Membranes

The end of this week saw the house wrapped in a breather membrane and work on the plumbing and cladding begin. Nick's been working from Girton so he's around for questions and to keep an eye on things. Our shopping quest continues. 

Regal have been round the whole building with an expanding foam gun - getting in all the gaps, and Nick and I spent a few hours today doing the same. We have specified an airtightness target of 3 air changes per hour. To give that some perspective building regs set the standard for domestic dwellings at maximum of 10 and best practice at 5 so we want to better that but will be lucky to get to Passivhaus Standards which require less than 0.6. Ian will be fitting an airtight membrane internally which should be taped and sealed everywhere but after scrabbling around in the roof today trying to get at some of the fiddly bits in the central section and around the oriel windows and balcony I don't envy him the job! 

Reclaim

Last week I was getting on with some of the shopping we've got to do. I've been collecting kitchen magazines and visited Magnet and some very expensive kitchen shops. We're also going to see a local carpenter who builds kitchens out of reclaimed pine. Great if we can afford it - will have to see.

I visited a reclamation yard out towards Bedford (Prigmores - brilliantly jumbley with staff that looked like steptoe and son) and Solopark (nr to Cambridge, very neat and notoriously expensive) and then on Saturday Nick and I both visited Morways, a reclaim yard near to Attleborough that we visited a few months ago. By far the best one we've found. It was a successful shopping trip and we are negotiating on strip flooring, either oak or canadian maple (which is what they use for gym floors) for both the living areas and the study upstairs, 7 victorian doors and quarry tiles for ground floor utility areas. I'm sure we'll be back there at some point and in the meanwhile it's great to have ticked a few things off the list. Kitchen, bathrooms and light fittings now top of the shopping list.

A roof!

The roof structure is fairly complex so it's taken Regal a few more days than they had originally planned but it's now all up with just the house wrap (waterproofing membrane) and snagging (we check for problems - they fix) to finish.

The front sloping roof being put in place. It's great to get a feel for the shape of the upstairs landing. There's so many angles (that aren't 90 degrees) that it was quite hard to imagine what it would look like. 

The roof panels have holes drilled into them so they can be lowered into place using this hook system. A good view of Girton rooftops from here. 

The regal team. There's a lot of expanding foam around the place, in the roof panel holes and any where else there's a gap! 

SIPs - the last stretch

We've had a good sociable and food filled weekend :-) The house is at a really good stage for tours - the walls are up and rooms all laid out. The rammed earth wall - aptly re-named by Dad as the damned earth wall - was uncovered during all the weekend sunshine and the roof still off so a fun open air feel to it all. There was a birthday gathering for mum on Saturday so everyone got a look round and Lawrence and Iris have climbed all over everything (except the earth wall which Nick vetoed!). I've just been over to meet Meg and Frank (Nick's mum and partner) for a look round. Regal have started fitting the roof today so they are on the final straight and we will have a complete shell in a day or two.

The full height wall in situ. 

View from the SE corner of the 1st floor - earth wall in the background. Standing in a bedroom and looking through to the bathroom and another bedroom. 

Nick in the living area. Looking towards the kitchen end. The far right corner has SIPs panels internally to make up our larder. The window inside this will be louvered - so no glass/open to the elements. The larder walls and doors are all insulated creating a cool storage area. 

Another wall pic - it's soooo tall :-)

The roof panels are stored on the tennis court. The crane reaches all the way over from the road to pick them up and deliver them to the roof. 

A panel on it's way to the roof. 

And the view from the road. This bit of roof is were the solar panels will be fitted. 

taa daaaah!

It's up. It's stayed up :-)

Brought to you by: Nick, Kate, Michael and Neil (and featuring the Gumtree boys: KC and MJ). Made possible by generous volunteering of time from Stelios, Simon, Bob, Ben J, Chris, Ben W, Dan, Rob and Juliet. Thanks to all.

The shuttering starts to come off.

The archaeology layer is uncovered. Just above the line you can see where we swapped from stabilised to unstabilised earth. We used up all our cement, toyed with getting more for the last bit but decided not to. The cement was phased out over a few layers - it will be interesting to see the difference when it's all dry. 

You can see the horse shoe here - in need of a bit of uncovering (a most satisfying job).

The stairs will run up this side of the wall. You can see the lighter line of the dry wall disappearing down to the ground floor. It's huge. 

Wall, work, weather ...

What else is there to life? I can hardly remember!!

We rammed our last ram yesterday. Come what may the wall is finished! It's been a damp few days work. We lost Friday morning to rain but otherwise have been getting on with things through the drizzle. Simon, who has spent a couple of summers working for AC Architects and is now looking for a placement year, has been helping every day since thursday so a special thanks to him.

We are taking shuttering off today so hopefully I can post good news re a finished and upright wall and pics later or tomorrow. The bottom of the wall is still uncovered and seems to be doing fine so [fingers crossed] the top should be fine.

Here's a few pics from the week.

Oh Yeah! Go Rob! 

The latest hoist set up to get the earth to the top of the shuttering.

A soggy interior to our ground floor after heavy rain Thursday night. The bottom half of the wall is a little damp but otherwise looks great.

Ben and Simon. Friday helpers.

Late afternoon. It's dark at 4.30pm now. 

With a little help from our friends

We've been working on the wall(s) since mid September and have had LOADS of help from our lovely friends. I'll publish a full list of credits when it's done!

This weekend we had Ben W over on Saturday helping Nick get some soil sieved while I refurbished the shuttering. Jules (Nick's sister) stopped by on Monday for a nosey and helped me finish the varnishing. Today big Bob has kindly leant a hand and we have Ben J, Rob K and Simon (from AC architects) all giving up their time later this week.

THANKS TO YOU ALL :-)

REW2 - the final lift begins

Regal have put up some of the 1st floor walls and one of the ridge beams today so we can get a feel for the total mass of the house. They're off site now for a few days for us to get the wall finished.

The picture below shows the beam in place. The 1st story floors are down and this afternoon was spent setting up shuttering and the hoist so we can get going with the ramming tomorrow. 

We've chickened out of going unstabilised for the last bit. I'm sure it would be ok if we did but our jangling nerves have got the better of us. I'm sorry that this element has lost some of it's eco credentials and it's moisture control properties but on the bright side it should look amazing and will still work as thermal mass and all being well we get to hold on to our sanity!