Willowbank: 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!