Week 14: Friday 7th August

• Lounge in the foreground with picture window onto the rear garden
• Along the back of the main part of the house is the open plan kitchen/diner.  The first floor will finish where the giant steel beam is, and the kitchen/diner will extend a bit beyond that.
• The beginnings of the main garage are in the background.

Week 14: Thursday 6th August

A very productive day with the three chaps from Glosford and four chaps plus the boss from Reeves on site - with David and me hovering somewhere in the background.

Here you can clearly see how the panels are made up:

• overall width 172 mm (this is one of the first to be made up to this size, previously they have been 142 mm)
• two pieces of plywood, sandwiched together with a 'solid' foam
• standing upright, on top of a sole plate
• all joints are sealed with expanding foam or adhesive as appropriate

By the end of play today we had the definite makings of a 'house'.

Here you are looking down into the lounge:

•  David is standing at the foot of what will be the stairs
• Phil is standing at the doors to the dining area
• the non-SIPs construction is the cloakroom
• the study is in the far corner
• the utility room doesn't have any walls yet.

Week 14: Wednesday 5th August

A very 'interesting' day:

• the crane arrived
• the panels for the ground floor arrived
• the neighbours were incredibly helpful and parked cars in each other's drives to accommodate the temporary road blockages
• the builders from the two companies met and worked very well together to overcome some minor challenges
• the DPC and sole plates are now in place
• some of the ground floor vertical steels and RSJs are in place
• David is wearing a blue hard hat and Vicki a pink one
• David spent most of the day in discussion with the builders
• Vicki spent most of the day sweeping the floors - a very satisfying job as it really did make the site look much nicer.



Week 14

Tuesday 4th August

Almost exactly two years to the day since we first saw the plot, the house started to arrive.



 

David began the day by laying just a few bricks to complete the groundworks

 

We are using the Kingspan TEK building System, which is being provided by Glosford, a company based in Hereford which specialises in SIPs projects.

Here we have Ben, Phil and Minty unloading the sole plates from the lorry.








Vicki spent most of the day transferring concrete blocks from one part of the site to the other so that they don't get in the way of the building process.
















This is the state of play at the end of the day - almost ready for the arrival of the panels although there are one or two things to sort out first.  

The dark strips make up the damp proof course.

These five photos are supposed to make up a panoramic view from the top of the scaffolding - not something that we will be able to see in all its glory from the house - but we are considering a periscope!

Week 13:  Technology

The site is completely ready for the SIPS to be delivered and installed next week. 

Well almost, we still have a bit of tidying up to do.

Glosford Timber Solutions start on site Tuesday preparing the site but the main excitement is Wednesday when the crane arrives and assembly starts in earnest.

Glosford are the suppliers of the SIPS (structural insulated panel system) we will explain more how this works next week as it goes up.

We had an interesting visit to Earth Save Products (ESP) in Wallingford today.  They are extremely friendly, helpful and responsive chaps.

We have decided on these guys as suppliers of the heating and ventilation systems for the house.

We will be installing the following systems.

A small, efficient, gas boiler will power the underfloor heating (UFH) on both floors. This will be buried in the screed (on top of very thick insulation) on the ground floor and in pug screed on the first floor. This is nothing to do with small dogs but a way of encapsulating UFH on top of a timber floor.

We looked at ground source and air source heat pumps but decided this was the best solution. ESP are designing the system and supplying all kit.  

The other part of this is the MVHR system. This means mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. In essence there is a big fan in a cupboard, each "hot" room (bathrooms and kitchens) has an extract duct, this air passes through the fan unit, which has a heat exchanger, this heats up the incoming air which is fed into all the living rooms. The system is very efficient so the house gets a good throughput of fresh air without losing heat. The rest of the house is virtually airtight so there are no drafts and this is what makes the house very efficient and eco friendly.

The last part of the system and the bit unique to ESP is the domestic hot water. This uses a mini "air source heat pump" to heat water in the cylinder. This ASHP uses some of the hot air from the ventilation system to provide a very efficient means of heating our hot water. Vicki can continue to have the longest showers ever.

Week 11

The scaffolding is up in preparation for the big build.  

This is our first opportunity to see the 'view' from the first floor.

Week 9

Things are slowing down temporarily on the site at the moment; although life is about to start getting very exciting.

The drainage is almost completed now and the garden levels are being established.

We are very grateful to Phil (Reeves), Mark and Peter; all the neighbours have been very appreciative of the way they have worked - without a radio, no mess on the road (we have been lucky with the weather) and always leaving a tidy site.