Erect SIPS: Tick

Well, the SIPS are finally up, although what should have taken 7 working days, ended up taking 3 weeks.  Apparently the roof was trickier than expected but also because SIPS work at other sites seemed to take priority!  The SIPS people will be coming back on Monday morning just to finish off a few little 'twiddly bits' inside the house at which point the house will be made weatherproof.

Part of the roof being 'delivered'

The roof nearing completion

Our attractive blue roof

So we now have something shaped a bit like a house and we had our first walk around the inside today.  It was really good to see how it looks in the real world after looking at it for so long on paper and in computer models.
The next stages include battening out and plaster-boarding the interior.  The next major external work will be the building of the outer brick skin of the house.  We are all ready to start bricking now, particularly as we have finally got approval for the bricks and the mortar.  However, we have been advised that the roof must be loaded first so that the bricks can be tied to the SIPS wall in the finished position (the SIPS will compress slightly when the roof tiles are added).  This means that we need to put the slates on the roof first.  Unfortunately, we are still waiting for planning approval for these, so this exercise could be delayed a little longer.

Our kitchen

The view from the lounge

Canal view from our bedroom

...and its en-suite

The spare bedroom

Timelapse - 1:40mins

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the boat which will sit at the bottom of the garden, we have a predicted delivery date of 15th December, but there is some uncertainty about that.  It would be delivered to a wharf about 15 miles from here and we will have to sail it down.  We are visiting the boat again on Monday, so we should get an update then.

Four boats being 'fit out'.  Ours is in the centre

The bow with Lesley

The bow without Lesley

The stern

The start of bedroom construction

SIPS: The First 3 Days

At last, the SIPS are going up!  We've waited a long time for the SIPS, Monday 13th was the day.  However, it seems like we would have to wait a little longer as no-one turned up.  The scaffolders were really unimpressed that no-one had come to admire, and more importantly approve, their work.  Apparently, due to a crisis somewhere, the SIPS people were running a day late.

On Tuesday the SIPS men did turn up and set about positioning and fix the sole-plates for the SIPS to rest on.  To me and you, they probably look like planks of wood, but we are reliably informed that they are set up with extreme precision (less than 5mm in all dimensions across the site) in order to be able to accurately position the SIPS panels without the use of sledgehammers and chainsaws.

On Wednesday, the first load of panels arrived, and once the crane got itself comfortable in the space where our garage will eventually be built, it unloaded the panels and work began on assembly.

On Thursday, real progress was made with the majority of the ground floor put up.  Today's (Friday) work focuses on securing what has been erected and adding weather protection.

Next week, Monday is all about roof construction off site using SIPS, ready to be delivered on Tuesday with another load of SIPS panels.  The SIPS men are confident that they will be finished by the end of next week, when we will have a house-shaped wooden home.

Then it's over to the brickies who can start to face all the panels with brick.  The plan is that they they start on Wednesday, facing the retaining wall near the canal.  Before moving on to the main house the following week when SIPS work is finished.  Of course, this is only the plan!

At least the timelapse video shows something like a house starting to be built!

View from the lounge window

The Staircase 'window'

Some of the smaller SIPS panels showing the thick insulation

Start of the weatherproofing

The first 3 days of SIPS

Sunshine & Scaffolding

After several weeks of 'there is not a lot to see happening', Wednesday saw the majority of the scaffolding go up.  Most seemed to go up yesterday in the sunshine.  Today there is a 'Scaffolding Incomplete' warning sign, but no-one on site.  Since they have until Friday to finish it, I suppose they are having a lie in!  It did give us a chance to post a timelapse video though!  Hopefully more activity next week when the SIPS arrive and the house is 'built'.

Work in progress from the lane

...and from the towpath

Action on site

The man from Cherwell: he say . . .

You may have noticed that the blog had been quiet for a while.  This is because we have been waiting for aspects of the design to be finalised, but the big one has been the lack of approval of the colour and thickness of the mortar.  In the mean time, the drainage has been added.  Most of the drainage is now buried, but unfortunately, we are still waiting for a date from Thames Water to connect it up (and also connect up our water supply - possibly even at the same time!).

Drainage now mainly underground

You may notice in the photo that we have a digger back, more about this later on!  The previous post referred to the problems we were having getting approval.  Last week the fifth and sixth sample panels were produced by the builders to be assessed by the planner and conservation officer.  No-one liked the fifth sample, and it turned out that despite double checking the colour, the supplier had sent the wrong mortar.  It is difficult to assess the colour of mortar until it is absolutely dry and this can take several days.  After many apologies, the supplier couriered the correct sample and a sixth panel was rapidly constructed in readiness for another visit from the council.  This was scheduled for Monday this week, and we all (builders, architects and clients) assembled on site with some trepidation awaiting the arrival of the 'officials' .  After half-an-hour and several phone-calls, it turned out the one of the officials was off sick and they would not be attending, but no-one had told us!

Sample Panel no. 6

Mortar colour when dry

The planner and conservation officer re-scheduled their visit for today.  Again, we all turned up, waiting nervously.  Just after the allotted time, they arrived, and spent some time examining the panel.  There was some concern that the colour was still too dark.  However, in preparation for this discussion, pieces of the batch of mortar had been lovingly dried on one of our radiators for the last couple of days, and these provided a better representation of the final colour.  The colour of the dried mortar and mortar thickness were finally pronounced 'acceptable'.  This is a major headache removed and definitely a reason to celebrate.  Although the outside of the house cannot be bricked until the SIPS are built, the lower terrace and retaining walls can all now be faced with brick.

The first set of delivered bricks can now be used!

Now, back to the digger: over the last weeks, the design of the Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) have been finalised and the kit of parts is currently being built.  We now have a date for these to be delivered and assembled.  This has been set at Monday 13th November.  The house (excluding the facing bricks) will then be built in just over a week and is the main reason for the time lapse camera currently working quietly on site.

In order to unload the SIPS panels and to lift them into position, a crane is required, and this will require a hard standing.  The very large amount of concrete we have had delivered has found its way into foundations and is now covered with the base of the house.  This means that another part of the site will have to be used.  The most convenient location has very poor ground conditions, and therefore a temporary ramp needs to be built.  Hence the digger.  After the ramp is built, a further 20 tonnes of stone will then be placed to create a 'crane mat'.  After the crane is departed, this stone will find a use under the driveway and garage.

We can't wait for the 13th as the site will very quickly grow something resembling a house!

Bricks and (no) mortar

Things have continued to progress on the site, but mainly with the ground works, the drainage and the retaining wall near the canal.  All the house retaining structures are now complete and ready to be faced with bricks.  It was a condition of planning that the bricks and mortar we use should be approved by the local planning officer.  A few weeks ago, the bricks were approved and the first batch have now arrived on site.  Four test panels have been constructed for the planning officer to review.

Sample 1 (before the mortar was tidied)

Sample 2

Samples 3 & 4

The planning and conservation officers visited the site today and decided that none of the proposed mortars were appropriate for the canalside location.  This is a setback, but hopefully not too large a problem.  The officers have gone away to study the palette of available mortars to allow them to suggest a colour.  They are aware that this is holding up the build, so we hope that they will come up with their preference in the next day or two, although they are likely to request another sample panel before they give it the go ahead.

View from the towpath showing the new retaining wall and steps between the upper and lower terraces

Our other building project is the boat.  This seems to be making better progress.  It is slightly more boat-shaped!  These pictures were taken a week ago, and we should have some more in the next couple of days.

The sharp end

Beside its more mature sibling

Much more bow-shaped!

The French & Frogs

We got back from holiday and one of us was another year older, and qualifies for a senior rail pass!  The actual building had not changed a huge amount but a significant amount of work has been undertaken in preparation for the SIPS, with yet more groundworks obvious.

A few weeks ago, some of the rather old hedge separating the lane from the plot was removed to allow access for heavy machinery.  However, it now seems that a significant amount of the remaining hedge has had to be removed in order to provide sufficient space for scaffolding to be erected.  This is unfortunate, but it was an old and somewhat tatty hedge, and we will replace it with another hedge once the scaffolding is no longer required.  This meant that our 'French' digger had to return for another stint.

Timelapse video of the day the hedge came down (but don't blink!)

The other problem we have is now we have excavated our plot, the tree in the adjacent lock garden has been deemed unsafe and will have to come down.  Apparently it is Christmas tree that someone planted many years ago.  The owners of the lock garden (the Canal & River Trust) are aware that the tree needs to be removed, and we will have to replace it with another tree at some point.

A tidy site, electric, soil and flue pipes standing ready

Room for the scaffolding and also it appears, a home for frogs!

From the towpath, with some of the steps to the terrace in place

The 'Christmas Tree' on the right will have to go

Since Neil and Karen left with their boat after Fairport, the mooring at the bottom of the garden has seemed a little empty.  This empty space will be filled by our own narrow boat which we hope to have before too long.  We have just received some pictures of the 'birth' of  'Charlie Mo' which we will hopefully have at the bottom of the garden before Christmas.

The bottom of the boat has been cut out

Starting work on the sides

Bricks and Cameras

Who'd have thought that so many varieties of bricks are available!  Following hints about what type may be acceptable to the planning officers, we got the builders to produce sample panels using a preferred brick with different mortars

Today the the planning officer attended to review the panels, and although the mortar is still up for discussion, the man from Cherwell District Council said yes!

Since 18000 of them are on order, this is something of a relief.

Although there does not look to be a huge amount of progress since the last blog, the builders have included the necessary holes for water, waste and electricity.  None of these are yet connected, but hopefully in the next few weeks. . . .

One of the sample panels

Building site in the sun

The willow still looks good!

The video below represents a week's-worth of work on the site.  We acquired a time-lapse camera which is keeping a watchful eye on progress.  Clearly nothing much happens at night or over the weekends (filming started on a Friday), but it does seem that work is taking place during the week.

One of us has a significant birthday at the end of the month, so we are escaping for a week-and-a-half in the sun.  Therefore this will be the last entry for a couple of weeks.  We've left the camera running though!

French Takeaway

Over the last few weeks we have had a 'French' digger on site.  It seemed to spend most of its time moving piles of earth from one part of the site to another.  Over the last couple of days, the last of the earth (at least for the moment) has been excavated to our site boundary and removed from the site.  This means that our digger (and its friendly driver) is no longer needed (again, for the moment), and could be taken away.  Could these be the end of the destructive phase and the start of something more constructive?

Now you see it

Now you don't!

Excavations Complete

A rare sight - no moored boats!

Nothing to see

It's been a while since my last post.  This is not because nothing has been done, its just that nearly all the work is to do with the ground works and will eventually be covered up.
We now have reached the stage where all holes dug have been filled with concrete and there has been talk locally of a change in the local gravitational conditions as a result of all the concrete!

With a digger in our kitchen, it still looks like a building site

The various electricity companies have finally managed to provide us with a power supply, meaning that we are no longer depending on our very generous neighbour next door for power, and there is no longer an extension lead draped across her garden.  Although we are 'in the system', we are still waiting for a date when Thames Water will come and provide us with a water supply, so we are still relying on our neighbour's generosity for that.

Nearly (but not quite) at the level of the ground floor.

The next stage is to start construction of the ground floor.  This will then be followed by the delivery and erection of the SIPs next month.  'Structural Insulated Panels' are a fast and efficient way of building a house with very high insulation performance and low energy consumption.  They consist of accurately made wooden panels pre-filled with high performance insulation which are bolted together on site.  We will then face the external side of the SIPs with traditional bricks for the walls, and slate for the roof.  The resulting building will be pretty well airtight and therefore we have had to include a Mechanical Heat Recovery & Ventilation System (MHRV) to avoid being asphyxiated!
The next set of decisions we need to make refer to the garage.  More on this in future posts.

Another view of the building site.  Just look how neatly the willow has been trimmed though!

A favour for the boaters

We're definitely on a roll regarding canal maintenance.  Our plot has a superb weeping willow and has lent its name to the house name.  It is right on the edge of the canal and therefore half of it hangs over the water.  Although it can be amusing to see boats try to carve their way through it, it does restrict visibility just before a very narrow section of the canal.

The problem:  A boater's eye view

With Neil & Karen having their boat at our mooring, it was too good an opportunity to miss. Neil generous offered his labour, but also his boat as a mobile work platform. So we left the mooring and positioned the boat in the middle of the canal.  Neil and Lesley were then able to do some pruning whilst I held and moved the boat using ropes.  Only the branches in the middle of the channel were touched, so that the views from our site, and the garden next door are unaffected.

Neil lost in foliage

Lesley working at long range

Neil working at short range

The finished result.  Visibility much improved
(Photo courtesy of Neil Payne)

As a foot note, it seems that the improvement may be too good.  Boaters are now cruising the the narrows too fast, resulting in more collisions.  Oh well, we'll know next year!