worked tirelessly to finish preparing for the pour.  I'm very proud of him! He worked incredibly hard to get everything prepared.

Finally, the day for the final pumped concrete pour arrived! Andy's friends Ben and Jimmy came along to assist, and the concrete was poured.

Unfortunately I was not present to take pictures during the pour due to participating in a hen do for another one of my bestest buddies, Jo (she and her husband to be Chris were mentioned in one of my early blog posts).

So Ben very kindly took some photos after they finished and sent them to me.

It's very exciting to now see the final internal size of the rooms. Not a mansion, obviously, but I'm happy with the sizes. It will be cozy! But not cramped!

The first and last photos are from our CCTV we've put up. We haven't had anything stolen, but where we've had some expensive equipment outside (tractor, rented concrete mixer) etc and some neighbours chased some men off their land who were trying to break into their garage. There's also been poachers and all sorts around so we thought it best to get some sort of security. 

We capture lots on it! Nothing in the way of crime yet, thank goodness. But mainly  the postman and my new friend, Bert! 

Next on the list of things to do is to continue building up the walls and filling with concrete! 

The Walls arrive!

One of the problems of having curved walls is that stuff to fit then needs to be bespoke. Bespoke as in; houses are built with straight lines. If you want something curved, you need to take the straight thing and curve it yourself if you can, or pay for the privilege of having it curved for you.

This is what the plan was with Beco who were supplying our walls. Essentially, they make the straight blocks and then send the straight blocks to another company who bend them.

Unfortunately for us, the bending company are not a big company and ended up causing a further delay (So Beco tell us).

Our 4 week lead time ended up being 8 weeks before we finally received our blocks...and even then we don't have all of them! To cut a long story short, we have some surplus curved blocks from another project that should be enough for us to do the first few courses. This is what we need before filling the floors and hopefully by then, the rest of the curved blocks will arrive.

So whilst we waited, we started on the breeze block plinth that will sit underground with a brick wall on top. This brick wall is purely decorative and goes up to window height before the wooden cladding begins.

As per our original design:

It looks like render on the design, but it is supposed to be red brick.

Anyway...we ended up getting this done on both sides whilst we waited:

Andy also started putting some of the drainage pipes in and connected them up to the existing network of soak away pipes.

Then finally our Beco arrived! We spent the evening moving the packs to the correct side and checked everything we were expecting had arrived. They are incredibly light! I could lift a whole pack which had about 8 blocks in.

You essentially clip them together and fill with concrete. Lego for grown ups!

You then have insulated walls which you can clad, render, tile straight onto, plaster straight onto etc. 

If you want to know more detail, then take a look at the Beco website:

http://becowallform.co.uk

As part of the price, we are given a day of training with a chap called Matt who doesn't work for Beco but contracts for them. We met him at Swindon and he was demonstrating how they work. He has built houses with this stuff for years so knows what he is doing. He came and trained Andy and helped put some of it together yesterday and showed him how to cut it all up to size, manipulate the curved blocks and all that jazz.

If we were pumping the concrete in, he would also come back to help with that - also included in the price when purchasing the product. Nice chap! Knows his stuff. We will get him back at some point to help with some other bits.

So day 1 looked liked this:

Today Andy was on his own doing the rest and the other side. We need to lay 3 courses first and then finish the floors (insulate, DPM and concrete). 

This is because of how our engineer has put the plan together. He wants the floor to be tied to the Beco and lots of steel work in the floor (all because of the clay and trees apparently). The DPM also needs to come up in between the Beco before the Beco in concreted. Keeping up? I have no idea what I just said but it sounded like I know what I'm on about, right?!

Anyway - I came home today and Andy had finished putting the first 3 courses together. He has decided to half fill the Beco with concrete tomorrow so they are steady and weighted when it comes to doing the floor work as they do have a tendency to move around because they are so light.

Up to date pictures from today:

And then we stood and watched the field get combined! And got covered in dust!

Andy has 2 weeks off so is hoping to make a lot of headway with the floor. He has lots to do before getting the concrete poured. Still getting there slowely!

Another update soon!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Hello campers!

So we've got another hiatus which is entirely our fault. 

We needed to purchase the Beco insulated concrete forms before concreting the floor. This is because the first few layers need to go down and be filled with waterproof concrete. 

We were waiting for my redundancy money to come through as Beco require full payment for orders under 10k. There was also a 4 week lead time so hence the waiting!

In the meantime, we have been to the Swindon Self Build show to have a look around.

Whilst there, we got a chance to see a full demonstration of how the Beco product works and speak to them. It's very easy - even I can do it! As part of the price they also come to site and give full training.

Andy has decided he wants to bring the roof height in the extensions down so it's not as imposing on the original roof. We were going to be taking about 8 layers of tile off the original roof and that would have been a shame as the roof is one the best parts of the building.

By taking a layer of Beco away, this meant our roof height in the living room, bedroom 2 and bathroom was going to be about 2 metres. 

Andy was desperately trying to persuade me to get a roof lantern put into the living room to make up for the reduction in height, and add more light (most of the windows on that room will be north facing).

I wasn't convinced as I also thought they would be expensive. Whilst at the show, we went to take a look at them.

For those who don't know what they look like, here is an example:

As you can see from the pictures, you get extra head height because of the window poking up, and the ceiling/roof part that is otherwise concealed with insulation and rafters.

They are also actually not too expensive! The sizes we want were about 1500 each (that's not that expensive - honest!).

So he persuaded me! For symmetry reasons, we also want to put one in the master bedroom, even though there isn't a head height issue there (the room is dug down). You can get blackout blinds for them so that will be ok.

The other thing we have decided to change is the way some of the internal doors work. Below is the floor plan:

The doors opening into bedroom 2 and the bathroom are an issue. 

We want to put a sofa bed in bedroom 2 for guests, so when it's pulled out, you won't be able to open the door!

In the bathroom, the shower and bath will be in a different position and the door will hit the bath.

Having them open out into the hall will look rubbish and just be a pain. 

So we thought the only other alternative would be a sliding door.

I had a quick Google and came across these lovely looking doors:

They're hung from the top and you can get them curved which is perfect! I also like how industrial they look. It's another nod to the origin of the building (A pump house).

The other thing I've been doing is designing the bathroom. We need to buy our bath soon and build the walls around it as it will be too tight to go around the corner to the hall and through the door.

So basically I need to work out where everything is going to go in preparation for this.

We downloaded a free program called Sweet Home 3D which lets you create 3d buildings/rooms and place furniture and decorate. Think the Sims house build mode! I won't spoil the surprise by showing you what it's going to look like, but I will show you the picture that gave me some inspiration!

So...fairly uneventful update! Next one we should hopefully have some walls! Or at the very least some walls and floors!

Foundations!

 After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for our digger man to finish his other jobs and get to us, it finally happened last week!

The off and on weather had pushed back his previous jobs, and there was a danger that would happen to us too, meaning more money!

But last Sunday, he turned up with his Land Rover and trailer with his digger in the back at about half 8.

Whilst I began a fried breakfast feast and made the teas, he made a start digging our deep trenches!

Roots were a bit of a problem as they are everywhere! 

But he had no trouble digging through the concrete drive way. Like cutting through butter amazingly!

By the end of Sunday, the space allocated for the earth was full, with one side still not finished! We massively underestimated how much earth would be coming out of the ground. It's difficult to see how deep they are in photos, but I had this one of Andy in the trench. He is just over 6ft tall.

Pretty deep!

Monday morning, Andy arranged for 2 grab loaders to come and take the earth away. Just to put into perspective how much earth we ended up moving: a grab loader can take 16 tonnes of earth. We had 6 grab loaders come out in total! And let me tell you - they are not cheap!

On top that, we were also paying for a dumper truck that Andy was driving to move dirt from one place to another. We looked like a proper building site!

Day 2 had another set of problems. The digging on the other side unveiled some sort of brick tank. No idea what it was...but it was nasty smelling and had nasty stuff in there. That took pretty much the rest of the day to break down. It also meant our foundations had got wider at that point, which meant we needed more concrete!

The digger chap and Andy had estimated 32 to 36 cubic metres of concrete so 40 was ordered for a delivery on Friday. We used a company who pre mix the concrete on site as opposed to off site. That means it will only mix as much as you need so there is no waste, and prevents you from ending up with not enough.

Day 2 we had building control out to inspect the depth. He turned up in his suit and nice shoes, peered over the edge and said they were fine and left again! £500 well spent there! At least it's a private firm and not the council! 

The foundations are massively over engineered in my opinion for a single story extension so I imagine they thought the same also and just wanted to check we had solid bottoms to the trenches. 

After 3 days of digging, the digger man and Andy added levelling points inside the trenches and he went home, ready to return for the big pour on Friday.

For the rest of the week, Andy and I finished off the foundations, levelling and adding the clay heave.

The clay heave is something our structural engineer said we needed. As the clay expands and contracts, the polystyrene sheets take the weight, therefore not compromising the foundations and leading to subsidence. 

It was a pain to put them up and secure them, given the foundations were not a perfectly flat surface for them to sit against. They need to be secure to the side of the trench, otherwise when you pour the concrete, they just float to the surface and you're buggered!

To add insult to injury, Wednesday night brought rain and the morning saw a part of the foundations collapse. Thursday night meant I finished off the clay heave whilst Andy frantically dug out the collapsed side.

Foundations needed to sit on a solid surface, so lose ground is not acceptable - hence the getting rid of the additional tonne that had collapsed before the concrete came the next morning.

The last job was to build a brace where there is a step in the foundations on the left side (as you face the house). This is due to there being a change of floor height between the bedroom and bathroom.

It was a late night, but we did it!

The sunrise on Friday brought a man and his machine! Digger man had a friend who had a giant crane with a pump on the end.

When you get concrete delivered, they deliver it down a chute. The pumps you sometimes see usually need to be rented separately. Also, you are allowed 15 minutes of unloading time for free. After that, you get charged by the minute! So you need to get the concrete off the lorry and into the trench as quickly as possible. Hence the chap with the big ass remote controlled rig and pump! 

Then the digger man turned up. He was there to basically make sure the concrete is poured and levelled correctly. Foundations is the most important part of building. Messing it up is not an option so we were willing to pay for the right people to be there. Andy just couldn't have done it on his own - plus there is added pressure to get it right.

About an hour later, the first concrete truck turned up and the pumping began!

Then the next truck turned up.

Then the third one turned up and started pumping..then broke! The driver had to manually start shovelling the mix in the back of that truck so pumping resumed.

Finally, the 4th truck turned up and the pumping was finished!

By lunchtime, the foundations were finished!

It feels great to finally have them done! It's been 2 years and 2 months since we bought the place and it's amazing that this is finally happening!!! 

The most difficult and most expensive part is now done and dusted! I don't want to jinx it, but hopefully the rest will be easier! No other nasty things to uncover through digging! 

Next job is to dig out the floors and lay them with concrete. Then the walls can go up! Then the roof can go on! Then the windows can go in! Then we are water tight! Woo hoo!