A big acheivement this week was the completion of the roofing works on the utility room wing. This means the house is now fully wind and water tight before the worst of the winter weather arrives. The other big step this week was the removal of the scaffolding from around the house. It can now be seen in its finished external state.
We also had the electricty meter installed at the end of last week and a temporary supply hooked up in the house. This will allow us to progress with the installation of the partition walls on the first floor, the next step towards getting the UFH pipes installed on that floor and ultimately getting the screed laid. That is the next big mile stone that we are working towards.
On the construction front the brickies were back to finish off the foundations on the garage this week and the scaffolding went up around the garage as well. This will allow the garage timber frame to be erected next week. The ground floor panels and roof trusses are onsite - just need bodies on site now to pu the jigsaw together!
Booked a further weekend trip back in late November to dig the trenches for the GSHP flow and return pipes. I'll be doing digging with a mini excavator which will be fun! Its also a good oppertunity to progress the laying of more floor insulation. This is the critical path workscope right now with regard to getting the screed down so an extra weekend working on that this year is helpful.
No pictures this week - you will have to wait another week for those.
Friday 28 October 2011
Saturday 22 October 2011
Its back to managing the build from afar after 5 days back in Aberdeen putting some additional sweat eqity into the house. With dad still not back to full health I am beginning to feel the added pressure of not being able to see what is going on every day. Even if it was just few a few photographs a phone call each day I now appreciate how much of a benefit that was during the early part of the build.
The good news is that we are now getting to the stage where the workscope is mostly with the builder with the house almost being completed fully externally now and work on the garage to commence next week.
We all arrived back in Copenhagen on Thurday after a 5 day trip back to the UK that flew by. During that time we saw the first of the wet dash render applied and started work on laying the floor insulation inside the house. Time was also spent completing the varnishing of the remaining larch and installing gutter debris protection. The time flew by and looking at the progress it appears to be very slow and not much to show for 5 days graft. However a lot of the work is not visible but still very important to the overall goals of the build i.e. eliminating thermal cold spots and drafts.
The render is applied as a 3 layer finish. Firstly the scratch coat is applied to the block or lath, then a base coat the same colour of the final thrown coat is applied. Finally the textured final coat is thrown to give the required finish and colour. Although in the pictures above the base coat and top coat look a beige colour it will dry to a off white finish. Having said that I think we will end up painting these areas at some stage to avoid a having kameleon like house where the colour of the render changes depending on the weather and wetness of the render!
I'm hoping that our electricty meter was installed on Friday (the supply cable was pulled and connected on Monday) so we can get a temporary supply hooked up in the house. Once we have that we will also be starting to install the partition walls and flat ceilings on the first floor. Once these are in we will be able to better visualise how the layout will look on this floor. Exciting times ahead still!
The good news is that we are now getting to the stage where the workscope is mostly with the builder with the house almost being completed fully externally now and work on the garage to commence next week.
We all arrived back in Copenhagen on Thurday after a 5 day trip back to the UK that flew by. During that time we saw the first of the wet dash render applied and started work on laying the floor insulation inside the house. Time was also spent completing the varnishing of the remaining larch and installing gutter debris protection. The time flew by and looking at the progress it appears to be very slow and not much to show for 5 days graft. However a lot of the work is not visible but still very important to the overall goals of the build i.e. eliminating thermal cold spots and drafts.
The render is applied as a 3 layer finish. Firstly the scratch coat is applied to the block or lath, then a base coat the same colour of the final thrown coat is applied. Finally the textured final coat is thrown to give the required finish and colour. Although in the pictures above the base coat and top coat look a beige colour it will dry to a off white finish. Having said that I think we will end up painting these areas at some stage to avoid a having kameleon like house where the colour of the render changes depending on the weather and wetness of the render!
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| Scratch coat applied |
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| Base coat and wet dash applied |
Internally the most obvious work completed was the floor insulation laid in the lounge. This was probably one of the most fidly rooms to start with taking all day to get to this point. Lessons have been learnt and the process should be more efficent in future
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| First of the floor insulation laid |
The big thing next week is the removal of the scaffolding from the house. It will be great to see it without this in the way and also finally see how much light our big windows will let into the house. The garage should start taking shape as well next week with work switching to there from the house. The final section of roof on the house should be slated as well to give us a fully wind and water tight structure - albiet behind where I had originally hoped but still ahead of the winter weather which was the main objective
I'm hoping that our electricty meter was installed on Friday (the supply cable was pulled and connected on Monday) so we can get a temporary supply hooked up in the house. Once we have that we will also be starting to install the partition walls and flat ceilings on the first floor. Once these are in we will be able to better visualise how the layout will look on this floor. Exciting times ahead still!
Friday 7 October 2011
Granite walls finished
A brief update this week.
The granite walls on the house were finished this week. After a power hosing down a final smooth mix of mortar was applied to point the joints to add the finishing touch
The granite walls on the house were finished this week. After a power hosing down a final smooth mix of mortar was applied to point the joints to add the finishing touch
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| Garry brushing the joints after pointing |
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| A finished section |
Render application should start the middle of next week as long as the weather co operates and the personnel are available. This time next week we will have seen for ourselves what the house looks like and it won't be long before the scaffolding is down and the house is revealed in all its glory!
Saturday 1 October 2011
All windows now in
Another productive week and a half with the last windows being installed and the granite walls continuing to progress.
The good news is that we now have a structure that we are able to lock up and that is essentially water tight.
The flue installation for the wood buring stove in the lounge also started but will require a further visit from the installer to finish it off.
Another week should see the granite walls completed and the work to get the remaining walls rendered should start next week.
Heidi is looking forward to seeing the house in person again in a couple weeks time for the first time since the end of June. A lot has happened since then and we have a busy trip planned now that we can start working on the inside.
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| Bathroom dormer window |
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| Work progressing by the study corner window |
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| Granite walls nearing completion |
The flue installation for the wood buring stove in the lounge also started but will require a further visit from the installer to finish it off.
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| Stove flue installation commencing |
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| Stove fire box temporarily in place to allow positioning of flue |
Another week should see the granite walls completed and the work to get the remaining walls rendered should start next week.
Heidi is looking forward to seeing the house in person again in a couple weeks time for the first time since the end of June. A lot has happened since then and we have a busy trip planned now that we can start working on the inside.
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