Week 21:  Week beginning 21st September

The windows arrived today.  They have come all the way from the Internorm factory in Austria; the UK agent is EcoHaus in Stroud.  They have a special triple gasket system on the frame, are triple glazed and are made of timber/aluminium.  They have a thermal insulation value of 0.74W/m2K and a sound insulation value of 35dB.  They are spruce on the inside and anthracite grey on the outside.

Being Austrian, they are tilt and turn, opening inwards either at the top or at the side.  

Some of the panels are fixed.  The next job is to cover them up again to protect them whilst the walls are finished off.  Although it looks in the photograph as though they have Georgian feature bars, they are plain glass - what you can see is just the reflection of the scaffolding.

The front door and fixed side panel

The dining area (sliding door with fixed side panel) and
the lounge (left hand panel opens like a door and goes back 180 degrees against the other panel).

Also today, SSE fitted the electricity meter; this may seem like pretty standard but mentally it is quite a big move forward.

And finally, more progress has been made on the roof this week.

The Caselle garage and Workshop (still awaiting the ridge tiles).

Bedroom 4 and the roof over the main part of the house.

Week 20: 14th September

 

The roof is starting to be finished.

Our roofer, John, is highly experienced but this is the first time he has worked with Tapco slates.  He (and therefore we) is highly delighted with the tiles and tells us that the roof will never come off.  There are vertical battens on the lower layer and horizontal battens very close together, on the top layer.  The nail gun is on overdrive.

 

Tapco is made from resin bonded, crushed virgin limestone and has the random texture and edges of natural slate.  The slates have a 40 year warranty and excellent weathering characteristics.  They are lightweight but very strong and can be walked on (which will be useful when working on the solar tiles).  Most importantly, they are particularly suited to shallow pitched roofs (they actually go down to 14 degrees although the pitch of our roof is only 20 degrees).  They look pretty authentic and are even allowed in conservation areas. 

 

 



Week 18 (week beginning 1st September)

Slightly premature arrival of the rainwater harvesting tank.
This will eventually be located under the hobbies room 'driveway'.

Completion of the Caselle Garage/Hobbies Room SIPs build.
Farewell and huge thanks to Phil, Ben and Minty who have worked very long days
to compensate for delays, in all weather conditions.
Thank you also to all the neighbours for the disruptions - they should be down to a minimum from now on.

Completion of the covering of the waterproof membrane.

David making some minor amendments to the window in the garage
(with the hobbies room across the garden in the background).