Building Work (Week 6) – Getting off the ground

Oops – I’m a week behind with posting already.

Week 6 actually started a little early – I was enjoying this year’s first venture into a beer garden in Peel, on Easter Saturday, when I got a text from Bree “Just drove past your house. Didn’t expect them to be working on Saturday.”  Err, neither did I!  Dave (the brickie) had been taking advantage of fine weather to get the blockwork up to damp proof course level.  This is how it looked when I went by later.

Foundation Walls 1

He came back on Easter Monday and finished it off.  That rubble in the middle was left from the demolition of the outbuildings and was kept to reduce the amount of hardcore needed and to avoid having to take it away.

Foundation Walls 2

The following day the steel for the bi-fold doors / apex window went in and they also filled in part of the wall cavity, spread and levelled the hardcore.

Foundations Hardcore + Steel

Meanwhile the crows discovered the gap between the floorboards and the ceiling and thought we’d provided nesting boxes – apparently the builders had to remove two sacks of twigs!

Birds Nest Floor

So they soon put an end to that!

Birds Nests Blocked

A layer of sand next.

Foundations Sand

The waterproof membrane and yet more steel!

Damp proof course and steel

 

There was also activity indoors – I was first alerted to it by this sign.  Made me laugh as it’s just something my Dad would do (fixing it with a screwdriver, I don’t think he’d bother to leave me a sign).

Careful! No Floor

There were some ‘spongy’ boards which had to come out and one bad joist.

No Floor

Building Work (Week 5) – Foundations, drains and changes of plan

Week 5 was only a four day week on account of Easter – we had some pretty horrendous weather so the builders focused on the inside, but they did get the foundations for the extension poured.

foundations-poured

I got to lay out the timber to illustrate exactly how I wanted the downstairs loo to be set out. The original plan and the one which is on the plans is to have it set out like the diagram below.  The primary reason for this particular layout being to make the soil pipe as short as possible.

Downstairs Loo Original Plan

As the sink was to be against where the doorway used to be, I’d assumed it would be a stud wall, and believing this I had bought a Barbican Basin.  Back in December, I was casually looking for bathroom inspiration on the internet and discovered the sink which was designed for the Barbican centre – apparently the Barbican plans had been drawn up before the regulation to have a washhand basin in every WC was introduced, so they had to come up with a compact solution and designed this basin that is mainly set into the wall and only protrudes 15cms.  It’s also amazingly retro and I loved it.  Twyfords still manufacture it but, as you have to no choice but to buy the brassware which specifically goes with the basin, it costs about £500.  Yeah…. exactly, but then, as always, one popped up on eBay.  It was in London and although I emailed the guy and asked if he would post it to me, he said it was for collection from Islington only.  Now my friend Hannah works in Islington, she happened to be on a trip home and I was going for tea with her that evening, so I hatched a plan and she was up for it.  I won the auction and after a bit of phaff sorting a courier the basin arrived in one piece.  Then Dave (the builder) happens to say something along the lines of “when that doorway is bricked up…”, “errr, WHAT?” – turns out that was another point I’d failed to appreciate on building regs plans.

Fortunately, the whole distance of the soil pipe thing is apparently neither here nor there so I suggested we turn the WC round and install the sink into the stud wall.  Phewf!

Downstairs Loo New Plan

This week I got to lay it out in timbers with the aid of a chair my Dad was given in 1984 from a Chinese restaurant which was downsizing.  The building regs plans also have the drain from the shower coming down inside the WC but the builders are going to make that end stud wall slightly thicker to conceal it.

mappedtoilet

In preparation the new soil pipe has been put in under the floor.

soilpipe-inside

The waste pipes under the manhole cover were apparently not deep enough so a new chamber had to be installed.  Unfortunately that meant quite a bit of digging and breaking up of the concrete which had been put around the pipe.

manhole

There’s the new chamber.  Once the building inspector has seen it and said he’s happy, the soil can be filled around it so it’s flush with the surface.  You can also see my new earth rods (they went in last summer) in this photo.

newchamber

Moving upstairs, I also got to decide exactly what size I wanted the shower to be.  I had had a massive dilemma about this previously and finally concluded that my only option was to go for a 760mm x 760mm square shower so that’s what was drawn on the plans.

760 square

Ages afterwards I was flicking through a bathroom brochure and spotted that you could get 700mm wide showers.  Why did no-one tell me this?  I asked in three bathroom showrooms and on an web forum for a solution!  The reason I thought I couldn’t go any longer on the shower than 760 was because the 10cm protrusion would get too close to the knee of anyone sitting on the loo, but if the shower only stuck out 4cm, it would be fine so it could be much wider, like 1000mm.  So when the builders put in the lintel above this wall they made it big enough to handle an enormous shower but I was also told that the work to keep the bits of wall left over from the airing cupboard and make it all good, would be roughly the same as the work to take it all out and build new stud walls. So I could have any size shower I wanted, it was just up to me how much of the bedroom I wanted to pilfer.  The field was now open to any combination of 700, 760, or 800 deep by 760, 800, 900 or 1000 wide.  Arrrghh – more decisions!

I figured, if it was no difference to build a new wall, I might as well avoid having the shower jutting out into bathroom – so it should move at least 4cm back (700 deep), but should I go deeper?  I was less worried about moving the wall back a few centimetres than I was about the swing of the door – if we moved the wall I’d assumed we would also move the door frame.  I was pondering this at lunchtime when the sound of my opening and closing my tape measure drew my colleague Gordon’s attention – once I explained the problem he suggested I ask if the doorway could stay where it was.  Dave, the builder, said it could so then my decision was should I just go for 760 (10cm into the room) or should I go out to 800 (14cm into the room).  I’d already decided the width should be 900mm; 1000 was ludicrously wide, 900 was wide enough and gave me a better choice of shower doors, I didn’t really gain anything in the bedroom by going smaller than 900.  But the depth had me stumped. Would the cupboard be too deep?  Is 800 x 900 just greedy?  This was definitely one of those moments when I realised quite how ridiculous I can be – stood there holding the tape measure, with Dave silently watching on, while I deliberated over four whole centimetres. Eventually, I asked if there would be enough space for a light switch on the jutting out bit of wall, the answer was “800 would be better for a light switch”.  Hurrah – decision made! 800 by 900!

800x900square So here it is – it feels enormous!  Hopefully that’s just because there are no walls yet!

shower-studwork shower-studwork2

The stud wall on the corridor side uses wider timber – this is so I can have a niche in the shower for shampoo etc – it’ll be in the corridor wall so the lack of sound insulation will be less of a problem.  The only problem with this is that the position of the niche depends on the size of the tiles – so the pressure is now on for me to pick my tiles!

The bathroom suite is being replaced, it wasn’t my original plan but the bath had a hole in it which looked suspiciously like a cigarette burn and the basin (although I actually really like the basin – it’s a classic Twyford style) has a cracked pedestal.  The bath is a old sized 5′ 6″ length (1675mm) and the wall had been channelled out fit it in.

bathwall1 It looks like the builders had to have a good chew to get it out.

bathremoved

The actual space between the walls is 1650mm.  Modern baths are mostly 1700mm. Compact ones are 1600mm.  You can get some imperial replacements at 1670mm but Dave recommend I get a bath which actually fitted rather than attempt to channel the wall again.  There are very few 1650mm baths and I would prefer a double ended one (I just think they look better with the taps in the middle).  Carron make a 1650mm but it’s single ended, Bette make a double ended 1650mm bath but it’s steel – with a steel bath you normally have your taps mounted in the wall, it is possible to have the manufacturer drill your holes but it means the lead times are quite long – plus it’s not cheap, around £600 for the bath with holes. Meh!

After explaining all this fiasco to Dave he pointed out that the walls are a mess and maybe we should board them out and make a 1600 bath fit!

bath-gone

As I was arriving on Thursday morning I saw a crow look like it was coming in to roost – the small holes left by the needles probably looking like the perfect nesting box.  I ran upstairs but there was no crow there – apparently one had got in the day before though! Now the builders have bricked up the inside wall and put a scratch of plaster on coat on, so it can’t happen again.  They’ve also patched my floorboards here and everywhere they’ve looked a bit rough – there are some ‘spongy’ patches just inside the front door which will have to be done too.

walls-floor-patchedMan, that was a long post!

Building Work (Week 3) – Steels and an Open Plan Bathroom

The builders started attacking on multiple fronts at the same time this week – the extension, the hall and the bathroom – I’ll go through them one by one.

Extension

These little metal strips appeared on the side of the brickwork – I think they are to bind the old and new brickwork together.  The extension will have a brick outer wall and a blockwork inner wall.  I originally asked for the brickwork on the outer wall to be ‘toothed in’ but as the original bricks are imperial this caused a whole world of unforeseen (to me) consequences.  One factor was cost, the imperial bricks were £1.05 each rather than about 22p for a metric brick. It’s not really possible to just use metric bricks with a bigger mortar joint (as the internet suggested) because then the courses take longer to dry so they can’t get as many done in a day but the main problem is, as the blockwork used for the inner wall is metric, you have to have mortar joint line up to put the wall ties in.  You could have an inner and outer leaf of imperial bricks (if you can afford it) but they you have the problem of the insulation also being metric! Needless to say, when all this was explained to me, I agreed to go with metric bricks and a joint down the front of the house.

Metal ties brickwork

At the back – there will be bi-fold doors to the right of this pillar, so they’ve just neatened it up.  Looks good doesn’t it? I like bricks…

Brick end pillar

Steels went in next, by the time I got home from work it was already dark (and the next morning the brickies were working on it) – I think here they’ve replaced the bricks on the inner wall.

Steel RSJs in place

And now they’ve done the outer.  I’m not sure why the needles (which apparently is what the mini steel beams are called) are still there – while it dries perhaps.

Brickwork above steel RSJ

Hallway

The old door wall between the dining room and the hall has been blocked up.  A new doorway opened up and that old backdoor got put to its third use!

Doorway moved

This is a photo of what it used to look like inside the hall.

original hall

And this is a photo of what it looks like now – the coat closet and porch have gone.

Opened up hall

From inside the living room.  It feels huge now – the builders reckon I should forget the little WC and leave it as it is!

Opened up hall

Bathroom

The door frames were removed from the bathroom and toilet.

toilet and bathroom

The following day the wall came down!  It’s a shame open plan bathrooms aren’t really en vogue….

Open Plan Bathroom

I made a couple of animated gifs showing the progress / destruction to date – because who doesn’t love an animated gif?

Downstairs – Weeks 1 to 3

Downstairs - Weeks 1 to 3

Upstairs – Weeks 1 to 3

(except it all happened in week 3)
Upstairs Weeks 1 to 3