Pressure (air tightness) test completed

Spent last weekend back at the house working on the remaining first fix work scope that is my workscope. The data engineers and electricians are done with their first fix workscopes now. Despite working hard all weekend with mum & dad providing very welcome support it felt like visible progress was limited. Best progress was made on the central vacuum system with outlets installed in half of the 10 final positions now. Routing all these services continues to be challenging, even when you think you have it all thought through actual conditions on site are different and you have to re think what you are doing.

Data cables ready for termination

Central vacuum pipe in recreation room

Back to back socket - recreation room  & bedroom 4

In the shower & utility rooms we did make progress on some of the plumbing. This is probably the most congested area in the house since everything really comes together at this point. Hopefully once we break out from this area things will progress a bit more smoothly . We also installed a temporary toilet & sink in the shower room as we are getting rid of the portaloo to save some money on rental.

Temporary toilet and sink in shower room

We did have one big milestone this past week and that was the sucessful pressure test of the house to demonstrate its airtightness. In our SAP calculations we had assumed a figure of 2 m3/m2/hr and surpassed that with a result of 1.84 :)  It is someway off Passivhaus standards but we have never been working to that standard, just using it as a guiding principle. The results is well above average even for new builds in the UK and exceeds the stringent Canadian standards as well so we are very happy with that. Along with avoiding thermal bridges, airtightness has been one of my focal points during the build and we have put in some additional effort to ensure that we  ultimately have a very energy efficent house which is the real goal. there were a few places identified where we have some small leakage into the house and we will deal with those as we get ready for plasterboarding.

Blower door used for pressure test

The joiners have also been back working on installing the necessary dwangs for plasterboarding so we are now ready from a woodwork perspective for plasterboarding

Dwangs in lounge

We still plan on starting with the plasterboarding a months time but it looks like we will have to stage work to gives us time to get the first fix workscope finished off. I am back agin in a couple weeks time and then Heidi has 5 days at the beginning of September.

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.

Ready for 1st fix .......almost!

Last weekend saw me again back at the house for a weekend of work. I had just returned from a trip to Jakarta, Indonesia with work before flying over to Aberdeen the next day so was some what jet lagged and also brought a stomache bug back with me which knocked the stuffing out of me for a day. Despite that some good progress was made.

The joiners had finished their work earlier in the week, including the construction of the bath frames in the family bathroom and master ensuite. You can really start to see how these rooms will look now.

Family bathroom

Master Ensuite bath frame

For the first time in 2012 when I have been on site there was no snow :). Rather there was glorious sunshine. We (mum & I ) took advantage of this to finish the varnishing of the larch work on the exterior of the house and garage.

At max reach wishing I had a long paint brush!

We also discovered the house has become quite a bird nesting sanctuary with no fewer than 3 different nests visible. Two House Martin nests, one either end of the house at the apex of the big gables ends and a blackbird over the front entrance.

Blackbird nest

 On Sunday we got started with the installation of the ceiling insulation in the kitchen and utility room. This was rather slow, hot  (long sleeve shirts, hats and masks required in 25 deg C temperatures) and dirty work (the rock wool spits off small shards when you handle it which in tern irritae the skin and get everywhere)  which was made all the worse by not feeling well thanks to the stomache bug that had kept me on the loo for a good while over night. Before the day was out I had decided that I would pay someone to install the remainder of the insulation. I now have our trusted joiner lined up to do this work for us - while I hate having to pay someone to do a job I can, this is one time I feel that this is money well spent.

Utility room ceiling insulation installed

Kitchen ceiling insulation with hole in joists for MVHR ducting

The final half day was spent installing some soil pipe work connecting the first floor facilities with the drains laid below the ground floor concrete slab. While I had though this out many time before there was still an aspect of working it out as we went due to the confines of where the vertical drops are located and the need to avoid going through joists where possible.

Soil drop that will be in pantry

Soil pipe from guest ensuite in lounge ceiling

Soil pipe from guest ensuite toilet

Thoughts now turn to 1st fix jobs, electrical, distributed audio/video, and plumbing which we will get kicked off during the last week of June - I must be a glutten for punishment as I be straight off the plane from the US this time. I am back for a week by myself while Heidi and the boys stay with her parents in the US for a couple extra weeks.  

Interior joinery work progressing

A little bit of catch up to do with this posting


Back at the beginning of May I was back for another work weekend. The screed floors had cured enough to allow foot traffic and I needed to prepare a few things ahead of the joiners coming in to erect the ground floor partitioan walls and strap in the SIP walls.

With solid floors in the house again it was nice to be able to walk around without the worry of walking on insulation or UFH pipes. It was also great to see the floor almost to its final level. It makes things look a lot different

Kitchen, dining room and hall

Hall looking from the dining room

Family bathroom

First order of work was to trim up all the edge insulation and excess DPM from around the walls to allow the strapping to be taken down to the screed level. As usual I under estimated the amount of time this would take but manage to finish by the end of the first day on site. During the day I also had a good meeting with the GSHP supplier and spend several hours discussing and agreeing the layout of the boileer room. Its going to be a busy room but we will get everything in there. We also took the oppertunity to move the hot water tank into the room before the partition walls went in.

Day 2 was spent taping the joints of the SIP roof panels. Knowing that some of the joints hadn't been foamed due to the difficulty of doing this when installing the large roof panels I thought this was a good precaution. What I hadn't realised was how many joints were leaking air, not only the roof paneels but a lot of the first floor wall panels as well. The strong northerly wind was timely as it aided leak detection hugely. Needless to say I wasn't a very happy camper finding all these leaks given the fact that one of the SIP selling points is a air tight structure compared to traditional timber frame constrcution methods! I thus spent all day either up an ladder or going up or down one. Taping the 7m ceilings over the entrance hall involved a lot of scaffold erection and adjustment.

Guest bedroom taped

Fraser's bedroom taped

Day 3 was a frustating one. I had hoped to get started on installing the ceiling insulation between the ground and first floor but the flexible insulation wasn't so flexible and wasn't wanting to stay in place well. With taping to finish and a lot of other small jobs to do the day was still filled but not doing what I had expected.

The week after I left the joiner came back onto site again and commenced installing the ground floor partition walls and strapping in the SIP walls.

Master bedroom partition walls

A strapped in wall

The strapping acheives a couple of things: it provides a service void to run wires and piping down walls and it evens out any irregularities in the SIP panels ( I find myself questioning why I went with SIP panels at times!). Good progress was made and the ground floor is now complete and work has commenced on the first floor which should be finished this coming week.

I am back again next week end to tackle the ceiling insulation with a new way of holding it in place!

Pictures from Easter

We had a productive Easter holiday week back in Aberdeenshire as seen in previous post about preparation for the screed.

Thought it would be nice to share some pictures of the exterior of the house ... taken during the Easter week.  As you'll see, we experienced some rather non-spring weather!!

Monday 2nd April - snow!!

Tuesday 3rd April - is it still winter??!

View down private lane toward main road

View from near the corner at main road

West side of house as seen from the main road

South side of house

Screed floor laid

I like it when things come together!

The floors were screeded as planned on Monday without any issues which represents a significant step forward for us on the build. We can now get the last partition walls up and start strapping in the SIP walls to create a service void for our wiring and plumbing.

We used a pumpable calcium sulphate based screed which reduced the installation time to just a day. It was a late finish for the crews and dad and they didn't leave site until gone 19:00 having started sometime after lunch. The pumpable screed avoids having any air pockets around the UFH pipes, gives a better surface finish, and allows for a thinner screed depth compared to a standard sand/cement screed. All our hard work of the Easter week and before that is now buried never to be seen again although it will certainly be felt

Starting to pump the screed on the first floor

Screeding the hall area with surface level devices visible

Screeding the master bedroom and en suite

Screed poured and leveled at the front door

The screed now has a couple of weeks to cure before I am back at the beginning of May for a long work weekend. Attention now turns to getting ready for all the first fix work that needs to be done and I have already lined up the electricians & home automation people for the end of June when I will have a week on site while Heidi and the boys are in the US. It feels the work list gets no shorter, but at least it is different than it has been for the last few months! Attention is now turning to selecting plumbing and lighting fixtures so that we can get the first fix sorted out correctly.

Ready for screed

After 8 hard days work we are now ready for the screed to be poured on both floors of the house. We have been busy laying floor insulation , DPM and UFH pipe work all week. Its amazing how much time this all takes.  There have been times when I have thought I should have just paid someone to do this but doing it ourselves I know that things have been done correctly and know the systems inside out now - not to mention hopefully saving some costs. All the sweat equity we are investing makes the emotional bond with the house stronger! We ran out of clips for the UFH pipes on Wednesday and Heidi checked with an untold number of companies in the area before finally managing to source some locally on Friday which really saved our bacon. This was about the one material shortage of the works so the up front planning was pretty good - even if I say so myself!

All UFH loops are now terminated and have been pressure tested. Getting to this stage has been critical path activity for us and when the floors are screeded we can really start to progress again. We had a meeting with our joiner during the week as well to discuss the next stage of work for him since this is the next phase of work for us.

Looking from thedining room to the front door - DPM  down

Kitchen with DPM & pipe Cliptrack

UFH pipes installed in the dining and hall area

The big 10 loop UFH manifold before termination....

....and after

We also took delivery of the insulation that goes below the first floor ( keeping the heat from the UFH system in the first floor screed rather than going down to heat the air in the ceiling of the ground floor ) and the garage storage area plus the two baths for the house during the week so have no space left in the garage now. these two deliveries were delayed from our February trip over so it was good to finally get the goods on site.

While the house is basically completed externally the garden still needs attention and Heidi had a meeting with the landscapers during the week to try to progress this aspect. Between them they have some interesting ideas which I am looking forward to seeing sketched up. We are looking at keeping things simple inititally until we are actually back in Scotland but still wondering how much this will cost to acheive.

After concentrating on getting ready for the screed for so long my thoughts can now turn to the work list for my next work weekend in the beginning of May. I look forward to having solid floors again and not having to tip toe around on the insulations and UFH pipes