Many hands Make light work

Today is going to be busy, a hell of a lot of work to do, so if today goes well I will be happy if it does, if not then we are in big bother.

Myself and damo had to go to Sam Hire for a hilti gun and Heitons for more staples, a stanley knife and measuring tape, the feckers don't last long!
Arrived at heitons for 8.20am and nearly dropped when they don't until 9am!! sitting around.
Eventually we got the hilti gun (90 euro) and all the other stuff, arrived out for 9.20am, Mick was there and was making the boxes.
It was a great relief for him to be there, a bit of know how would get them done fast.

John was there also plastering the landing.

Myself and damo started to do the closet, again it was slow but we got it done. John Grady arrived also out of the blue and he did the window surrounds.

Dad and John started out doing the sitting room and we then followed up with the hall.

Today seems to have flew, but at least there is excellent progress. Mick had done well outside, 6 boxes done and gables and back are also done.

Good Progress

I picked the 2 lads at 8am and they worked away to get the back bedroom and kitchen completed, they did 1/2 of the utility room

Dad was there when I arrived at 5.30 and he said they would head off after the utility room.

I had training to had to head off.

Siobhan and myself went to Alpha kitchens in Claremorris to get a better idea of the doors and style we are looking at and were happy with what we saw.

I headed to the house after training for about 9pm, Damo decided to bring all coffee and sandwiches with him so I was left with 2 bars of chocolate to eat,

I worked on the utility room and finished it, in between talking to my sister Noreen who is also building a timber frame in Kildare, except they are using a builder,

Headed off at about 12.30am.

Another long day tomorrow!!!

Plasteres Arrive

On cue and for what must be the 1st time on record a tradesman arrived on time to a site!!!

He moved in upstairs.

I can honestly say that my body was the sorest and stiffest I have ever been, luckily I could sit down at work, the lads don't have the oppurtunity!

We arranged that Dad would collect Adam about 3pm and they would complete the insulation in the bathroom and plastic the same, then "green" slab the toilet,

Dad also went to Heitons to get a 7" window board, red deal, look well.

When I arrived dad headed upstairs to install the boards but nearly hit the roof when he discovered that the 16ft * 7" boards he bought were in actual fact 15ft * 6.25" wide!! So he had to cut a strip and screw it together with a full window board to make it fit perfectly. Another pain in the arse!!

When we had finished dad headed off and myself and Adam plasticed the back bedroom and did 2 of the 4 walls, progress is definately much faster, thank god!!

We stayed until 1am, both were wrecked and enough was enough!!

Upstairs slabbed!

Today the pressure was on, John was due in tomorrow so we really had to choice but to have completed the upstairs and all tools, slabs, timber, insulation and other stuff all downstairs!!

We pulled into the site at 8am, myself Damo and Adam. Around the windows, the walls of the walk in wardrobe, the walls of the main bathroom, a piece of the ceiling and a wall on the landing and the dividing wall in the ensuite/wardrobe and main bedroom, also the 2 windows in this bedroom , the velux on the landing and velux in the bathroom, so as you can imagine the blue arsed fly was employed all day!!!!

Dad arrived over about 11am and we were honestly no where near as far on as I had hoped, he set to on the vertical timbers to hold the glass blocks and then onto the dividing walls which did all the windows and the veluxs.

The 2 lads completed the wardrobe and moved to the bathroom. As has been the complete trend in this house EVERYTHING has taken twice the time to complete, I don't know why, maybe because this is a dormer you have so many angle pieces to cut.

I was beginning to wonder if the price of 3k euro was a good price, maybe not!!!

At about 8.30pm with 2 walls and about 10 pieces to be put in I began to panic, we still had at least 90 minutes of tidiying to complete, there was also the small factor of doing all 4 boxes in the ensuite and bathroom, these took at least 20 minutes each,

We ploughed, slogged, huffed and puffed and wore it all down, Siobhan arrived at about 9pm, and even though she knew the dust would drive her allergies mental she gladly set to cleaning up the large bits of rubbish and bagging these.

At about 11.30 we completed all slabbing and Siobhan brought Damo and Adam home while myself and dad completed any cleaning up that needed to be done, it took us to near on 1am before all had been cleaned up and moved, we sat for 15 minutes to get our breath and headed off home, a long long day, it was alright for me I had 6.5 hours sleep ahead, dad only had maybe 4.5 before he started work, not a situation I envisaged him to be in and definately did not want him in again!

Slabbing Away - Pics Attached

Picked the lads up at 7.45, we started on the hall, again more recess lights (5), it took a while, then onto the sitting rooms, 9 recess and a bay window meant it took us 2.5 hours!!
We then moved to the bedroom, was a flier, rapped it in an hour, then onto the dining room, six recess and 1 main light and a bay window killed us, spent literally all day doing the ceilings!!
Lads headed off at 7, I waited and finished the ensuite, totally finished now, have to complete the upstairs tomorrow regardless. Left at 11pm,
My dad installed the noggings for the manifold, 21 inches above the FFL.

Have to earn the bread to make the house!!

Had to go to work today, the project has to be continued and I need to get the others enough of work to do while I am off.
I rang John G, my plasterer. He wants to arrive on Wed, he can if he wants but he may have to wait a day or two.
Left Adam and Damien there at 8 and went to Heitons to get more nails and a saw.

I rang the guttering lads in North west, Eamon said he will come next Monday and clear off the whole house.

I also rang a lad about doing stone, he said he was off for 2 weeks and would come back to me then.

I arrived on site at 7ish, the lads were still there, dad was with them, they had the bathroom, utility and kitchen done, with 10 recess lights and socket for the hood there was a lot of cutting!!
I went upstairs and started to finish around the doors and bathroom on the landing, battery went in the screw gun which was a pain and then the bulb blew!
Headed home at 12.15am, buckled tired!

TV in the house!!

this feels like pre season traing, all day every day, my legs barely fell out of the bed and my body told me to stay there!! I picked up Adam at about 8am, he too is
feeling the strain but does not complain. We started to finish off the main bedroom, it took much longer than we expected, John arrived at 9am, totally unexpected buy really appreciated, great to have mates like him, he
set to on the sitting room wall and got the ply finished off and it slabbed.
He headed off at one pm to watch Kerry and COrk.

Dad arrived about 10, he got stuck into putting in the extra piece of studding to facilitate the glass blocks in the ensuite/bedroom.

we set ourselves the goal of getting all upstairs ceilings and diagonals. the akward spots!!!
Dad trotted off about 5pm, he is putting in savage hours and with him starting his own job at 5.30am each morning the days are long!

We completed all ceilings upstairs, delighted with progress. We both decided at 7.30pm that we had enough, great to get home early.

Continue slabbing

Picked up Adam at 7.45am, we set to straight away on back bedroom to get the walls done, the angles in a dormer is some pain in the ass, drive you mad to be truthful, my dad and John were there and they completed the sheeting of ply onto the walls in the landing, now it was left to us to slab it, very difficult, so we set into it.
It took us up to 2 hours to get it done with setting up scaffoling and that, but now it is done, it makes the landing huge.
MYself and dad finished off the landing ceiling, great to get that done.

The lads headed off aboout six, I started again into the small cuts around the doors, at the top of walls, in other words the small bits one person can do!!

I got a nice bit done, place looks more like a house by the hour!

I rang around without any success for a carpenter to get the gable ends done.
I went across to my new neighbour, Mick to ask if there was someone he knew and he did alright, himself!!! So next Saturday he will do it all,, I will get him a Hilti gun to aid in putting up the lath for the beading.

I headed off at 11pm, about to keel over now!! Still have to get it done!!

God said let there be light and there was

have to get a lot done, with both the work in IT and the work in the house and training, feck the football, has to wait!!
I got my dad to head to CT Electrice to cable to make up and extension lead to get power from Sean next door.

I rang the lad who is making our door, it was due this week, but to be honest I am not ready for it yet!!, rang him, he did not remember me or the door!! another headache, said to ring him at the beginning of next week!!

I Got stuck into the first bedroom and managed to get the walls completed, at least it is one room down, 17 "rooms" to go!!!! Moved onto the next bedoom, it will be an early start in the morning and it was after 11pm when I turned off the light in the house, but it surely taking shape, a big echo now in the room!

1st day of slabbing

got Adam for the day, a great help and a savage worker.
We started at 7.30am and got stuck into the slabbing, doing the roofs while dad and John worked on the walls.
Talk about a slow and very tough job, but after a lot of huffing and puffing we managed to get the ceilings in the 3 bedrooms and landing completed, the landing is really the hardest as you are on temporary scaffolding.
The lads headed off at 6pm and I waited until 9.30 and filled in the easier work.

The underfloor heating gear arrived today, did not get a chance to look at it.

Near the end of the day I was finishing off a bit of slabbing when my plasterer John arrived. I thought grand we can sort out a date to start, but just not yet!!
Little did I know, he has 6 house lined up to do so unless I wanted to wait until the end of Oct, then i had to be ready for Thursday!! I near had a heart attack

We have 240 sheet of 8ft * 4ft (the are actually shorter) plasterboard to put up, have 11 windows cills to install, have 6 gable boxes to make and a lath to run the whole lenght of the house and 3 gables and then get the guttering guys to install the strip for the soffit, also the downstairs needs the vapour barrier installed.

On top of all that we are MENTAL busy at work!!

God where to next, will I get it done. I don't want to lose the plasterer but if I cannot get 3 days off next week it will not be done.

Have to organise some lights for here, long hours ahead.

Got a quote for the stone mason, 6.5k euro cash, nearly dropped dead!!

Upstairs is getting head wrecking

More plastic, another job that is taking more longer than expected!!!! The upstairs is a nightmare!!!

Plastic Walls

Dad got extra rolls of plastic, 500g but to be honest it seems very light, I should have got maybe a 750g. I manged to get the wardrobe and ensuite plasticed.
Another day of plastic!!

Loads of slabs

My dad and his mate John were on site today, the took in a total of 80 sheets of 8ft*4ft of plasterboard, some carry but it has to be done, 240 sheets of plasterboard delivered altogether.
Some of it got wet with little tears on the plastic but we lost about 3 sheets, not too bad!! the sheets are actually not 8*4, they are 240mm * 120mm, which does not suit the height of our ceilings!!

Bit of progress!

Started at 7am, Began to plastic the bathroom.

I also put up the insulation on the living room walls and I put fibre glass in the whole of the ceiling space. I had to plastic 2 meters in from the external walls.
In order to "future proof" the house I decided to put in extra empty conjude and sockets in the walls near the TV in the living room. At least I can then drop cables down the conjude in the future.
I had to add in extra noggings into the living room wall at the stairs to carry the plywood.
I put in the extra box in the bathroom upstairs.
The book case in the wall in the main bedroom also had to be secured and insulated at the back.

We also ran out of plastic today, not sure why the quantities were got so wrong but will have to get some tomorrow.

Don't drink and build!!

Totally hangover day, not used to the drink, killed me until 3pm, was some struggle to move, this was a totally waste of a day!!!
Siobhan said she would give me a hand to put up some plastic on the walls, we managed to get 2 of the bedrooms done upstairs.

Stone masons were also meant to call today, no sign, shock horror!!

Day off

Today was a day off for me, we had our annual soccer dinner so I went on the beer for the night, great to get the night off!
My dad was working alright, he insulated the internal walls of the dining room/
He also had to put up some strips of ply to strenghten the wall of the kitchen and also on the living room wall along the stairs to give it strenght. Still full sheets of ply to go on this wall at a later stage.

Insulation on Externals done

We completed the insulation of the external walls downstairs, at least there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Also there was a double socket, a network box and phone socket to be installed in the wall, the noggings for these site about 25mm back from the face of the studding. Nearly took the head off myself when the blade of the reciprocating saw snapped and went flying!
The walls between the kitchen and utility needed to be tied to the floor joists for the strenght, managed to get this done also.

Insulation

Again we continued with the insulation, taking so long it is not funny!!

Insulate downstairs

I decided to be lazy and leave the small jobs up stairs and rip into the insulation downstairs.

Easy as in you can use up a full roll of 150mm rockwool on 3 lenghts of stud space. I manged to get the external walls on the bedroom, toilet, utility and 1/2 of the kitchen done.

I also completed the 100mm insulation in the dividing wall between the sitting room and bedroom.

Getting dark very fast these days. Sean offered my a lead for light so I must take him up on it.

Rang 2 lads to come out and quote us on the stone frontage and fireplace.

Hot house!

Arrived on site for 7.30am, and got stuck into putting the plastic in the hall roof.
I then installed the fibre glass for the hall and dining room and did the 100mm rockwool in the vertical walls.

My dad arrived over and once he had finished his bit of work we decided to tackle the ceiling space with the fibre glass.
We decided to cut all the fibre glass into the correct widths and lengths before I went up.

Cut up about 30 rolls altogether and up I headed.

The heat was a killer, slim fast plan my ar*e, get up into ceiling space for a hour!!! ;)

Took us most of the evening to complete this.

I headed off to Hursts heating and meet with Wes, I got the glass blocks for the dividing walls between the ensuite and bedroom. A fiver each.

Also got the quadrant 900mm shower tray and waste, 125 euro.

I also got the dry lining screws (35mm) for the Senco gun I got the loan of. They cost 22 euro per 1000. It is estimated to take up to 9000 screws to do ours.

I got the load of about 10k screws from my mate (32mm) which I will fill into catridges when I get time. But I want to use the 35mm on the ceiling slabs to give them extra strength.
Also picked up 2 good masks (3m brand) for 6 euro each as the ones we had were crap.

Decided to call it a day about about 7.30pm - Good progress

Split day

Arrived on site for 7.30, we have a match at 2.30 so I had to leave for a while.

The last place to rigid board was the landing but I had to setup a scaffold of sorts with planks to get up to it.
Again a very slow task and it took me up to 1pm before I go it finished.

We won the match 5-2 which was good, no goals for me today though!! shame!!

Got back on site a little worse for wear and my enthusism low but knew I still had to plod along.
At least no more rigid board to be done!

I put the plastic up in the dining room, I also had to drill down holes in the dividing walls for the cables.
The plastic was akward as there are bay windows which angle out, you also have to put fibre glass in the space in front of the dormers and roof space as you cannot get access to here from upstairs.

Left at 7.30, badly sore!

Good Progress

Today the pressure had to be stepped up and the intention was to try and get the upstairs completed! I wish!

I arrived on site for just after 7am, lovely day so easy to work in it, even though the temperature was not long rising!

I started to rip through the upstairs with the rigid board and completed the bedroom and landing before I got an SOS call from my da was running 2 hours late with his deliveries so I had to change my clothes and head off with him, was gone about 1.5 hrs.
Sean was there doing the bay windows when I arrived, it looks well now with the ridges on them.

The vapour barrier has to be also installed downstairs about 2m from the outside walls on the back and front.
I started this and got the back of the house done, a slow job again especially with recess light cables to be also cut out.
The barries is staples to the joists, I have a staple hammer and this makes life very easy.



Then you have to go upstairs and stuff 200mm fibre glass in the roof space behind the walls leaving room for air to get in at the eaves.
Again a cramped job! I managed to get the back completed.





My dad was there and he was tying up the loose ends of the rigid board and doing any strenghtening. His hip is still at him and I am not happy he is putting weight on it, only the landing to do with rigid board now.

When the fibre glass is installed you then have to install 100mm rockwoo the vertical wall space. Again this has to be stapled into position to avoid sagging in the future.



Headed off at 7pm after a long hot day, but things are going well now.

More Rigid board

This rigid board is getting to be a killer, taking much much long than expected. Have to keep going with it though.

Putting rockwool in the tight spots though as you would be all day trying to put rigid board in.

No Work - Match day

Had a match today so nothing done. Not a great result of 2-2 which killed any hopes of winning the league now.
But I scored from a kickout which was funny!

Rigid Board

The Rigid board arrived today, 12 sheets of 8*4.

To be honest this is taking way longer than I thought it would take, has to be cut correctly.

I was talking to my mate and he had a nice stone fireplace built with the same Lacken stone we are using on the front of ours.

Pic below



Also my roofer came back and tidied up the roof, just the ridge on the bay windows to do now.

Training day off, appliance, bills!

Training day today, did not go near the house as United were on the box also and the appliances arrived so I needed to check them out and move them out of the way into the shed.
Booked off next Monday, I have 2 matches this week so it will fragment the insulation and slabbing process so Monday will sort that out.
I think the Gothic front door must be near ready now, will not contact him until he rings me first! I don't want to see it yet.

Got the bills for the roof, slates, trim, ridges and lead, must be about 2k over what I expected, the price of ridge caps and lead are crazy high, but what you gain in some spots u lose in others!!

Have the guts of 15k euro to pay out now for the roof, plumbing and misc! The joy off!

Questions From SelfBuilders

I got a few emails from a couple of lads and ladies as regards what way I did or inteneded to setup different parts of the build.

I really should have this information up on the blogs but I sometimes forget to actually post up the questions I have to ask others myself!

So sin é!

1.The foundation , did you go with insulated slab or insulated over slab
Insulation is over the raft, will be put down when the final floor goes in expected to be min 50mm of kingspan.

2.I think you said you are putting down your UFH yourself, will this work ok with Climate control Heatpump which operates at 35 degrees c
Yes, I talked to Climate Control and to UnderfloorDirect and we have worked the pipes closer together so that the temp operates lower than "standard" UFH.

3.How are you heating up stairs , is it UFH or over sized rads
UFH - 50mm battens laid at 12 inches apart (might reconsider this), there is 25mm of insulation, the pipes laid on top of this, then screed in the hall and bathroom and ensuite, not screeding the rooms due to them be very warm and also this would turn the concrete into a slab and would leave heating and cooling responses very slow.

4.How much room have you left for the 500l thank and the heatpump in the utility room and is this going to be your hot press as well
2m footprint for the tank and geo, not going to be a hotpress but will be a possible storage area, will definately be closed in when all installed.

5.and finally the screed for the floor's , how are you putting this into each room . I'm thinking the UFH has not gone down yet ,so is it pumped in to each room or is it hard labor with a wheel barrow .
I will be doing the molly malone on this one!!

6.How are you regulating the temperature in each room
I have thermostats in the sitting room and bedrooms, the main living areas as far as I see it.

7.Trissa said...
Hi Aidan-
Great site. We're putting in radiant floor heating during our renovation- are you putting tubing in with concrete? Are you doing the entire system yourself? It would be great to see some pictures-

Trissa, thanks, we are putting the single under floor heating, we will be doing ourselves, I would say it will be at least 5-6 weeks before I start.


Sian, "what are soap,why do need to use then? how build getting on "

Sian, things are going well thanks, Soap , are soap bars, these I have used to attach the sole plate to using express nails so that the timber frame can be nailed down onto the sole plate.
Soap bars are like mini-blocks, where a 4" solid block is 9" wide and 4" deep, the soap bars can be got in 4" * 4" and 6" * 6"/.
Have a look at www.roadstone.ie for a product guid.


if there are any questions please post a comment or email me on aidangill@gmail.com and I will do my best to answer and post up the q/a here

Lagging the house!

Appliances due tomorrow, on a side note almost sealed a deal on a lovely 01 Audi A4 TDI, a nice car but it was sold over the weekend, will probably wait until end of year and sell the Focus, petrol too dear now and with the 80 odd miles a day I am doing it is costing me!

Dad arrived over, still badly effected with his ankle and hip, it is definately ligaments he has done.
We completed the bathroom, landing, hotpress, ensuite and walk-in wardrobe but ran out of light at 10.15pm so had to pack it in, the heat upstairs is a killer even with the windows open, I think I will be sleeping in the garden!!
Bought surgical gloves so this will saves the prickly hands, killer with the rockwool even!!
Have to get an idea of the glass blocks for the single wall in the ensuite, I want to stream sun from the velux straight in front of the glass blocks into the bedroom using the blocks.

Early Mornings

Couple of GAA matches on today, including Mayo V Kerry so I decided to head to the site again for 7.30am. I was going to finish off putting in the boxes in the studding but decided against hammering at 7.30am!
I then said I would start the insulation, so off I set. Progress again is slower than I expected, 150mm rockwool on the external walls and 100mm on the internal walls, all insulation has then to be stapled onto the studding to stop it from sagging in the future.
All studs do not have all the same widths between them and the windows, noggings and sockets make it akward to insulate.
The heat was a killer and even with long sleeves I was still itching, forgot my face mask so that did not help but periodically stuck my head out the windows to breath air!
It makes the rooms more like rooms now with the insulation in, if that makes sense!!!
Progress was good, spent 5 hours at it and got 2 rooms completed and one wall of the bathroom done.
The roof space and ceiling has yet to be completed, waiting for the rigid board to arrive, all the areas have to be covered with plastic also.

Good Progress

Nice sunny morning so the trawl of getting out of the cot at 7am was not too bad, was on site for 7.30 and decided to finish the corner pieces over the landing. I then started work on the bookshelf in our bedroom.
Siobhan wanted a bookshelf built into the dormer roof space beside the bed, it will make good use of the free space.
There are also boxes to go into the walls in the bathroom (3) and one in the ensuite. These are just a backless box which will be slabbed and plastered and can be used to store maybe toothbrush holders or god knows what else, again uses the space.
You cannot put any of these boxes on external walls though as there will be no insulation behind them.

When hop along daddily arrived we decided to put up the 2 dividing walls between the hall and sitting room and hall and dining room. Thought it would take us about 2 hours, took us the guts of 3.5, one wall was too long so I had to get the circular saw out, set the dept, cut the extra plywood off the face of the stud and move back the upright so make the wall fit,
Then you have to plumb and screw/nail in each wall. Pain in the head!!

There was also a strip of timber to be put in over the landing so that the plasterboard on the ceiling and on the vertical wall would meet at a strong point, one of those hidden jobs!

My mate Vinny called out this evening to give me his staple hammer, he also noted that I should have been sent rigid board insulation for the roof space and was not delivered so he said he would deal with it on Monday.

Headed off at about 8pm, long day!

Training

Today was a dead day, we had training so I called out to check out what the roofers had done before I went training, the capping is now completed, the house looks well with the roof done!

Stunt Man On Site

Our new neighbours have started a kitchen company in Claremorris so I decided that I would drop in my plans, we have a great quote from WoodStyle in Donegal and I could not see it been beat so I said it would only be fair to give them a chance to quote us.

Went up to Milltown to pick up the 32mm slabbing screws off my mate Gibbo, he had 10k to spare, should do a bit!
I was up there about 10 minutes when I got a call from my Dad, he had fell off a ladder inside the house, with the brutal weather and traffic it was going to be at least 50 minutes until I was at the house, so he decided to hobble in next door, so much for not doing anything risky, he was up on a ladder, about 15 foot, grabbed a piece of timber which he thought was screwed in, it was not so he came down on his back, catching the stairs on the way down and the piece of timber landing on his face.
He busted his ankle, his hip caught his back and busted his nose, to say he was lucky would be an understatement.

I sent him home when I got to the house, he reluctantly went!

Regina from Alpha Kitchens called over with the plans and a price, to be honest I was delighted with their design and price, both to be confirmed, we have to go to their showroom and view the doors and confirm the price but if all stays the same we will definately be going with them. An the IROKO worktop.

I also rang the plumber to tell him about the lack of lagging, how there was electrical cables running over the hot pipes and that some of the drilling in the joists left a lot to be desired. He came out again today to "relag!"

Appliances + Ebay

As you may not know I work in IT, programmer in a software house to be precise, so I know my way around the net,

I have been trying a lot of on-line appliances, some ship to Ireland, some do not. But to be honest they were all better than anything I could find here.

I stumbled across a shop on Ebay, SecondTec who sell "seconds" appliances, these seconds have scratches, when you are putting in integrated products this is not an issue,

As of today I have now won, all baumatic gear, the good stuff!!
Double Oven, Washing machine, dishwasher, under counter fridge and glass island hood. The hood alone, I got a price here for 799, on ebay I paid 490 odd. Some saving!!

I am getting 2 pallets of gear delivered, costing me 240 euro for shipping.

All in all we have saved for sure, especially with the brands we have!!

Off to find a larder frigde, 5 ring gas hob and dryer.

Another clean up!

This evening we inteneded to put the boxes into the walls but we looked at the mess in the rooms and reckoned we would sweep it up, clear up the bits of wood, slate, cardboard, piping etc!! Some bleeding messing goes on!!


The roofers will be finshed tomorrow, plumbers not sure, have to get back on them, too many wires touching the pipes and feck all laging, not very happy with the work.

Roofers are also messing a bit, there are some edge trims not meeting up, will have to get this sorted.

Roofers + plumbers

The roofers have returned, excellent, have the back and dormers totally finsihed, it looks well!

Plumbers were also in, to be honest looking at their pipes runs in the joists they are as rough as hell.

I also got a price for the Shower/Bath with 12 whirlpool jets, 1500 euro, may have to rethink ourselves!!

Bit of sore head

Think I enjoyed the pints too much last nite, only had about 5 and I still felt the effects this morn!

So I arrived on site for about 9am, started in to completed the strips along the walls for the platerboard and also the straps to hold down the roof on both gables.

The 3 access doors into the area between the rooms and the roof needed doors made, we did the frames for them, will finish them again
The list of things to do before we insulate is rapidly dying!

Day off!!

Today was my grans anniversary mass, it was on at 11:30am and afterwards we headed to my mams for a bite to eat, we sat and talked etc until about 2pm, I then decided that fek it, lets not go to the house!!

So I had my first day off since May 15th, just sitting there and not having to move to go to either football or house was a strange feeling, but hell did I enjoy it!!!

We even went into Westport on Sunday nite for few pints, and I also enjoyed these!!

Back to the house tomorrow!

Progressive day

Today tured out to be a very progressive day, was on the road for 8am, headed to Heiton Buckleys to get my screw bits, screws and new tape.

Then over to Hursts to get the shower valves, there were about 10 of them, actually spent more time checking all their show rooms than looking at showers!!

When I finally coped on I talked to Mr Hurst (yes thats his name ;) ) and he recommended a brand to me, in the end they cost me 270 euro a piece, steep but he swore to me that they would not fail or leak!
I trust him on this to be honest.

No roofer today!!

Bank holiday Monday so he will not be there until Tuesday at least!!


Today I put in timber ties into the chimney, then I had to strap the roof ladder to the timber frame, each screwed in at right angles, once again time consuming!!


I also added the edging along the ceilings and around the dormer!! every where I seem to look I can see edging needed!!!

Short day

Today seemed to fly, expected to get a lot done but the motiviation levels are low! Great fun now!!

I got a labeling machine from the lads at work for labeling the NW cables.

I managed to put the timber strips on the 2 bedrooms for the plasterboard, had a visitor so that took up some time!

Also was totally fked off, when I arrived my tape and screw driver bits were gone, plumbers must have swipped them, not a happy camper!

Aldi strikes again!

Aldi did an 18V cordless drill for 30 notes, not bad at all, will do the job for the plasterboard.!
Also 2 batteries, great since I seem to using 2 batteries a day at this stage ramming in them 80mm screws.

Ta da!! Plumber arrived today, well his lads arrived, not sure about them, time will tell!!

Back to the NW

Installed the boxes for the NW and also installed the noggings in the walls for these.

First 5 litres of petrol I got for the genie only ran out today, some going!

I got my price off Eamo my blocklayer, was very happy, 2200 euro for 2190 blocks/soapbars.

Today I also won an undercounter freezer on Ebay. Now we have the freezer, dishwasher, cordless phone, all on Ebay.


Finally got a hold of my roofer, he said he should be out on Thursday or Friday.

More timber work

Today all plumbing is now completed, something I have also noticed is that these little jobs seem to take a hell of a lot more time, when I leave work it is about 6:15 then get to the site for a quarter to 7, by the time I change my clothes and get my tool box and tools to the place I start working it is up on 7, this leaves you with 2-3 hours of work for the nite.
If someone arrives then another 1/2 hour is gone, by that stage tiredness and hunger has set in so you have to get your mind and enthusiasm back on track!!

The hotpress we had cut on and resized had to be completed, my dad took this on today and finished it nicely.

Again neither roofer or plumber answering the phones, to be totally honest I am not overly bothered as we have loads to do, but the minute we are been held up I will be flaming down the phone.!!!!

Continue the NW

I completed the runs for the CAT6 cabling to the 2nd bedroom and the bedroom downstairs.

I also continued with plumbing of the walls, screwing up into the ceiling joists.

NO sign of the tradesmen today so no plumbing (with pipes) and no slates.

The insulation arrived today also, rockwool and fibre glass, filled the sitting room, wall to wall and floor to roof, we will have some fun!!

Also a point to note for timber framers imparticular is that there seems to be a lot of noggings to put in, also what i was finding that I had to add timber strips or lathes along the tops of the studding so that when you put the plasterboarding up it had something to screw into, also the back of the studding needed the same strips.

Cabling and Plumbing (not the piping type!)

I finished off the CAT6 cabling, finishing the runs to the bedroom downstairs and the 2nd bedroom upstairs.

I then decided to plumb the studded walls upstairs, each had to be plumbed and lathes run between them and the rafters to strenghten them, then screwed together, slow bleeding job!!

Insulation arrived today, sitting room is now filled to the hilt with rolls of rockwool for the walls and fibreglass for the roofspace.

I decided to source a mantlepiece and I think I have found what I am looking for, now to get a price!

Found http://www.wilsonsyard.com/ and this mantlepiece, and it sanded and waxed.

The also do a lovely gothic door, shame I did not spot these guys when we were looking!

Sunday Nogging

Another day another nogging! Well thats what it feels like, going to Mass on a Sunday is now a thing of the past, the house has taken over, taken over by material things and all that ;)

Continued with the noggings, also did the noggings in the utility room, closet (for the manifold) and lounge for the TV, wall units.

I then decided to run the CAT6 cable, I managed to complete 2 points in the sitting room, 2 in the main bedroom and 1 in the dining room.

No football today except for listen to Micháel O Mhuirahertic (spelling!) on the radio

Noggings

Today I made a work bench, got sick of using temp stands, so made up a rough bench.

Today I also started the noggings in the house, I got onto the kitchen company and asked them for the height of the wall and floor units so that we could put in the correct positions.

This I thought would be a quick job. This quick job is a feature I am beginning to notice which is not associated with self build, every thing takes a hell of a lot more time that what I have budgeted!!

All in all there was a requirement for nearly 85 noggings to be cut and nailed in.

Did about 2/3 of them today, thank god for the old aldi generator!! (250 euro!)

BLocks finished

Blocks are completed, at least the place is closed in now!

The door had to be put into the attic also, got this done.

Had training tonite so night is gone!

I rang back the facia and soffit crowd to get them to finish the job, said it would be start of week.


Ordered the insulation for the house, will be beginning of next week.

Finished the clean up of the house, some amount of rubbish!! Must be 20 bags at this stage!

General tidy up

Decided to clean up the inside of the house today, also took plastice pieces off the dormer windows.

The gables are now finised and there is one line of blocks on the front.

No show from the plumber

Home Network

I decided that since the walls were open that I would run network cables and install the boxes.

CAT5E is the standard that is used but I went for the extra bandwidt with CAT6, 100mhz as opposed to 1000mhz. I know it maybe over kill but at least it is future proofing the house and if it ever comes to it we can stream video or tv over the house.

I purchased the box of 200m in CT electric for 69 euro EX VAT, not bad price. Got the steel boxes and punch down tool for the same.

I also got some conjude, the way I look at it is that IF we need to add more sat cables near the TV then if I put the conjude in place it will make it easier.

The dormers were plastered today, excellent to see them finished, look well now!

Gables are almost finished also.

Still going

BLocks arrived today as did the sand, got another 10 bags of cement for the lads so that will keep them busy.
Eamo back on site, he has help now so no more block lifting!

We did some patching up of the felt where they tears, also cleaned up around the house.

Did up a list of what we need to do before we start plasterboarding. Loads to do.

No site today!!!

Had to finish the turf for my dad today, was in the bog for 9am, got it all finished, house must be lonely without us!! ;)

Filling the chimney

Had to fill the chimney with sand and lime mix today, took 30 buckets, was expecting it to take 10!!!

No sign of Eamo for the blocks either, must be on holidays!!

Got bill for the raft and groundworks, loads of money!!

Had to go to the bog and put out turf with my dad, wheel our wheel barrows etc!

Had my nieces birthday also. good to have some time off!

Lack of Materials

I talked to John my plasterer and we agreed to plough ahead with a 20 ton of plastering sand.
I rang Roadstone and was told it would be god knows when I got sand as they had none!!!!

I rang Corcorans and they said that due to other commitments that they would not be able to deliver for 2 weeks!!

Then rang Harringtons and was quoted 390 for the sand, delivered, dear but I had no choice!

I also ordered a full load of 4" solids, I would use them for the walls and other uses so good to have them.

Strip was put on the dormers, ready for plastering now. I decided that I would wash them.... I know but them stickers they put on them are hard to take off!

Settled up 1st fix bill with Brian my spark

Guttering + Facia + Soffit

Initially we were going to do our own guttering and facia and soffit, I could source the gear locally for a great price.
Then we started to consider the amount of work we had on and that there was a few complicated parts to the house so I said that I would tender it out to see what sort of quotes,

The quote I got were all cash prices of 3000, 2100 and 1700 euro. Some differences again!

In the end I decided to go with NorthWest Guttering in Castlebar. They agreed to come tomorrow and to put on the strip on the dormer to allow them to be plastered.

Also decided to give Eamo a hand with the blocks, put 200 up on the 3rd level of the scaffolding and 150 on the 1st level, will keep him busy!!!

Plumber on site

We not quite on site but at least he knows what has to be done, told me he would not be about but his understudy would start on Wed week, great not!!

Had to get 2 lintels for Eamo, don't ask me how I forgot them!!!
Cheap too, 8 euro for two 850mm lintels

In the sun lounge I decided to put in a V bead, this was in the same shape as the apex of the roof but was about 8 inches lower down the wall than the rafters, it was covered in DPC and screwed onto the timber frame and it runs along the wall and hangs outside the timber frame into the cavity by about 10".
What it is for is that if a drop gets down from outside then if it flows down the wall at least it will hit the DPC on the bead and be directed down the bead and into the cavity outside.

Loaded up more blocks for Eamo, he is getting on well now, back is finished and he has started the gable

And on and on

Rang my plumber today to try and get him organised for start first fixing, he is slow at this stage and I would prefer to get him in and out.

He arranged to meet me on site tomorrow, don't know really why but sure why not!!!

Had soccer training, have to keep the fitness *cough cough* level up!!


I got back onto CLimate Control to get a quote for the UFH off them, 29 per m sq inclusive of 33mm of insulation, quote was excellent, to good to be true!

Organise The troops

Was on the road for 7.30am to get Eamon the extra flues for the chimeny so that he could take it through the roof and finish it off!

Got onto my plasterer to get him to plaster the dormers, said it would be done by the end of the week.

Rang Sean and told him to leave me until the weekend as dormers were not completed.

I also rang to tell them to redo the drawings so that the UFH would run at 35 deg C and to make sure that there would be less work on the HP.
Said they would come back to me by end of week.

Loaded blocks up for Eamon since he still has no helper.

Chimney now finished!

Day Off !!

Today we decided to head to Clane to my sister who just had a baby girl.

Really could not have picked a hotter day, head out the window job and the air was hot!!

Good old drive up and down in the one day but it was strange with the need not to go near the house!!

Cutting the Cills

We had to complete the DPC on 2 windows, this we did first, then I decided to make a start on cutting back the lip on the cills for the stone on the front.
I have eventually gone with the 18" standard cills and decided to get an angle grinder and cut the back lip to be the same size as that on timber frame cill,

With the intense heat and dust from the grinder it was not a plesant job at all.
It was mad slow but luckily Eamo had a con saw and when I used it I ripped through them, I then had to cut the horizontal section of the cill with the grinder which is not easy.

I managed to get 7 of the 9 cills completed and the two 5ft cills left to finish.

Eamo has the chimeny out the top of the roof, he will complete this on Monday and a chimney cap will go on it.

Had to head off to a match at 5,30pm, could have done without especially since we lost!

I wandered about the house today taking pics of the inside, hard to figure out some of them!

Block

Eamon my blocklayer started today, he is to concentrate on the gable to get it up and ready for plastering and get the roofer in to slate it.

I also needed the chimney started as I needed to get it plastered.

I had training this evening so all I have was 1 hour to get him 100 blocks inside and upstairs so that he could bring the chimeny up.

Facia + Soffit

In order to finish the dormers they needed to have the facia and soffit fitted before the slating was started, also before the plastering was done we needed to fit the beading on the sides.

I rang around 4 companies and asked for quotes.

Today the electrician started, good to see a bit of work going on inside.

DPC - Part 2 & Appliances

Today my dad had started before me, he had done 5 windows when I arrived in the evening so that was a great help.
Brian the spark also was due as he is starting tomorrow, we went through all the rooms again and agreed on the points so that is good.
We finished off most of the windows bar 2 which are out of reach until we setup the scaffolding correctly.
I also decided to start pricing the appliances for the house on the net, I got a number of place who would deliver to Ireland and then I remembered Ebay and am I lucky I did!!
I found a site who do appliance which they rate as seconds, in other words they have a small dent or mark on them, 100% working order and almost new. For example a Baumatic Island hood, 799 euro here, on that site it was sold for 300 euro! Some difference!
I will give more details later on!

DPC on the Opes

Cills arrived today, not correct quantities to I will have to get onto them tomorrow morning.

Got onto the plumber and beat him down in price, he will start next week.

I decided to start DPC around each window and door. What you have to do is cut a strip above the opening about ½ inch above, then slip your DPC in under the breather membrane and staple them together onto the timber frame.
Then you fold the DPC down over the top of the window and staple in onto the batten.
You also do the same with the vertical battens, but you do not cut the membrane.
The vertical DPC is slipped under the horizontal DPC and stapled.

I thought I would fly this but due to the crap weather, rain rain rain, it was really slow. Only got 6 windows and 2 doors done!
Back tomorrow!

Slater, dormer etc

Today Sean, my slate/roofer arrived.
He came to lead the 2 dormer windows so that we could install the actual PVC windows in the dormers and finish off putting on the expanded metal.

He hopes to return on Wednesday or Thursday when the slates arrived to slate the house.

Myself and my dad decided to install the dormer in the evening. Each window had to have its PVC cill cut and shaped and then screwed onto the window.
The window was then set on a bead of silicon and we then plumbed the windows before screwing the brackets to the timber frame.
It took a bit longer than expected.
Then it was a case of completing the expanded metal on the 2 dormers.

I also rang Mahon Windows to tell them about the 2 doors which were not closing correctly, they told me to wait until most work is done and they will come back and check everything.

I rang the last plumber to get a quote, have almost decided on who I am going with but I wanted to check to see what sort of prices the other lads would come in at and the final lad said to me he could not do it, should have told me that 2 weeks ago!

Dormers in with expanded metal on them now.

Getting There

Woke this morning at 8am, these long days are taking there toll, the prospect of another 12 hour day with a match in the middle of it was not appealing, the fact it was pissing it down also did not help me to jump out of the cot!!

I started the 2nd dormer at about 9.30am, I think the neighbours are beginning to wonder if I ever go home, I would say to them I am there day and night, actually I am beginning to feel the same way myself ;)

Only messing, practice makes perfect and the mistakes I made on the first dormer were learned from and not repeated, I managed to get the expanded metal cut and fixed into place along with the timber for the soffit before I headed off to the match at 1pm, less blood and skin lost this time in the exercise of cutting the metal.

Got over the match, we won 3-1, good win, now with 2 points of leaders, playing them next week for an almost title decider.

Got back on site at about 5, two separate batches of visitors and guided tours ensued, lost about 1 hour all in all, so completed the nailing of the expanded metal, and did a final check on the 2 dormers.

There was a load of battens on the ground all around the house, decided to tidy the place up and remove all the nails that were sticking out of them.

Also moved some of the blocks out of the way of the sand, Roadstone made the delivery on Friday and for some unknown reason decided that they would place 900 blocks plonk in front of the sand, blocking access to the sand and around the house!! Don’t ask!!!!

Eight bells arrived and the smell of food hit me, time for a shower and a feed!
Another weekend gone! The move in for October 2005 moves closer and closer, with weekends now a thing of the past the weeks of work, as in the 7 day weeks of work are running out!

Blue Arsed Fly Day!!

Today is a big day; there is so much to do to be ready for the block layer and the roofer. Sean said he might come out today and install the lead on the dormers so that we can put in the dormer windows.

With my brother Damien with me we headed to Heitons Buckley for 9am.
On the list was:

Lead 18” – 3 rolls
Lead 6” – 2 rolls
Slab nails – 1 box
Crampions – 3 boxes
2 A06 veluxes + flashing
2 A08 Veluxes + flashing
Masonry angling grinding disk * 2
4 rolls of 4” DPC
ESB Metre box
Phone Box
Staples for the gun
Hockey stick

We got all our stuff; lead is heavy in the back of a focus!! But we got it to site and unloaded the lot.

The wind was fairly picking up as promised, I am not sure if the wind + rain knows that it should be down under in Oz not up here in our “Summer”

The list of items which had to be done for before the tradesmen arrived was as follows:
Install the hockey stick
Put expanded metal on both dormers so that they can be plastered before the slating starts!
Put in lath along top of dormer to install the soffit
Run the DPC over the battens on the windows.
Put a “V” lathe and DPC run just under the apex of the sun room so that if water does get down inside the flashing on the gable that is will first hit this V lathe, flow along the DPC and be escorted outside the sunroom and into the cavity.



We setup the generator to get the 1st task out of the way and get the hockey stick moved and re-installed.
Some fun cutting it out, but after about an hour of huffing and puffing we have now installed the hockey stick within the 2m requirement from the front of the house, hope the ESB will be happy now!!
The next task was the lathes on the dormer to carry the soffit.
We started with one dormer and installed the lathe no issue, then the expanded metal took a hell of a lot longer than expected. The measuring and cutting was a painful task in getting precision and also getting the hands cut off us!

Six bells came on us in no time and we decided to call it a day. At least the hockey stick was in and one of the dormers ready for plastering. I will attack the 2nd one in the morning but I have a match at 2.30pm so I will return after it and finish it off.

Monday and Tuesday are going to be busy evenings. Have to get the DPC on them window and the V lathes installed
Cills are also due Tuesday and the 9 Cills on the front need to be cut with the angle grinder to fit! Busy times!!!

Getting Ready For Blocks

Blocks arrived today so Eamon has all the materials at him disposal, they were actually meant to arrive tomorrow and this meant that he could not get around the back but we will move the block around for him.
Myself and my dad installed the steel beam on the roof of the sun room, it will over hang the sun room by 3 inches on each side, and will rest on the block outside not the timber frame.

I took a few pics of around the house:

Slates

I rang Tegral today to get an idea of the lead time for the slates, it seems since we are going for the standard Thrutone slate that it will be a special order, in fairness it is not that special but anyway it will be next Wednesday before they arrive, got them for 1.70 per slate, a bit dear for a non natural slate but the Rivendale are a natural look with the ribbed edges and will look nice.
Got final price in for the Slater, 3500, so I rang me best price back and he said he would start the following Wednesday, a least some light as far as getting it slated.

Also got onto Eamo and asked when he was going to start, hoped for Monday next.
I ordered him a load of 4” solids and 2 rings of bricks

Window / Door Issue

I decided to inspect all the windows and doors to see if there were any issues. I noticed that the bar door wasn’t locking at the bottom and the sun room was sticking so I will have to get this sorted.


Pics of the house as of today

Cill + Lintels - Part 2

After contacting 4 companies in total about getting the stone Cills and with no success it was decided that we would get the Cills from Westport Concrete and alter the lip on the back of the cill to mimic the timber frame cill.
The delivery we could expect on the 5th of July. Cost for the Cills and lintels is 620 Euro which to be fair is an excellent price.
I am also getting the "figure 8" septic tank, distribution box and pipes off them for 660 euro.

This evening I decided to leave soccer training cut out the hot press and narrow it down, since we don't need the large hotpress for a hot water cylinder (it is downstairs beside the heat pump) we decided that we would narrow it up and give back the space to the walk in wardrobe, so I got out the hand saw, cut out the studding between, and added and cut pieces appropriately to fit into the space.

Fellow Self-Builders

Found a few lads who are doing self builds.

This lad I found his site and stole his idea of doing a blog, excellent site and full of useful links, and updated daily! (mental note!!!)

http://self-build-in-ireland.blogspot.com/


Goill is also keeping an up date on Boards. At foundations level

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=266584&page=1

Re-Nailing - Part 3

What I thought would be a quick job is taking a hell of a lot longer, but at least it will be done and IF a jobs worth doing……..

ReNailing - Part 2

Played a match this morning for the C team, lost 3-2 not a good result and makes it hard for ourselves in the league, the pain of a long days work yesterday and 2 matches as well as training in 3 days is taking its toll!
I continued with the back and completed it, the heat was a killer, I could almost smell myself cooking with the heat, but that could have been the illusion of been hungry also!!

ReNailing Part 1

Meet with another plumber this morning, he is up the walls BUT he reckons he could come to me in 2 weeks, so I meet with him and discussed the setup, he did not like the idea of a full pressurised system, he wanted a separate pump on each shower, don’t know about this myself. Expect to hear back from him at end of next week

Went to Heiton Buckleys and got the cement, expanded metal, nails for same, L brackets to secure the chimney, screws for same, bolt for the door, screws for the hinges, more DPC, petrol & oil for our new generator which Siobhan bought in ALDI the previous Sunday for 250 euro, excellent price.`

We brought over our old front door from my parents home and installed it in the front of our place, now means the place is secure and locked up, it will be in place until the front door goes in, in 7 weeks!

The personal aspect of been a bit fussy verging on the edge of been a perfectionist reared its head today, I decided to inspect the battens on the back of the roof and even though the lads had used a nail gun with 75mm nails to put on the battens there was movement, so I decided to double nail with galvanised 90mm nails so that there was going to be no movement what so ever.

Off to Achill for a match with the B team, windy spot down there but came away with a 2-1 result, leaves us 6 points ahead with 6 games left, busted my left thumb, some twat thought it would be a good idea to follow through even though I had the ball in my hands, my biggest worry for the build is to get a serious injury.

I got a lift down to Achill with Wes, his dad owns Hurst Heating and Plumbing and Wes works there, very informative guy and extremely helpful, discussed the build and our requirements and he made a few very good suggestions which will help me make a final decision on plumber. The only tradesman I don’t have yet secured!

Steel Beam

There is a need for a steel beam over the sun room to carry the 4" blocks; it was a 203mm * 102mm steel beam, 25kg. Fecker is heavy; cost us 95 Euro in Westport.

Chimney

My mate Eamo is going to build the chimney for us so in order to get the corner ready for him to build it we need to install the insulation, the breather membrane and then the plasterboard.
This had to be done both up and down stairs. The chimney stack is build 40mm away from the timber frame; the gap is then filled in with insulation.
We did this in a couple of hours.

I also order materials for the chimney, 12 straight flues, 2 bended flues, bags of cement and lime for building the chimney and also for the infill around the flues.
I also got wall ties so that we could tie the chimney into the timber frame.

Tradesman Rant!

I have to have this rant out as been an extremely punctual person this is something that really irks me.

From November of 2004 I started sending out plans to companies, timber frame, under floor, geothermal, window, door etc.
In fairness I would say that 90% of these companies came back to me and were very helpful but when you are spending a couple of thousand euros it is really the least you expect.

I also sent out my plans to tradesmen, plumbers * 7, electricians * 6, plasters * 9.
I had a roofer at the time and a plaster so there was no quotes needed.

In the last 7 months the trouble I have had in getting quotes has been nothing short of ridiculous. It seems that for some unknown reason some (& I should say the majority but in fairness to the 4 tradesmen that came back to me within 4-5 days I will not) of them just don’t seem to comprehend that when they put a date & time to visit the site, return the plans with a quote or to ring me with a quote you should at least come close to it.
But no, it has got to the stage that with some tradesmen I have had to ring up to 6 times to get a quote out of them and in some cases I have given up.

As I have said above there were out of the 22 tradesmen 5 who came back within a couple of days or at least rang me within a week with a price.

Maybe it is a case that they don’t want the work but out of courtesy they should at least tell you instead of wasting your time and money in chasing them!

Rant over……!!!!!

Front Door

One day myself and my dad went to a house to look at their geo and ufh setups so that I could compare it with what i was looking at and to get their opinions on what they thought of the setup.

When I got to their house I spotted their front door and my jaw dropped, I thought it looked top notch, it is a gothic door similar to this, except there is a glass framing around it to form a panel of time at the bottom half each side and curved glass around the shape of the door at the top

I got the details of the joiner who did the work and meet with him to discuss a price.
I was amazed when he said he would do it all for 1600 euro! So I agreed to call him when the frame was ordered and let him call to see the door ope to measure it.

I arranged 3 meetings with him and he could not make the 1st, he lost his phone, the 2nd he just did not turn up, the 3rd he apologised he was stuck on a job, since then I could not get hold of him.

So I had to go looking again, I got a few quotes in for 2200, 1900 and then for 3k!! I nearly dropped as it looked like we would not be getting it, so I prepared to get a "normal door"

Then I got word that there was a place near work who are excellent. So I took a spin up to them and he said it would be 8 weeks, meaning IF all things went to plan that there would be a 2 week delay.
But in the end I said flip it and decided that we would go with it. I asked a price and prepared for a big sum but to my suprise he said it was going to be no more than 1500 euro, all in!!!

So I wait with patience and worry to hope it all falls into place!

Time will tell.....

Cills + Lintels Part 1

Cills + Lintels had to be ordered so that I would have them on site for when ever Eamon arrived, I headed to a local supplier, Westport Concrete. I got talking to the lads and gave them the opes so that they could come back to me.

In the process of discussing our requirement it was discovered that they did not have a stone/timber frame cill. An 18" deep, 4" face size, with a timber frame lip. They had the standard 10" wide, 4" face but the 18" was never required.

So I said grand I am sure I can get it somewhere else. So off I headed only to be faced with absolutely no one with an 18" timber frame cill, I was very surprised!

I eventually with the help of Clarks came across Killeshal in Co Offaly, but the nearest they could come to me was a 15" cill with really was not deep enough.
So I had to keep searching.

Kitchens

We have decided that we are going to go with a traditional buttermilk colour look for the kitchen. The requirement of an island with a gas hob has been outstanding for a long time so the kitchen is to be designed around this.
The kitchen length EX the island is 8m, someone made a comment in a kitchen company that if we used all three side of the kitchen, which we could, that it would be the same size as Michael Ring...a local TD!

We visited three of the main kitchen culprits around and they came back with varying designs and costs. Prices ranged from 5599 to 14k euro for the kitchen units, these were with a Formica worktop and nothing special on the designs.
At least we had a kitchen design with and a rough estimate or ball park figure, a fair bit higher than I had expected but such is the joy of self-build!!

I then took up my usual internet search to see what I could come up with across the water. A sent off the kitchen layout and requirements to about 5 companies in the UK.
Again price difference arose and we came across a kitchen layout which we really liked. The cost included all the latest kitchen gadgets like larder, towel rails, bin on the kitchen door, baskets etc, also it included an Iroko worktop of which we really liked.

I also got an excellent price for the appliances, all Baumatic, when I got prices here for the same units they were about 20% dearer here!

One evening at home we came across a mag with a load of kitchen designers. I decided to take all the email address, roughly 30, and send off the spec with the kitchen and out requirements to see what would come back.
Some we gave up on straight away, as the starting price began at 20k plus so these were not in our bracket!

But there were a number who came back with excellent price and designs.

SO at the moment we have 2 designs, one comes in at 11k with all appliances with the kitchen and Iroko, the 2nd is 13k with the same spec, except they are all Baumatic appliances and the design is a slight bit nicer.
The decision will have to be made in the next 3 weeks.

Timber Frame Complete

Got a call from Clarkes to say that the sun room frame was on its way, so that was good.
I visited the site after work and the sun room was up and the roof felted and battened. Excellent.

Now it was full systems ahead!

Drainage!

We decided in the morning to head out and try and sort out my dads turf, there was about 4 hours work left so we headed out and did the work, all finished, well bar taking it off the bog!

So in the evening we said we would try and drain the house of the inches of water.
We took 2 buckets and 2 sweeping pans and started at, I lost count after the first 80 buckets or so but we estimated we dumped out at a minmum 150 buckets of water!!!!

We then swept it out and cleaned up the site.

There was a requirement to put up some scaffolding to the gable of the sun room, we did this also to give access to the sun room all the way around..

Sun Room

The last piece of work for the lads to do was to put the roof on the sun room and to felt and batten this.
The lads arrived on site in the afternoon it and when I called to them were about to put the trusses in place.
At least it would finish it off!

My sister in law was getting married on the 3rd so on the 2nd we all meet up in my wifes house for a few drinks, was due to play a soccer match but due to the down pours all day Celtic Park was flooded, some summer!!!!

I got a call from Mark about 8pm, I presumed it was to tell me to call out and pay him!
After the call though I was not a happy camper, he said to me "I have to take the sun room down, it's wrong", I began to laugh and told him to fupp off, but soon realised he was not messing!

What had happened was that the walls were back to front, with the natural stone on the front the over hang was great, but for some reason the large over hang was on the back!

Also the feature windows were not centred on the apex but centres on the wall, so when the blocks and stone went on the front the windows were centered correctly and did not look out of place, we decided to move the windows to the centre of the apex

In fairness to Mark he took pictures of the sun room on Thursday night and emailed them to Clarkes and I gave my mate in Clarkes a ring and he said he would get onto it also.

On Friday morning I got up early and headed to the site, I had the wedding to be at for 1pm and to get ready and people to collect before that so I had to make sure everything was correct before I left site.

I rang Clarkes first thing and talked to the lad who was over our house, he said he would investigate straight away.
About 1hr later I got a called from one of head guys to apologise and to inform me that it would be sorted immediately and that they would pay the lads to get the kit out and up again.
I said no problem.

Off to the wedding....

Felting the house

The last 2 days the lads spent felting and battening the house, it is good to get it closed in and protected from the rain but with all the rain over the last week there must be at least 3 inches of water in the house.
At least it keeps people out of the house and from what the neighbours have told me there has been plenty of visitors in for a nose!

House Goes Up - Part 3

Day 3 -
Day 3 involved setting out the studding upstairs and finishing off the dormers, putting on the gable ladders and tying it all in.

I discussed with Mark a price for felting and he said he would do it for me if I got him some nails for his nail gun, got the spec off him and off I set.

Fkn things cost me 130 euros for the 75mm nails. nearly died with the price of them

Told him I would get them to him the following morning.

The guys who I was to get the windows off Mahons called to me to measure the windows and doors, spent an hour measuring and settling on a small details.

Told me to expect delivery for the 21st of June, expected them to probably sometime that weeks

Timber Framers on Holidays!

Arrived on site Thursday morning, no sign of lads, rang them and they said they were gone into town for rain gear, it was hammering it down!

Came back after work, no sign of the lads, one car there but no sign, still pissing it down, so I took no heed.

Friday - We had a wedding so I called after it with pasode (spelling!!) nails for the lads, Still no sign of lads, again raining!

Saturday - Car still there, no work done - phone call "Hello Mark, remember me the house I am paying you to erect and felt......... Yes sorry we got caught on another job, will be down to finish it off on Monday!

House Goes Up - Part 2

DAY 2:
On my way to work at 8.30am I said I would call by the site to have a look, bit like a kid with a new toy!!.
As I approached I noticed a lorry parked up, it was the trusses!

I rang Clarkes and asked what the story was, they informed me that they managed to get them on the road earlier that expected and that they were there,
I told them that my lads would not be on site until 11am and that the crane would be sitting.

I rang the boys and they were in the cot, said they would be there in 1.5 hours.

That evening but was pleasantly suprised when I arrived on site to see the roof in place and the dormer shaped.

The weather was absolutely bucketing it down, it was mad but fair play to the lads they kept at it.

I left them to it and they managed to get rid of the crane and it's unhappy Polish driver at 9.30pm!!

The House Goes Up!! - Part 1

Was up this morning at 7am, out of need/excitement/worry. The excitement because we had waited so so long for this day and so much planning had gone into it, now it was here it was good.
The worry was in relation to the scaffolding, was it setup correctly for the lads and was it secure enough, I was told by the lads later that it was spot on and I should have seen what some people classified as scaffolding.
The other worry was in relation to the sole plates layout. As I said before this has to be +/- 5mm, now we had our level and we checked, rechecked and double checked every lenght of timber before they were nailed.

About 1 mile before the turn off to the site I meet an artic with a TF kit on the back, I spotted it and said to myself someone else must be getting a TF kit delivered.
I arrived on site and the crane was there, a Polish lad driving it, no English at all, he asked me if I was "you manager" and nodded and he said "I drive crane", was going to say to him well I hardly thought you were there to do my tan now!! A great worker from what I heard from the lads. The crane was supplied by Moran Cranes in Castlebar @ 55 Euro per hour EX VAT. This was a 30 Ton crane.

I then received a call from the artic driver, he was near Westport, about 9 miles the wrong side of the site and the lads who were erecting the kit were behind him, so it was a case of shooting back the road to direct them.

I also had to find a place further down the road for the artic to turn.

I walked the raft with Mark Jackson the lad who was going to put the kit up. He was happy out with the sole plate and they were almost 100% level, gave out though that there was one sole plate, a non supporting wall, which had a piece of timber under it to level, I ran out of slate at about 9pm the night before so I could not find any more, I used one piece of timber, cannot please them!!!

I left them to it and headed for work.............

I got a call about 12 from Mark wondering where the roof trusses were, he said they should have arrived at that stage but there was no sign.

I rang Clarkes and they informed me that they would be late and not due until 11am the following morning, so I informed the lads of this and told them there was no point in turning up until this time.

I visited the site after work and got a great buzz to see the work done.

Mark also rang me to tell me that the scaffolding boards on the front and back were too high and to drop them down one level, so out came the hammers and we moved down the 4fts and boards down one level

Pics below....

Sole Plate

I had Monday off and at 8am I was ready to roll, my neighbour Sean kindly said he would lend me his SDS drill and power.
We setup the power, he also gave me a laser level which going to save us some time.
We got the SDS drill only to discover that the 8mm bit I had was miles to small to use for the large SDS drill so I tripped off into town and rented one (20 euro).

I had got 90mm Express nails and when we started off these were fine but the lowest point one the raft was 1/4 an inch lower than the highest so it was taking 3 slates to level it and we decided to get a box of 120mm express nails and these did the trick.
What you have to install a sole plate is so that the when the timber frame arrives you can leave it on the sole plate and nail into it. The sole plate has to be level within +/- 5mm.
The way you get level is you find the highest point on the raft or soap bar in our case and you take your levels off this. With the "pro" level we had it beeped when we were level.
To get the sole plate level you have to put slate underneath, it cannot be timber as it compresses.
you then drill your soleplate at 600mm centres and express nail into the soleplater and soap bar, believe me you will not move this!!

With the help of my da and our mate John slowly but surely we made progress. We had to head off to a building site to get more scrap slate.
Also we had to get more scaffolding and some 1 & 2 board extenders for the scaffolding.

We finally finished the sole plates about 9pm in terrible conditions with was now about 2 inches of water in the raft and drown like rats but it had to be done.,

The final task was to secure the scaffolding with some 22fts on the gables and tie it all together with 8fts and clets. I also had to put up some more 9fts on the outside of the back and front and handrails on the same.
These were also done and then we had to erect the safety sign. We were absolutely buckled after a long weekend and a 14 hour day but everything was ready to rock.
A nice shower and good feed we well welcomed.

Another early morning awaited me but it was going to be well worth it.

Scaffolding Details

Said I would add in a quick note on scaffolding.
I was decided about a year ago that we would purchase the scaffolding between my mate and myself.
The point to note here is that he actually bought it and I gave him a donation towards it, he saved me a small fortune without a doubt.
I also had to buy extra scaffolding before the TF arrived as we did not have enough handrails to keep the lads safe.
So this will mean that I will have one whole tower for the house left for use when ever I need it.

The erect scaffolding you need a number of things.
Legs or timber to rest the 9 fts on.
A hammer.
A level to level the scaffolding.
A monkey wrench to tighten the bolts on the clets.
A head for heights
Patience!!
3 men, you can work with 2 but it is way slower!

You put the 9fts down either on the timber which is left on the ground or on the legs that fit into the 9fts. The legs are better as you can using a spin lock level the scaffolding better than with pieces of timber!!

When you have 2 9fts you then tie them together using a 4ft on the to tie them on the insides and an 8ft on the outside.

Next step is to make sure the scaffolding is level so you get your level and using the spin locks on the legs of the 9fts you level the whole tower.

Then you get another 2 9fts and you connect these to the 8ft attached to the first & 2nd 9fts you put up so that when you have them all put in place you will have one tower.
You get your 8ft planks and you put them on the edge of the four foots and you can then walk on the scaffolding.


Then to get up another level you put in two more 4fts at the top of the 9fts, then connect another 2 8fts, fire up more boards and then you can walk on the top level.

If you have to go up another level you then repeat what we did about, 9fts go on top on the first set of 9fts, then you tie all the 9fts togeher with 8fts.
If the tower is not going to be connected to another tower you put a four foot at the end of the tower to stop people falling off!!!

When you have achieved your required height all the outside of the scaffolding have to have handrails.
What you need to do here is put the 8fts on the outside of the scaffolding tower and also you need to put handrails on the corners of scaffolding if your towers say on the front and back of your house meet up at the corner.
You can tie 8fts to the two towers using clets, this will also tie the whole scaffolding structure together and make it very secure.

On the higher towers, when it goes about 2 towers you need to secure the towers using 12ft diagonals, these are attached to the bottom and top of the scaffolding, tying together 2 towers.

You also need to get a long pole/prop (22ft I think!) and tie it to the scaffolding tower using a clet and ram it into the ground to prevent the towers from failling outwards.

When you are building a timber frame you need to keep the scaffolding out at a minimum 600mm from the frame to allow for over hangs.

When you are back that far you need to get some 1 or 2 board extenders, these are clipped onto the inside of the 9ft and it allows you to place 1 or 2 scaffolding boards on the inside.

I think that is that, if I think of anything else I will update

Soap Bars + Scaffolding

So the raft as I said was in, the next job was to get the soap bars installed. This was going to be done by my blocklayer and mate Eamon.
I meet him on site and showed him what had to be done, all external walls need to have a 6" soap bar laid level and the internal support walls needed also be brough up so that the tanalised sole plate could be installed.

I made a decision of leaving out 2 of the walls in the house so that we would have a full lenght of the house to screed from gable to gable without any walls in the way.
I also got him to lay the 6" soap bars for the non supporting walls bar the 2 I left out. These walls would be put in when the final floor was put in.

We noted that there was no sign of the radon barrier and I made this comment to Sean and Michael. They said the raft engineer had left it out of the drawing and that we would put it in with the soapbars, we then decided that since the radon barrier was going to be like an ice rink we would only install the strips on the external and internal walls with an over hang of about 3 foot internally and 4 foot externally.
I did a bit of research and found that some people suggested that the actual raft was sufficent, I made the decision we were not going to go this way and that they radon sump and barrier were to be installed.
Cost about 500 euro for the 2 rolls of barrier and the tape.

I got him 5 ton of sand, couple of bags on cement and he set off on the Tuesday and laid them in a couple of hours.

I then ordered the sole plates. They are 6" * 2" tanalised for the external and support walls and un treated for the non support walls, they came in at 14 euro per 16ft lenght for tanalised and 6 euro per 16ft lenght for the non treated. Even though the internal walls are only 4" I decided to go with 6" inside also.

The scaffolding was beginning to sort itself out in the mean time and it looked like we were on course to take down the scaffolding on my mates house, load it up, take it down to our house (an hour & 1/2 away) and put it up.

On the Friday after work I went to his house, we discovered that the plasters had not fully finished but that we could take down the back only. We did this and were then told that the plasterers had to come back on Sunday and finish off, we were not too happy but they agreed that they would take it down for us.

So we filled the 1st trailer and pickup and headed off, we arrived about 6pm and 2 hours later (with the help of 3 more lads) we had the front of and gable scaffolded and secured.
On the Sunday I had a match in the morning (11am) and when I rang Vinny at 2pm he had loaded up and was on his way down, with the help of another 4 lads we completed the scaffolding and securing about 8pm. A large sigh of relief was breathed, timber was also on site for me to work with the next morning.

Raft Foundations - Part 2

So on the 10th the steel was delivered and the work began. A team of about 6 lads set to at 8am and progress was excellent.
I could not do a site visit on the 10th but on the 11th was delighted to see the outline of the house, in steel, but it was great to see.
The lads tied steel and put in the shuttering on the 10th, 11th and 12th.

On the 11th I was in talks with Clarke Homes about the delivery of the kit, this issue I accept was all of my own fault!, when my mate Paul got his kit from Riverview it was delivered on one trailer after midnight and left on site until they were finished.
I contacted Clarkes and told them to deliver on the 17th or early on the 18th and to leave the trailer, I got a bit of a suprise when I was informed that the way that Clarkes do their work is that they deliver on site on the morning 18th and that the crane and lads would have to be there to lift of the panels, then the 2nd trailer would arrive around midday and they would lift off them panels!
The issue here was that the private company I got to erect the kit (saved me 1200 Euro!) were scheduled to arrive on the 19th, the crane was booked for same!!
I asked Clarkes could they deliver on the 19th and they said no lorry was available until the 21st.
I then contacted Mark Jackson (the kit erector) and asked him could he move his dates to the 21st, he said not a hope and that in actual fact he could not make it until the 24th! I was not a happy camper at all.
This had another impact, my mate Tommy was due to felt, batten and slate the house for us, but he was due to leave for the US on the 3rd of June, with these new dates it meant he would not be able to do it and I was down a roofer! Great, not!!!

I told Mark the situation and after some polite words he agreed to also felt and batten the house. So not so bad. I went back to Clarkes and told them that they would have to deliver on the 24th of May and they agreed, so we were off once again.
I got my mate Vinny (works for Clarkes) to give the crane company a ring (Moran Crane Hire) and haggle a price since he used them before and he got me a rate of 55 euro per hour, down from 60.

So then the really panic set in........

Sean commented that he had never seen so much steel in a house as in ours, that the engineer "fairly covered his arse" but with the railway line near it was probably no harm and would save me hours with polyfill over the next 10 years!!
The concrete (35N which was specified by the engineer) was due to be delivered to pour on the Friday but Roadstone could not get a lorry free to deliver to us, not impressed.
Roadstone said the delivery would be made for 8am on Saturday morning, so we agreed that since we now had more time on my hands that this would do.

I visited the site on Saturday morning at 11am and they were finished, was suprised at the speed of their work. So then it was down to me to get the soap bars, sole plates and scaffolding in place for the 24th May.

Raft pics below:

Raft Foundations - Part 1

Initially when we started planning the house we intended (as in myself and my dad) to do the foundations ourselves. We had experience (cough cough) of "footings" as we call them from doing a large shed at home and my dad helping out others.
It was going to take careful planning and measuring and remeasuring etc but we were willing to do that. We have 4.5k set aside for the footings.

That was until we cleared the site and myself, Sean and Michael our engineer meet on site and saw the stones and rock that covered the area where the footings were going to be dug. Also with the date of delivery of the kit, May 18th coming closer and closer it was decided that due to time constraints, our proximity to the railway line and more importantly the site conditions that we would go down the line of a raft.

Little did I know the costs involved and that we needed another engineer to do the raft drawings and steel specification. After a few phone calls we managed to get a hold of a lad who said he would do it ASAP and delivered to me in 4 days.
One thing I have learned from this build is that ASAP in my terms and ASAP in the terms of some people is not quite the same, after 3 more calls, a missed site meeting and a visit to his office the drawings arrived. It was May 4th.

I gave the drawings to my neighbour Sean (the digger owner) who also does rafts and he told me that work would start on the 10th May, I was concerned as 8 days later the TF kit was to be delivered, this gave us only 8 days to fix the steel, pour the raft, give it time to dry, lay the soap bars and put on the sole plate, the sweat began to roll!!

Also my mate and myself decided that we would buy scaffolding between us (still owe him the money for it ;)!!!! ) which would save us a small fortune, he was building his own hut and possibly another so it was definately worth his while.
The issue here was that his plasterer let him down big time and he needed the scaffolding and it looked that I would not have scaffolding for the kit! More stress..........

Digging The Site

The site dig and moment we had waited for since Oct 2003 began am on 22 April 2005.

Our new next door neighbour Sean took on the job. We were unsure of the state of the ground but soon realised that is was very dry and very stoney and rocky, something that was great in one respect but bad as regards the geothermal

Sean spent a number of half days doing the dig.

The pics are below.

ReQuotes

As you can imagine since we had our plans changed we needed a requote. This was a bit of a pain but something we had to go through again unfortunately and in fairness to all the companies there was not an issue.
I sent off our plans to the TF, UFH, GEO and tradesmen again for quotes.

Timber Frame - It eventually came down between 2 companies but in the end the easiness in dealing with Clarke Homes LTD http://www.clarkeltd.com gave them the advantage over the rest and also the fact my mate was an engineer for them also gave it a serious push.

The cost is of course a major fact and the difference I found between the cheapest and dearest was 15k Euro which as you can imagine is a big difference.

Also what is included in the kit varies - What we are getting is TF kit, plasterboard, doors, stairs, architrave, skirting, felt, battens and insulation.

• For each of the above there are also upgrade options. We upgraded:
  Felt from bitumen to Pro-tec,
  Doors from hardwood to pine,
  Stairs from mdf risers and steps to red deal,
  Insulation from Fibre Glass to Rockwool

We also got Clarkes to supply the plasterboard.

Another issue is the centres in the joists and rafters, standard is 600mm but there is an option for 400mm centres, Clarkes gave us these for free.

Under Floor Heating - This was an option that was running from the start, it appealed to me on a number of fronts,

a) Warm floors allowed for snug floors which would be warm to the touch.

b) Effiency of the floors, UFH runs at between 18 - 21 degrees C where rads run at between 45 - 65 degress C so as you can it take a hell of a lot more work to get your heating supply to the higher temps.

c) Rads can be ugly and used for clothes horses! can be a danger if young heads bang against them and they eventually need maintenance and replacing.

I had it that we were going for a supply and install option so I sent off plans to circa 30 companies, the differences were laughable ranging from 8k to 14k for the same setup. With UFH really there is not a lot to look out for, the type of Thermostats would be one as in whether or not they are analog or digital, manual or programmable all trivial issue but maybe major for some.

Then one day I was on a UK forum and it was mentioned by one lad that he installed his own and been the noisey git that I am I emailed him and enquired and luckily for me he was very helpful.

I got a company name off him and another set of plans were sent off. A few days later I got a quote back, 4100 euro delivered to our door with installation manual, support line, Danfoss TP5 programmable thermostats and CAD drawings. I was pleasantly suprised.

The supply and install quote was excellent at 8k euro from a crowd called WarmFloor based in Tyrone but www.underfloordirect.co.uk was no going to be beaten. So I set to and got our CAD drawings sent and set myself up for the unknow. It was going to be a nice warm house or an indoor swimming pool!!!

Alternative Heating - This was again another must have option that we were going to have. I first came across it when I was at a mates house in Gallaimh in 2001. To say I was impressed was an understatement.

So the investigation began and little did I realise that I would turn into the unofficially geothermal consultant for www.boards.ie !

To explain quickly your heat can be retrieved in 3 ways.

1. Air Sourced Heat Pump (ASHP) - fans are put out on the wall and the heat is extracted from the air.

2. Ground Sourced Heat Pump (GSHP) - your lawn is laid out with hydradare or plastic covered copper piping in a loop similar to that found in the element of a kettle at a dept of about 3ft. The heat in the ground at that dept is absorbed by the liquid (brine which is water and antifreeze or a refrigerant) in the pipe and returned to the heatpump

3. Water Sourced Heat Pump. (WSHP) - this can be from a lake, river or bore hole well. Again for the lake and river loop of hydradare are laid for the bore hole a pipe is put into a hold about 15o ft deep

Each source is returned to a heatpump which will increase the heat to the required temp for UFH or domestic water. The increased temp is achieved using electricity.

Some system have tanks or buffer tanks or cylinders or vessels, different names for the same thing installed in the house to store the hot water. These can range from 100 litre to 800 litre, some are pressurised to achieve a pumped hot water system and this eleminates the need for pumped or electric showers, other tanks are standard.

The HP is rates based on its COP - a rating of 3.5 to 5.8 is what I have found from different companies, this means for every unit of electricity the heatpump uses it produces between 3.5 to 5.8 units of heat. The higher the COP the better.

Also beware of what is involved in quotes, some companies supply the cylinder others do not.

I will go into the Alternative heating systems in more detail when we choose a supplier.

Mortgage Process - Part 2

We got a call at the end of February to say that the bank had an issue with our engineer, no one including our solicitor, engineer or broker had ever heard of this issue before but to cut a long story short, with the site cheque in our position, the land owner due to pick it up and everyone ready to rock and roll we had to pull the plug on the bank!
To say we were frustrated would greatly under estimate it, I was ready to be tied.
Luckily for us we were dealing with a very sound land owner who understood our situation and had no issue with us about it.
So off we plodded again, this time to the NIB who had been bought by Danska Bank and were now offering a new product, the Offset mortgage. It was identical to the First Active Current Account but the NIB manager was excellent to deal with . We got all our papers together again and within 4 weeks we had our offer and the site cheque passed over.
I contacted our plant hire man & neighbour to see when he could get started. He said it would be the end of April so sure enough he rolled in the 20th April 2005. Pictures are below are soon to be attached.