SIPS structure is up

Its been several weeks since I have found the time to get an update posted but over that time work has continued to progress at a good pace and the whole SIPS house structure is now up and covered on breather membrane. This is a big step for us since we are now able to really visualise the size of the house and how a majority of the rooms are going to feel when we are complete.

We were very lucky with the weather during the 6 week period over which the structure went up with only a few rainy days and a couple of very windy days towards the end. With the membrane now up the structure is now fairly water tight, apart from the big gaps where the windows will be installed!

The following pictures show how the last of the structure came together

 

One of the big glulan purlin beams is lowered into position

Roof panels on the south side being installed

The roof panels installed were the biggest done by SIPs Industries to date with some panels weighing 2.5 tonnes. Lifting these into postion on the back of the house required a 60 MT crane to be able to boom out 30m and still be capable of making the lift.

One of the big roof panels being installed on the north roof

 The triangular bathroom dormer proved especially tricky to install due to a pitch change in the roof about half way down it. This ultimately required some onsite modifications to resolve the problem and allow this feature dormer to be installed sucessfully

 

The tricky bathroom dormer being put together....

.....and finally finished!

Roofing membrane has replaced roofing felt these days. The membrane has the advantage of allowing the structure to "breathe" while still preventing water ingress.

The south side

The guest & master bedroom wing

The recreaction room

 Inside the room shaps are starting to take shape, especially on the ground floor.

View from the front door

Lower hall looking towards the kitchen door

Upper hall from the guest bedroom door

Work on installing the roof will get started either this week or next week. There are over 4000m of baton and counter baton to install before we can even think about getting started on the slates. Before that happens though we need the joiners in first though to shape the end of the rafters and install the OSB cover plate beyond the end of the SIPs and the larch fascia boards

Continued progress

After two weeks of being on site this week we have been focussing on getting settled into life in Copenhagen and the house planning has been on the back burner - but not totally out of mind.

We have had another week of good weather and continued progress with erecting the SIPS house structure. The chipboard flooring has been laid and the first floor walls have started going up. A couple more weeks and the structure should be almost finished

Floor down and first wall going up

Internal walls start going in

Its really starting to take shape now!

After basically having a week off from managing this project  it will be back to it again. Solar panels and light tubes along with the roofing are next on the priority list.

Moving on up

Good progress has been made over the last week with all the ground floor interior and exterior SIPs being installed along with the joists.

West wing joists in place

 
With so many of the seperating wall on the ground floor being SIPs we are really starting to get an idea of the floor layout and the room size. I also manage to measure the structural openings for some of the windows and doors to confirm the windows sizes before they go to manufacture - eveything looks good on that front.

Utility & boiler room from the kitchen

Master bedroom

The scaffolding around the exterior of the house to allow access to erect the first floor and roof was also started to be put in place during the week.

Scaffolding on west side of house

The weather again co operated with us staying sunny and dry all week. If we get everything up before the weather changes it will be a miracle but we certainly can't complain about the way it has treated us so far.

It's starting to look like a house

On schedule the drillers arrived on Monday 11th April and got started drilling the two 100m deep bore holes for the ground source heat pump flow loops. For those not familiar with these devices you pump cold liquids down the loops where it heats up due to the temperature of the ground and you then extract the heat from the liquid at the surface. In a perfect world you can get out 4 - 5 times as much energy as you put in. There is more to the science than that but that is the basics

Spudding in

Despite there being 95m of very hard granite in each bore hole the drilling went very well and the biggest problem was with the rig's air compressor breaking down. We encountered good water levels in both bore holes (as expected) which is good news since it should maximise the heat transfer to the system.

The following week the SIPs Industries team turned up and started with the erection of the house structure. A very exciting time and the weather co operated by giving us bright sunny and warm days for the whole week. The whole familiy were on site to see this work commence and even Ewan was helping to keep the site tidy fully decked out in appropriate gear

Ewan helping tidy up

The first day was a bit slow with the delivery being un loaded from the lorry and sole plate starting to be fixed to the under building block work.

Leveling plate and sole plate fixed to the blockwork

It was great seeing the very first panels going up. It felt like the culmination of a couple years serious planning were really starting to take shape.

The first panels are erected

 

Once the panels started to go up however things really got goings and the house is really starting to take shape now

Progress at the end of day 2 for SIPs Industries

Heidi & I have been taking advanatage of the good weather, being on site, and having a skip available to remove the old post and wire fence that surrounded the site originally. Even doing this has made things look so much better. We also plan to get the weed killer out while the good weather holds and stop the masses of stinging  nettles in their tracks.

Work is due to get going again next week after the Easter weekend holiday is over. more SIPs being delivered on Tuesday along with the scaffolding starting to go up

Floor slabs poured

 Another short week with work starting on Wednesday. Good progress was made finishing the internally drainage,

West side of the house

East side of the house

 
pouring the floor slabs

DPM down in master bedroom & lounge

Pouring the concrete by digger bucket

Leveling & smoothing the slabs

Floor slabs poured

and getting started with the external drainage.

Drainage outside the main entrance

Drainage between house and garage

Starting to get a bit behind schedule with the drainage work now which should have been completed a week ago. Rainwater harvesting tank is to go in next week now while the drillers are doing their thing. Should be spreading the top soil over the main garden next week so we can clear that away from being too close to the trees. With continued access for heavy machinery required to both sides of the house still, and until all the external masonary work and roofing is done it will be a while before the sewage tank goes in.

Drillers in next week for the bore hole and SIPs Industries still lined up for the following week. Soon we'll have a structure that looks like a house

Internal drainage

Work didn't get started until Thurday this week and was a late morning start after heavy rain first thing. Once things got going though good progress was made starting to back fill the under building and install the internal drainage for all the various pop up that are needed.

Back filling by retaining wall

Back filling internally

Drainage outside house on west side

Drainage and conduit outside the utility room

Work won't start again until Wednesday next week so hopefully we can get everything done we need to before the drillers arrive

Under building complete

Over the last week the weather has co operated with us and it has been mostly dry but with a cold wind still blowing through. This hasn't stopped the brickies from cracking on with the under building and now the house and garage substructures are built and the retaining wall to the west of the house will be done tomorrow

House & garage under building complete

Retaing wall starting to take shape

Next week the drainage goes in, along with the rainwater harvesting tank & sewage tank, the under building  back filled and hopefully the floor slabs poured before the building contractor has a weeks holiday.

With most of the ground floor walls being SIPs and requiring load bearing under building we can really start to see the lay out of the ground floor stating to take shape.

I have lined the drillers up now to be on site 11th April to complete the drilling of the two bore holes for the ground source heat pump (GSHP) system. This is a week later than originally planned but was a float week in the schedule so no overall impact.

SIP panels are due to start going up on the 18th April which is great timing since we will be back in Aberdeen from the 16th for a couple of weeks after packing everything up here is Stavanger and before flying down to Copenhagen