Walls going up

Four Builders on site beavering away today

It was too rainy for the builders to work yesterday and will likely be too rainy tomorrow too. But today Nick turned up with three of his crew and they really got cracking.

really good progress from DPC level today



This shot gives an idea of what the scale of the opening for the doors will be - MASSIVE!

I'm sure there's a proper building term for the way they have added new bricks in with the existing pattern...

6m opening for the bifolds. Remeasured and confirmed with P&P Glass on the phone today.

 

Here you can see the joists hung into existing exterior wall with noggins added. Insulation will be added between joists then Underfloor heating (poly pipe system for suspended floor) then the final layer which is still TBC.

Fun With The Building Inspectors

Not one but two building inspectors turned up today to inspect footings and work up to DPC level. Apparently they were happy with the work so far. But Nick discussed at length details of the steels required. The main problem is that the architect failed to draw all the steels on the plans submitted to Building Control, but Building Control did get the structural engineers report. Problem is that when I hired nick he did not want to look at the engineers report on the assumption that the architect would draw the steels on his plans. Bizarrely the architect did draw on on two of the steels but not the ones in the roof. Building control are (quite rightly) insisting that all the steels are installed, but unfortunately this is all going to be extra cost that was not covered in the original quote... now I know why I budgeted 15% contingency!

 

One other thing worth mentioning is the uncertainty we are having over what the top flooring will be. As I mentioned before originally the plan was for a solid concrete floor that we would lay tiles over. But then due to the existing air bricks building control advised we should use a floating floor. Nick is planning to lay chipboard over the joists (obviously the cheapest solution) but my research on the interweb strongly suggest that tiling on chipboard really not a good idea. Tiling on ply is ok but ply is five times the cost of chipboard. (I have a tiler on site to quote on Friday so I'll let them and nick argue it out). The other option I have been considering is engineered oak (6mm oak over 15mm ply) floor boards. The floor would be absolutely gorgeous but I'm not convinced it would be the most sensible choice in the kitchen and with small children spilling crap on it every 5 minutes. Also Nick was pretty adamant that they couldn't be laid directly onto the joists (even though the manufacturer says this is OK). I'm going to call the manufacturer tomorrow to check. So need to look into this further...

 

On a personal note my chest infection has laid me low today and doc has advised me to take it easy,