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Received our bricks approval

New Builder — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:38:35 +0000

Yesterday we finally received the brick, roof tile and driveway materials approval from the council so first thing on Monday morning I will get in contact with my Tudor Roof Tile rep and finalise the tiles.

Although I have been dealing with the Hogkins Bricks rep regarding quantities and specials brick they will only take orders from a nominated builders merchant which in my case is Orpins, so I will go in and see them on Monday and place the order. Hopefully I should receive a full load of 11800 bricks by the end of the week so that I can get the remainder of work up to the DPC in readiness of the Oak frame delivery.

Feels like we might be back on track – famous last words!

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Welsh Oak visited the site

New Builder — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:25:54 +0000

Met up with our Welsh Oak Frames project manager Keith at lunchtime, he needed to take a look at the site in preparation for the oak frame delivery. He also wanted to check our groundwork measurements for accuracy and run through the scaffolding drawing’s that Welsh Oak had already provided showing where they required scaffolding and where it would be need to be altered as the Oak frame goes up.

The visit gave me a good opportunity to get some advise on problems I will probably come across once the frame is up, I have to say if I thought it had been easy so far I think I might be in for a wake up call over the next few months and I really need to keep my wits about me as costly mistakes it would seem can be made pretty easy.

One important thing that I realised was the underfloor heating I was looking at from nu-heat in Devon could not be fitted in an Oak Frame because as their drawings showed it should be fitted to the underside of the first floor, this is not possible with the exposed Oak of the ground floor ceiling because there is a layer of Fermacell that layes on top of the Oak beams forming the ceiling meaning the first floor underfloor heating will have to be fitted in trays between the joists before the first floor is finished.

A quick call to Nu-heat and they confirmed they have the tray system and are amending our quote, I would be interested to hear of other peoples experiences or reviews of Nu-heat – good and bad.

The first costly mistake averted!

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Completed the concrete slab

New Builder — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:10:05 +0000

The membrane was laid out first thing in the morning and as the wind was getting up it needed to weighed down with anything we could lay our hands on to stop it blowing away. The NHBC surveyor and the local DS had been booked the previous day so that they could inspect the site particularly the damp membrane prior to the concrete being poured.

Both the council DS and the NHBC surveyor agreed that the work carried out was satisfactory and that we can proceed with pouring the slab the next day. Whilst the NHBC guy was there he carried out an interview to see if I was competent enough to project manage the build if not, I would not be accepted on their Solo scheme, all a bit odd really as I had already beeen told I had been accepted!

8.30am the next day the day we had the first of the concrete mixers arrive on site and the with some extra labour the slab was poured without to many issues except for the conveyor belt on the lorry was not working so we had to use the bucket on the JCB to get the concrete all the way around.

I still need to get one more coarse of blocks and the face work to get us up to the DPC but I still have not had the brick confirmation so I dare not complete the deal on the bricks untill I have the letter!

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Preparing for the concrete slab

New Builder — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:12:52 +0000

We started the slab make up with 2 lorries of crushed concrete which was spread out across the site and then a vibrating “whacker” plate was used to compact the crushed concrete to provide a solid base for the rest of the slab.

Once the based was packed down solid a lorry load of sand was spread across the site to “blind” the crushed concrete to stop it from piercing the damp proof membrane when the concrete slab is poured.

Over the next couple of days we will lay out the black plastic membrane I will then need to get the NHBC and the local district surveyor prior to pouring the concrete.

Another bit of good news today was that I spoke to the planning officer about my brick and tile choice and she has now decided they are acceptable, I asked when I could have that in writing and apparently her recommendation now have to be approved by her boss who is on a coarse but I should have confirmation within the week.

Nearly had to go to accident and emergency I was biting on my tongue so hard!

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