First fix in full swing

A couple of weeks of work to update on this time.

First fix is in full swing now with electricians & data distribution engineers all busy working away this week. First fix got started a couple weeks ago at the end of June with the same trades getting going pulling cables. I was on site for a week during the last week of June as well working away on the MVHR ducting and installing the UFH supply and return pipe work to all the manifolds around the house. As usual all this takes a lot longer than expected with at least half the time taken just drilling holes in various items to allow you to route the pipe work and ducting. The wood is still damp in the house due to the floor screed taking forever to dry out which makes drilling large hole tedious and time consuming. Apparently it is the wettest June on record - just our luck.

UFH supply and return pipes across the kitchen

The data engineers have by far the largest number of cables to pull in the house to handle the distibuted audio, distributed HD video, computer LAN cables, CCTV cables and alarm sensor cables that run everywhere. They said they have over 100 cables to bring back to the cupboard where all the black boxes will be ( and they need 24 power sockets to power all this stuff! ). I just hope they have everything labelled well for when they hook it up.

This is only about half the cables!

The electricans have fewer cables coming to a single point since we have multiple consumer boxes in the house and garage but its still quite sobering seeing how much wiring goes into a modern house to fufil our wants and desires! Based on our experience in the last 2 rented house in Stavanger & Copenhagen we have made sure we have plenty lights and sockets around the house. Its definately much easier to install now that later on!

Electrical cables at front study

Data & electrical cable in the study

The MVHR ducting is now well advanced with the ground floor essentially complete and the unit positioned in the attic, intake and exhaust ducts routed and the routing of the supply and exhaust ducts all worked out. Work didn't get on as far as it should ahve with this duct work due to the lack of some crucial reducers which the system supplier had failed to order and supply. These are now in hand and all holes have already been drilled so things should come together fairly quickly when I get back to this work. The focus will be on getting things ready for the plaster board to go up and not necessarily getting the hook up totally completed at this stage.

MVHR unit on stand with large exhasut & supply silencers visible

MVHR ducting in lounge

At the end of a week on site it felt like I hadn't acheieved that much and I was somewhat deflated since I am very much the critical path contractor again with all the plumbing, central vacuum, UFH controls, & MVHR work still to done. I have a very large (but also very detailed) work list that I must work through before mid September to keep us on track here.

Next trip back in early August for me but the electricans, joiner & data engineers are working this week so thing keep moving in the right direction.