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Changes to the frame

New Builder — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:42:33 +0000

I have been away for a few days so I have not had a chance to post also while I was away the frame erectors found there had been a slight error on the truses on the gable ends.

I had not realised that the drawing showed some of the softwood rafters on 2 of the gables and Oak on the main bedroom gable meaning we would have had to close the eves on the softwood gables and if we wanted the Oak exposed on the main bedroom gable the three gables would have looked odd so I agreed to Welsh Oak making up 10 Oak rafters so that all gable ends will have exposed oak in the eves.

SO this has delayed the completion of the frame by a few day and has cost a extra few £100 pounds extra I am glad it all came to light when it did as I feel the end result will look a lot better.

In the mean time I am getting a few labour quotes for the roof with a view to getting started in the next couple of weeks.

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Oak frame is coming together

New Builder — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:30:46 +0000

The welsh oak guys were back on site just before midday Tuesday following the bank holiday break as they had not booked the crane till Wednesday they spent the rest of the day fixing the panels they could lift by hand but even so things started to take shape. Buy the end of the day most of the external panels and Oak was in place.

The crane was on site yesterday and today lifting some of the huge chamber beams in place.

I have ordered the Tudor roof tiles today, I have looked at others including Keymer which I thought just worked out to expensive and Midland Tile and Slate which I woried about the quality and as I have already had the Tudors on the garages and garden building I stuck with them.

So it is all coming together now but I still have to decide on heating, I know we want underfloor heating but I cant make my mind up between conventional gas with a condensing boiler or a ground source heat pump. My heart says go for the heat pump but the wallet can make the sums work and to cap it all I had a guy out from www.skuddair.com who specialise in Air Source pumps which sit in between both in terms of initial outlay and recoup time.

Ahhgggggggg!!!

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Bank holiday weekend

New Builder — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:17:15 +0000

Bank holiday weekend and it looks like being a scorcher, the Welsh Oak guys cam in for a few hours but then headed back to Wales for the weekend so we will not see them till mid morning on Tuesday now. I wont know what to do with myself as I have spent most of this week watching them, I bet they love clients with nothing bettter to do stand watching their every move.

As the crane took some setting up and left on Thursday they got more done than I thought they would and apparently now that they are getting to know where all the Oak is located around the garden it should happen even faster next week.

The Oak frame and the softwood infill panels are complete across the back of the house but they still require the final fixing. We were able to stand in the Kitchen and get an idea of the true size and space although by the time Angela is finished there will be a lot less space!

You can click on any of the images to get it full size

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The Oak frame has started to go up

New Builder — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:34:00 +0000

The crane arrived first thing as arranged, as the ground is pretty soft it took quite a while to get set as we needed matts ouspread the weight out. Ang brought the kids up on the way to school to see the crane, they seemed really exited and could not wait to go and tell their friends.

Once the driver was happy they started on the frame straight away the first Oak post to be lifted in was for the lounge, it was a great feeling watching it go in after all this time

One thing that struck me was just how big some of the pieces of Oak are and how big the joints are, the picture shows one of my size 11 boots next a to a pretty large tenon joint.

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