wk:13 1st floor walls, frame's up ...

After a damp start the weather has been kind for Micheal and Chris in week 13. They have make great progress on the first floor walls. 

All the framing is largely in place as can be seen here on the east 1st floor wall. This shot also nicely shows the gradient of the roof. Which looks greater here than the actual very modest 2.8 degrees. 

The windows are for the two bedrooms in the two bedrooms on the east side of the house whilst the taller one will make up the window in the side of the balcony to be semi obscured by cedar cladding which will extend across the window in alternate planks as seen below in the planning drawing of the east wall (as seen from the east, as opposed to the above where we are looking at the internal face of the east wall from the west).

We have also seen this week the rooms marked out by the stud walling lines. Below showing our bedroom at the front and a bathroom to the south east corner. The small space between we have rather elaborately called the dressing room but I think it will actually be more like a corridor with some cupboards : - ) 

The photo below showing the equivalent framing on the east wall.

As the week ended the guys managed to get a good deal of the racking boards installed and the air tightness (blue) tape in place! This really helps to frame the windows and gives us a really good idea of what we'll see from them to the west, north and east which was not really possible to gauge before given we only had a bungalow.

This week we have also been getting quotes for the hot water system, plumbing and installation of the sanitary ware. We have been speaking to Chris from Smokless energy http://www.smokelessenergy.co.uk/ and Roger from South West Plumbing http://www.swpsl.co.uk/ both of which have proved very helpful thus far. 

Regarding the space aged airsource heat pump combined with hot water cylinder (deliberated over in a previous post) we have realised that this is no longer necessary to get under the required energy levels on the Passivhaus certification so we have opted for the cheaper option of a simple cylinder with immersions to be heated on Economy 7.  Then one day if we win the lottery we can get some solar to help out with the hot water heating via the immersions. 

In the week ahead Jonathan hopes to boost Michael's onsite team with Will and Zac for a big push to get the sloping stud work in place and the roof on! The windows arrive in just over two weeks - so the pressure's on.

wk:12 1st floor deck and starting with the first floor walls...

The joists are all in and the deck has gone down. The deck is a tongue and grooved chipboard with water resistant surface. The boards are bonded edge on edge and bonded to the joists below to ensure the whole floor stays good and secure.

The whole in the deck is where the stairs come up. Let's hope the timber work around the edge is temporary!

Today 22/06 the guys have started with the first floor walls! Here looking to the north western corner of the first floor.

floor joists...

Michael's onsite team have had a good couple of days. Most of the floor joist are now in place as are two of the oak posts that hold up the big open plan area. There is something very satisfying about the consistency of the placing of the joists.

wk:11 scaffolding, stud and some 1st floor structure...

The scaffolding arrived at the start of the week. All of a sudden its starting to look like a pretty big thing!

All (I think) of the stud work is now pretty much in on the ground floor which allows us to really get a good feel for the rooms and sizes. Here Thea and Em are checking out the downstairs bedroom in the NE corner, which no doubt Thea is already earmarking as a playroom

As the week closed a lot of the structure to support the floor at the first floor level, is now in position.

The steel (red) is for a cantilevered section that makes up part of the stairs. Which should look a bit like this with a bit of luck, The cantilevered section being the apparently unsupported bit immediately on your left at the top of the stairs. The top of the stairs rises due south to take advantage of the view as you climb:

And from a finished perspective - something like this! Though we haven't decided on the colour of the dog yet.

Emma and Thea have been working on trying to make sure some of the plants from the old garden survive to see Riverways mark II. 

I have mostly just been standing around!

saffolding....

Scaffolding went up today. 

And some wood fibre board insulation also appeared. This will be fixed to the outside of the frame and will then be rendered onto at ground level. Lets hope it doesn't rain...

wk:10 ground floor frame mostly complete...

Week 10 started off with some pretty unseasonal weather with gales on Tuesday and plenty of rain to boot. However Jonathan's team have been cracking on with the ground floor frame.

The internal racking board is mostly in place with joints taped for air tightness. 

In addition the guys have started on the stud work that starts to give us a good feeling of the room sizes

In the photo below the racking boards are fully taped on the seams as well as air tightness tape being applied to the junction with the slab. Also the timbers have been placed onto the racking board that will take the plaster board leaving a service void between for running cables and pipes

Thea has been trying out the spaces for size and running potential.

The huge laminated beams are on site (below left) which will support the floor joists (below right) with some luck good progress will be made on these in the week to come (week 11)

Off site at Jonathan's workshop, Mark the Dutch Joiner has been cleaning up the 4 huge green oak posts that will support the first floor in the large open plan area. These posts came from Anton Coaker's farm deep in the depths of Dartmoor. 

Then we are trying to make a decision on whether to get one of these?

Basically its a hot water tank combined with an air source heat pump, in one unit! If you really want one you can get more info here: http://www.ariston.com/uk/NUOS/NUOS_250i_air_source_heat_pump

So previously we had decided against having gas in the house, instead just heating the hot water and space heating via electric with the bulk of it being Economy 7 for improved rates. Part of this was financial - it works out cheaper when you take everything into account (projected over about 10 years - albeit with a number of assumptions ) but part of it was driven by a desire to live in a house without lots of complex stuff to go wrong or need servicing. 

So this space aged looking beast does rather go against the grain on the complexity stakes but it gives an increase in heat output for a given heat input (approx 2-3 times) by using the input energy to extract heat from ambient external air, essentially by doing what a fridge does in reverse. So it makes hot water cheaper to produce but on the downside its more expensive to buy in the first place and is more to go wrong... 

First step will be to do the maths. Its amazing how much maths has been done in this project to try and make some sensibly informed decisions rather than going on gut instincts.