Monday 18 March 2013

Windows Are In and The Rendering Is Done

The window installers arrived on Tuesday 5th February ready to fit all of the windows and the external doors. We had already boarded out the upstairs floor for them.

We had to remove all the OSB sheets which were used to temporarily cover the windows, these sheets will be used again to clad the timber stud work.



Upstairs fully boarded
The Weather was awful when the window installers arrived
Removing the sheets the snow arrived that morning.


The windows and doors were all fitted in one day, but there were a few problems!!!

The three windows on the first floor southern elevation were all 70mm too small in height, these have now been replaced and I have purchased the wrongly sized windows and I will be using them again for the garage.

The downstairs large patio door was also made incorrectly with the spacer bar between the top and bottom glass pane being too low, this was also replaced. The incorrect one was also purchased by me, to use later on in the project.

The windows themselves are a fantastic design being triple-glazed and Passive House certified with a very low U-value of 0.65W/m2K.

 
Spray foaming the window

Installing our bedroom window.
The view from the window
The New and Old patio window now with the spacer bar level with the rest of the windows

The upstairs windows with the wrong ones on the floor!!



We also went to see the plant supplier from whom we will be getting all the plants and trees from, they are based in Donegal. We bought 200 Hornbeam whips to plant in the border with the road to start off with.

 
All the hedging in planted in the fields



Then bundled up moved to a sandy bed


The finished product.

  We have also continued with all the timber framing inside the house. The downstairs spine wall was added too, and all the ceiling/floor noggins were completed.


The floor/ceiling noggins were all done
The spine wall this will take one third of the weight of the floor above.

Sheets of OSB was used to give it extra strength.

The plasterers arrived to start on the rendering outside. They first applied a "scratch" coat to the walls then they added reveals to all the window and door openings.

The reveals are a 25mm border around the all the door and window openings.


The scratch coat done on the South-east corner elevation
First floor Northern Elevation

View from the North-West elevation corner
Around the front door

Timber battens are used to form the reveals

The finished reveal


While all the rendering was going on out side we carried on with the timber stud work inside the house. 

Upstairs stud work

View from our bedroom

We made a hole in the west wall for the twin-wall flue that will take the smoke from the stove. This was stitch drilled by making lots of small holes.
 
We used a guide to keep the drill at the right angle.

The plasterers then started on the finish plaster due to the higher quantity of lime in the mix the colour was much lighter.

 
The Northern elevation with the ESB and Telecom Boxes

 

The South-West elevation
The Northern elevation

The South-East elevation 

We are ready to install the rainwater goods like the fascia boards, guttering and down pipes.
After which we can paint the outside so the scaffolding can be taken away.
This will make the house feel finished, but we still have along way to go. 


 
Ready for painting