Live self-Builds - mod warning in post no. 1

I plan on doing up a blog over winter to track performance but I thought today's stats were interesting for solar gain

The heating was on for an hour at 07:30 to 08:30 for the top two graphs.

The top graph is indoor temp of downstairs Bedroom North facing.

The Middle graph is large living space with very large glazing south facing

The bottom graph is large bedroom upstairs that still has plywood floor and no furniture but it has two windows South Facing and one window East facing.

As you can see the heating brought the downstairs bedroom up from 15.6c to 17.6c but it fell sharply over the day to 15.5c

The living space from went from 15.2c to 16.3c during the hour the heating was on (two rads in large area) then solar gain brought it up to 21.3c and it was still 20.2c at 16:30.

The unfinished Bedroom upstairs with no heating increased from 13.5c to 16c and was still 15.9c at 16:30

BarneyMc wrote: »

I asked my project manager about this and he said it would take a days to rectify but it wasn't a big issue.

I'll contact the ESB tomorrow and see what they say to see if it's a go/no go.

When you say cold bridge are you saying the absence of the outer leaf block is allowing cold air to come in near contact with the cavity beads? Plus there might be air tightness issues?

as we are off topic - see new thread at on this at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=87252574&postcount=1

Well wear barney. Some tidy block work there (as much as I can tell on a 4" screen!). The arches on the garage doorways look particularly well.

lownhard wrote: »

Which one is the garage?!

Is there a reason for wrapping only the ends of the hollowcore and not the sides? Is that a radon barrier or polythene?

Looks great. Well done.

Yes, the garage or loft is bigger than I thought it would look!!

The sides of the hollowcore actually side along side the inner leaf if you know what I mean. I'll try and find out what material was used - I think it's polythene.

tates1979 wrote: »

Quick update - haven't got on here as much as I'd have liked!

Vast majority of blockwork done, first floor slabbed, roof membrane on and half tiled. Roofer hopes to be finished this week and then will hopefully move on to garage (nearly finished).

Windows and doors next and then hopefully we'll be weathertight!

Pic attached, frosty this morning!

Looking at the window jams you seem to have incredibly little scope for insulating between the cavities - have you read the ACDs - http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/BuildingStandards/FileDownLoad,18751,en.pdf

specifically 1.24 and 1.25

tates1979 wrote: »

I think it's done as in 1.24, cavity closer block, 100mm partial fill kingspan already installed...

are you building to part L 2011 - my understanding is that a 100mm cav partially filled will not pass the BER tests

AntrimGlens wrote: »

Update as of today - insulation and plasterboard finished on friday, internal plasterers start now as i had to wait ages on the guys sealing the deck area to ensure no damp was getting into the rooms below. Three weeks will see them out then plumbing and ufh starts and floors poured. Walls pumped next monday, Kitchen is picked and getting a local guy to do it has saved approx £5k compared to the showroom people for the exact same kitchen.
My only fear is that everyones now saying ah this is when the big bills will start rolling in or the expense is only starting. I know everyones gonna shout at me and say did you not get a bill of quantities done at the start or employ a QS, well the brothers a QS and i did get three quotes from contractors to do the whole build and i think i'm fairly covered budget wise as i have prices for the plumbing, sanitary ware, floor screeds, doors and skirting etc. Only thing i haven't got price for is tiles yet although i have a price for tiling per metre.
Starting to get excited now and hoping for decent weather to get the outside rendered - elected for a weber finish after months of debating and viewing k-rend, STO rend and weber. Initially just wanted a sand cement floated finish on the exterior but my plasterer wouldn't do it as he says it will only crack and show up all the cracks and really didn;t want that.

class stairs do you have any pictures of it finished

liveandnetural wrote: »

class stairs do you have any pictures of it finished

So we made it....
We are now moved in, slept in the new house for the first night exactly 18 months from when we first broke ground. 18th December. A word of advice don't try moving house the day after both your and your wifes Christmas parties when you're hungover as a dog.
anyhow yes we are in and i honestly can't believe it, we had Christmas here and a new years eve/house warming party which was excellent, even if i did have to turn on the patio heaters.

So pluses - SPACE, SPACE, SPACE. a set of ten month old twins just don't know themselves in their walkers on tiled floors, the young lad is going round the place like the stig and loving it.
I love the kitchen, which is high gloss and has a built in pantry which is about the same size as our last kitchen, breakfast bar and super views to three sides.
I love the stairs and a credit to the guy who did them, he came up from cavan the day before xmas eve to do a few touch ups before the painter came to finish them, everyone who has seen them loves them and can't believe what they only cost. Still haven't found a carpet yet that we like for covering so they're still bare and waiting on the timber handrail, but i find myself sitting on the third step just looking round the hall and thinking of all the graft it took to get here and i just smile to myself, because the end result really is worth it.
i used to think that Grand designs and kevin mccloud talked a load of bollox about how a house could impact upon your life and how something from bricks and mortar could enhance your life beyond what you could imagine - now i believe theres quite a lot of truth in it.
For us as a family, i'm back on the home place and currently lambing sheep so a quick 120 second walk and i'm in the sheep shed and able to monitor things easily which means i'm fretting less about something being wrong and not there to check on it, which means i can spend more time in the house with the wife and kids knowing if i need to check on somnething its right at hand. The wife loves the space and being able to relax in her spa bathroom and being able to have people come and stay over is great, as previously we only had the two bedrooms.

Heating system is working super, although we'll still have to fiddle around with the controls to get it really right as the childrens bedroom is the only north facing room with a north window and would be slightly colder that the other rooms, its on a different zone so will be easy to rectify. the even temperature is brilliant, rather than having radiators, this morning it was 1 degree outside @ half five and when i came back in from the farm, there was no going and standing with my ass against a radiator, it was just lovely and comfortable.

Theres still a few snags to do, and the big room hasn't been touched until the wife decides what sort of style we want to do it in and i think we need to live here a year or so to decide on that and how the house fits us.
Budget - we ran over about 5% and that was as a result of the contingency going in the first week of excavation, so the whole thing cost £173,250.
I'll post more detail later and photos when i get the chance, but massive thanks to everyone on here for all your assistance and encouragement, even though we may not have communicated directly, knowing that other people had done it and learning from ye was something that is priceless. To those currently underway, don't get stressed about it, because no matter what you do and what you plan for something will go wrong and the sooner you realise that it is part and parcel of building your dream then the easier on you it will become.

Was it worth it??? Heres a photo of sunrise yesterday morning from the kitchen window and you decide..

Anyone else counting the cost of the storms over the last 6 weeks on their self build?

YIIPPPEEEE

LCRS wrote: »

Has anyone had a look through the new building regs? Pretty hard hit for anyone thinking of starting a self build now...

Self build is not really an option any more with the new regs

Hi all

We may be some of the last self builders for a while. We just made the old regulations and are due to start our large extension very soon. Very daunting we are probably going to take things slowly with my husband a civil engineer project managing and doing some of the build himself. How do you manage a build and work full time on the plus side I am a stay at home Mum atm with three young children. We have detailed design and a structural engineer and architect but they think we should not go down the self build route favouring a builder but the cost of doing it with a builder is more than our budget. How much can we save? Or is it not the matter of saving money but doing it ourselves.

Any plans/elevations. Sounds like a fantastic build.

Are you living on site in the current house for the duration of the build>?

Arrived yesterday and starting tomorrow! We can't wait to be finally starting!

Quazzie wrote: »

Find a post in the field, or a branch on a tree, basically something that isn't moving long term, and that you can put a camera sitting on in the same position every time. Then take a picture every day/every few days and it will make for an amazing time lapse of the full build start to finish.

Yup the plan is to take it from 4 different angles and have a revolving time lapse!

So Day 1 down!

Didn't expect as much to be done, suppose as I didn't know better!

New entrance, triple existing gateway and driveway dug out plus 5 loads of stone.





Stripping top soil, all compacted with bucket at end of the day, very tidy...



All foundations marked out and pegged.



Steel, pipe work and cement etc arrived also at 7pm, wasn't expecting that either!



All finished for today, ready to dig foundations in the morning.

Villain wrote: »

Well done Cork self build, can I suggest you have a pump ready if you get serious rainfall, which sadly is very possible over the coming days.

Ya wasn't expecting a bad 1st week weather wise mid may but its Ireland, good call!

Villain wrote: »

Well done Cork self build, can I suggest you have a pump ready if you get serious rainfall, which sadly is very possible over the coming days.

Day 2 - got foundations poured and the rain stayed away thankfully!

So Week 1 down...

Been an exciting fast week! We were haunted with the weather only really rained this afternoon for an hour or two, but was a productive day, did a load of strimming, ready to set my posts which got delivered today, for the fence I need to lay tomorrow on one side of the site, the only open side.



We are pretty much done with deadwork, ready to set with stone and dress earth ready for plumbing etc Monday, we also have an independent DPM / Radon barrier testing tomorrow to ensure no leaks etc before floors will be poured...

Dead work complete


Wish I'd more money for a bigger garage, but hey gotta stick to the budget, we will have a container hidden away as a Fuel Store for drying timber for the 2 stoves...


So we also went drilling the well this week...


All going "well" Friday evening, but we hit 60ft so called it a day.


Some sh1te coming up...


So today, kept going, had hoped for between 60 & 80 ft based on 2 neighbouring wells, so we hit 90ft, then 91, then at 92ft the steel stops sinking, disaster, a weld had failed along the way & no water... :-(

Leave it settle for an hour or two, nothing, so given that the steel somewhere has failed, it's dead... No way to pull it up realistically given depth... No option but stop the drill, so 92ft of steel gone to waste and 2 days work down the drain... No option but to cut the steel and call it a day and leave it all in the ground...



Well driller was understandably pissed! Hopefully he will be back in a week or so he said and try again in a different spot, hopefully it won't be another 100ft + drill and save some money!

jesus! thats deep!!! was it mostly rock or earth?

Big depths! We're you drilling through rock or earth there?

Only 18 months for sewage, how many people using the system? The council rules made us use an 8 person one even there is only 2 of us... So far...