Floors and Doors

The ground floor has now been beautifully screeded over the underfloor heating pipes and we've received samples of flooring and door finishes and chosen the ones we'd like. Because of 'new build' rules, every home must include a downstairs w.c. that is easily accessible by people with walking difficulties, including wheelchair users. This access rule also applies to the front door. It means minimum widths and flat floor access. We also noticed that, on the plans, the ground floor doors are wider than the doors upstairs. Apparently, approximately 2% of people in Britain are wheelchair users. 

Originally, we were looking to use engineered hardwood throughout the ground floor, which is around 100 square metres. Having looked at prices and compared them with good quality laminate (shown above), we decided to save several hundreds of £££s. Without fitting costs, underlay, etc., the price of hardwood averaged about 4x the price of laminate.

The small sample in the image is the door colour, the dark grey-ish oak will be used throughout the ground floor and we chose a lighter finish for upstairs floors. These are all suitable for bathrooms and kitchens.

The stairs we've ordered are wooden and will be stained to our colour choice. At this moment, what colour this will be is a mystery!

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Other work that has been going on in the house includes: loft insulation, more plumbing and some carpentry. With the plumbing and electrics in place, the plasterboard will be going up and we'll get a real feel for the inside of our future home. The carpenters will be building the framework for built-in wardrobes and cupboards. 

We have only been visiting the site at weekends when there are no work teams there. All instructions we need to give them have been by email. Interesting times... :) 

Link to next instalment...

Outside Brickwork Completed, Further Progress Inside

At the end of June, we almost have a house! Externally, everything on the property is in place except for the slide-and-turn patio doors with ultra-slim aluminium frames which are being manufactured ready for installation in July.

Here is a close-up view of the detail at the top of the chimney.

Internally, lots of background tasks are taking place. In the next photograph, you can see waste plumbing for the upstairs toilets, a mass of electrial stuff (this is where the consumer unit will be located, in the understairs cupboard) plus the pipework for the underfloor heating system.

We are tasked with choosing flooring, bathroom suites/cupboards and a new kitchen. We've been browsing the internet for quite some time but we really need to visit showrooms to see them for real, which is difficult during a controlled pandemic.

For example, how do we know if the floor will clash with the doors? Colours and finishes on computers are a simulation - we are viewing on both a Windows PC and a Mac and they are so different! Anyway, that's where we are at the moment. More news next update!

Mid-May New-Build Update

With most of the scaffolding gone, we now have bricks ready and waiting... 

Can't wait to see the result - below is the illustration of roughly how we expect the house to look.

Internally, some interesting stuff has been going on. We don't like radiators - they take up too much wall space - so we opted for underfloor heating and something referred to as mvhr. It's a mnemonic for Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery, a system which continuously ventilates the property by extracting used, moist air and replaces it with fresh, filtered air. Whilst doing so, it maintains a constant temperature. It also means that we don't need to separately vent the bathrooms or have a cooker hood (horrible, noisy things!).

We've never experienced mvhr but we expect that we may have to top up the heat on cold days with the underfloor heating. On hot days, there are windows to create a cool breeze. We shall see.

The photograph above shows the complex bits and bobs related to mvhr.

Just wait till you see the outside of the house in the next instalment!

Building Progress During the Pandemic

Progress was very slow during April, as you can imagine. However small teams of a couple of people at any one time were able to carry on with their tasks. 

The external shots show the windows in place and the Cedral cladding.

The following internal shots are of the windows from Rationel.

Notice that in the above photograph, the electrical work has begun. 

Some of the photographs can be seen on Delta Project Management's Instagram, together with other projects they are managing.

For further progress on our new build project, go to the next update.

"March"ing on with our New Build Home

By the first week of March, all the wall structures for the first floor bedrooms and bathrooms were in place. The first picture also shows the Project Manager, Neil, doing his job! In the second photograph, the stairwell is shown with our temporary stairs (i.e. a ladder).

On the outside of the house, the roofers had added a waterproof membrane (?) over the insulation plus roof battons, ready for tiling. The tiles are stacked, ready, at the front of the house, as shown in one of the photographs below.

A couple of weeks later and here we are (below) with a fully tiled roof and velux windows in situ.

We wanted to go for genuine slate roof tiles but had to settle for a concrete substitute as there was an astronomical price difference. It's a shame but there's a limited budget, determined not only by our bank balance but also because we don't want the cost of the build to exceed the potential market value of the property (even though we are not planning to sell the house in the foreseeable future).

Things have started to slow down now as coronavirus has descended upon us. However, you'll notice good progress in the next post... 

Up the Ladder to the Roof!

During February, the ground floor had a secure ceiling (and the upper floor had a floor!) and the very tall crane came back to lift roofing materials to the second storey.

By mid-February, the roof trusses were in place:

A few days later the roof panels were (almost completely) in place:

It's getting quite exciting now. You can see provision for two dormers (bath/shower rooms) and a velux roof window. In case you're wondering... no, we are not having a silver house! These panels are the insulation to keep our home cosy in winter and cool in hot weather.

The fast construction continues...

Going Up: Scaffolding & a Very Tall Crane

Still only January and scaffolding has been erected. The builders did not stand idly by while this was happening - they built a retaining wall!

Here is the very tall crane...

Panels are ready to go up on the external walls of the house...

Did I mention that it is still only January? In just three weeks, our plot is beginning to look like a house! Even the internal rooms have wooden beams where the walls will be.

And the scaffolders are erecting platforms to start the second storey... 

Fast or what? Next stage...