Shutting Down For Christmas

This will be the last post for 2012, and what a year !!

We finally finished all the roof tiling, just before we closed up for Christmas.

The South face all finished.

The North face also finished.

 We also have had to close up all the window openings with plywood sheeting. This is to stop the wind, which could cause the roof to be lifted off due to air pressure.

View from the North-West corner

South-West corner

South-East corner

The scaffolding on the west side is now all completed. This gives us access to all sides of the house.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

The Slates are On

On the 23rd Nov we started putting up the trusses on the roof. The first ones were put up in two's and three's so the roofer can fix them.

A view from inside

The gap at the end

A view of the trusses the wood on the top of them is temporary bracing.

What we achieved in six hours

The roofer has left a gap at each end of about three trusses so the block layers can come back and finish the blocks for the gables from the inside.

The block layers came back on 28th Nov to finish off the gables at each end of the house.

The roofer had put a piece of timber as a guide for the block layer.

The view from the North-West corner.

 On the 30th Nov. the block layers finished on site and took away most of their scaffolding, tools and the beloved telehoist which, as a tool in building the house, has been invaluable. I'll miss it very much as I have said to many people if they win the lottery and are feeling generous please buy me one!!!

Adam and Deen came to help clean up the interior of the house. We took all the spare blocks, pieces of timber and insulation and gave it a good clean.

The inside looking much cleaner

After the top of gables where finished we have had to put up some shuttering and finish them properly with concrete.

Michael adding the temp. shuttering for the top of the gable walls

After the concrete was added the insulation that was used as shuttering as will be cut off level with the wall

The roofer add lots of bracing to the roof this took three days alone

We have used nearly 6000 nail gun nails and ten kilo's of loose nails in the roof. There has been lots of bracing in this roof.

On the 7th Dec. we started measuring up for the vapour membrane to be added to the roof. Before then all the bottom section of the roof was given a coat of wood preservative.

Adding the preservative

Measuring for the vapour barrier

The vapour barrier

 The vapour barrier was fixed and then the roof was counter battened so that there will be a 50mm gap between the vapour barrier and the bottom of the roof slates, this is done for air circulation.

The 50mm counter battens then the slate battens

Adding the slate battens

On the 11th Dec. the slates arrived from Tegral.

The slates are on site.

The battens that the slates are fixed on to took a while to set up because these make a very big difference to how easy it will be to fix the slates on to and the final look of the roof.

The first slates on the roof on the 12th Dec.

The South side roof is done first.

The North side of the house is ready for the slates. As can be seen below we were one truss over this was because we changed our mind about the way the chimney for the stove is coming out of the house its now exiting from the west gable end.

A view from the North West corner.

Finally Ready for the Trusses !!

On the 14th Nov the block layers installed the first window sill into the house. This will make the first substantial connection between the outside leaf and inner leaf of the blockwork walls.

With every new sill being fitted the walls will get progressively stronger.

On the 16th Nov the East wall was up to the start of the gable

View from the North -West corner

 On the 19th Nov the men arrived from the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) to put up the pole. The pole will be erected on the southern edge of my land.

It took two men and a 10t digger with a great claw attachment about half and hour to install it. The claw was used to lift the pole and dig the hole.

The Claw attachment on the digger.

The Digger carrying the pole

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Digging the hole.

On the 19th Nov the block layers finished the West wall up to gable level.

North-West corner

The scaffolding is now being added to the outside of the house. This will be used at first to help install the roof trusses.

View of the South-East corner, More cills have been fitted.

On the 21st Nov the block layers capped the North side wall ready for the wall plate to be installed.

The blocks closing the cavity being finished on the North Wall

Pat the carpenter arrived on 23rd Nov to fix the timber wall plates and to start on the roof trusses

Fixing the wall plate to the South Wall with ESB pole in the back ground

The wall plate, the green tint is the wood preservative. The string line is used to confirm straightness.

The wall plates are lengths of 100mm x 75mm timber that the roof trusses will rest on. These timbers are bolted to the top of the blockwork closing the cavity.

All the walls are all partly "scudded" this is a mix cement and sand with is flicked on to the block work to provide a key for the "scratch coat" and final render coat. This "scudding" has to be done on the inside and outside walls

The "scudding" pattern can be seen on the walls

We are now ready for the roof trusses.

The Roof Trusses have Arrived

The roof trusses arrived today.They where made in a factory in Northern Ireland and delivered to site ready to be installed. All the timber material that will be needed in the roof all came from Quinn Building Supplies. Quinn gave us a 3D drawing of what the roof will look like with all the bracing attached, which is done on site.

All the roof timber came in one load.

3D drawing of the roof

 We used the telehoist to unload them and set them down near the West wall of the house.

Using the Telehoist to unload the Trusses

Taking them along the drive

Placing them on West wall of the house.

I have prepared a temporary place for the trusses.

The trusses will be placed on the timbers

On the 7th November we had the last full load of blocks delivered to site a total of 5744. Which included 640 150mm and the rest were 100mm. I might order the blocks we need for the garage due to a large price increase on blocks in the New Year. Cemex have been brilliant with deliveries some where made well within 24 hours of being ordered!!!

Last full load of blocks

We have had to brace the southern wall, due to there being no internal walls and that the pier between the two large openings on the ground floor being a bit narrow. These braces will be taken down when the roof is attached.

Timber bracing added to the Southern Wall

The weather at the moment has been very kind to us so the block layers have made great progress.

Photo taken 8th Nov. View from the North West corner looking out to the South East corner.

 Photo taken from the West looking to the East and Keash Hill. The trusses all wrapped up.

The Southern wall will be finished first to wall plate level and then the to gable walls, East and West. Then they will complete the North wall to wall plate level. The trusses will fixed on the wall plates which are made of timber. The block layers say that they should be finished in two weeks weather depending.

Lintels Are In !!

The block layers are going great guns in a few short days they have raised the wall levels on three sides up to lintel level.

Photo taken 29th October, The 4" yellow land drains can be seen.

Trying out the Bobcat

I now have a Bobcat on site which is very useful for getting around the perimeter of the house so we can get the land drainage in.

Photo taken 31st October. Looking at the western side of the house. Keash Hill in the background.

Internal view facing the South-West.

The northern side of the house the block layers have left deliberately short so that they can load the scaffolding with blocks using there own Telehoist.

The order for the roof trusses have been delayed they will now be arriving7th or 8th November.

We have also ordererd the roof slates they will be Tegral Rivendale Black-Blue.

Walls Going Up

On Wednesday 17th October the block workers started. There will be nearly 650 150mm blocks that will be laid on top of the concrete strip foundation. We had to wait for the concrete in the foundation to cure properly before we could start the block laying.

The 150mm blocks are laid in a solid pattern then we will start with the 100mm blocks. These will be laid with a 50mm gap between them. There will be approx 6500 100mm blocks used in building the house.

 The block layers laid two rows of blocks and went away so we could infill the house with aggregate and lay a concrete slab. The aggregate was compact in 200mm layers.

 After the aggretgate has reached a predetermined level a 50mm layer of sand was laid and this was also compacted, the sand was used to protect the Radon barrier from damage. The Radon barrier also acts as a damp proof membrane. The Radon barrier has to be taped down at all the open edges.

The Radon barrier.

 A steel mesh was laid on top of the base and this was then ready for concrete. We used 15m3 of concrete which was laid using the hired Telehoist.

The concrete slab took a little longer to lay then we planned!!!

On Thursday 25th October the block layers are back to start laying the 100mm blocks, the lintels and sills also arrived today. The roof trusses are also ordered they will arrive by 2nd November.

Block layers loading blocks on to the slab.

The Telehoist is a also a fork lift truck.!!