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

just do it

Do-more wrote: »

I'd imagine (but only guessing) that the spec I am building to here would probably reach certified levels for Irish weather data and I think that allowing for all costs from a green field to moving in furniture at €1140/m2 is probably fair value.

Jeez that's a great price if I'm reading you correctly. You've a near passive house which has been built off-site and erected in less than a week (I appreciate you've still a lot to do before it's finished). The €1,140 includes planning and professional fees, groundworks, full finish including HRV and heating system, kitchen & white goods, bathrooms kitted out etc etc. All you need to supply over and above the €1,140 is furniture?

Do-more

just do it wrote: »

Jeez that's a great price if I'm reading you correctly. You've a near passive house which has been built off-site and erected in less than a week (I appreciate you've still a lot to do before it's finished). The €1,140 includes planning and professional fees, groundworks, full finish including HRV and heating system, kitchen & white goods, bathrooms kitted out etc etc. All you need to supply over and above the €1,140 is furniture?

That's just about it. We were fortunate that the bulk of our development levy was paid on the site before we purchased it so that is in the site purchase price when it probably should more correctly be in the build costs, but other than that I have definite prices for most of the remainder and (hopefully) reasonable estimates for the rest.

We are going for a middle of the road finish, for example I've allowed approx. €14,000 for kitchen and white goods and there won't be a lot of fitted wardrobes, but we will have semi-solid wood floors upstairs and down and tiles in the hall, utility and bathrooms. I have a little bit of an allowance for over-spend built in as well but to be honest it is not a lot and we could easily burst it if everything doesn't go to plan, but we have been fortunate up till this.

If there are any plasterers out there who fancy a trip to Sweden in late August - September to apply STO render to two houses drop me a PM! One man and a trowel could do it, I can labour.

about2build

Finally got some photos on....turns out mozilla was blocking the access. They are self explanatory enough...prepared base pre and post concrete pour...more to follow

sas

Hi,

So we're in 5 weeks now. Things are going well.
The cold that I'd complained about in my previous post is gone. Bedrooms and bathrooms are all very pleasant, regardless of what it's doing outside.

We haven't dropped below 20 degrees in the living area since the hot spell 2 weeks ago. It feels like the heat from then (and it did get very warm) helped boost the overall temp in the structure and we're seeing the benefits of that now.

During the hot spell the ovens in the kitchen became a problem. The sunday we did a roast and the kitchen hit 26 degrees. We just turned off the HRV and opened the sliding door. This helped.

Solar is performing ok, I'm unimpressed with how little I get from it on cloudy days this time of year. It would suggest that I'll literally get nothing on damp winter days. It is all very subjective though as I have the most basic solar controller (miss on my part) and it's all adhoc readings\monitoring. If I had my time again I'd seriously consider not having it, it's beginning to feel like eco bling. It's not helped by the fact that I paid too much for it, again you live and learn.

The one thing I am dubious about is the HRV. The air in the house feels dead. It's working away, we've no condensation whatsoever. Filters aren't bunged up yet. While cleaning up after lunch yesterday I turned it off and opened the sliding door. Herself isn't complaining about it though so it may simply be that I'm "missing" drafts. Potentially it could be a himidity problem too, i.e. too dry. I'm going to introduce some greenery and see how it goes. May simply be the case that this time of year I use the windows and the HRV becomes a winter thing when heat recovery is needed. I'll reserve judgement until we've spent more than a few weeks in the house.

I'll leave the ramblings there for now.

about2build

Self explanatory again, 150mm cavity with drylining to follow, preparation for hollowcore with siga membrane attached with silicone and with plaster in place where side of slabs will be onn delivery...getting places...would love to get building closed off with roof windows dooors etc hopefully by summer's end :eek:

fclauson

sas wrote: »

Hi,


The one thing I am dubious about is the HRV. The air in the house feels dead. It's working away, we've no condensation whatsoever. Filters aren't bunged up yet. While cleaning up after lunch yesterday I turned it off and opened the sliding door. Herself isn't complaining about it though so it may simply be that I'm "missing" drafts. Potentially it could be a himidity problem too, i.e. too dry. I'm going to introduce some greenery and see how it goes. May simply be the case that this time of year I use the windows and the HRV becomes a winter thing when heat recovery is needed. I'll reserve judgement until we've spent more than a few weeks in the house.

I'll leave the ramblings there for now.

This is the item which most worries me
Part F gives my build a 380M3/h requirment with a boost to cover worst cast to 400 plus
PHPP give me a 259m3/h requirment

I think that PHPP (and I am yet to be prooved on this as I have no windows as yet ) will be way too low

I will report back in 3 years once I have worked all this out and lived thorough a couple of summers and winters

sas

about2build wrote: »

Self explanatory again, 150mm cavity with drylining to follow, preparation for hollowcore with siga membrane attached with silicone and with plaster in place where side of slabs will be onn delivery...getting places...would love to get building closed off with roof windows dooors etc hopefully by summer's end :eek:

Very tidy. Happy man no doubt.

about2build

All blocks laid bar gables...joists on the roof of garage and waiting for scaffolding to come to do same with main house....really good progress and not massively over budget so far!! Wedding in donegal on weekend and might be more over budget by the time thats over:D

muffler

about2build wrote: »

Wedding in donegal on weekend and might be more over budget by the time thats over:D

The drink's cheap here

manufan16

manufan16 wrote: »

Hi all,

October was my last post when I was about to order my scaffolding – how the time flies when building!

Since then….
-Roof frame completed Nov
-then Steel frame to sunroom fitted and roof frame
-Remedial work at eaves now completed for air tightness (as no air tightness membrane fitted under first floor slab) thanks BryanF for help there.
- Acrylic render applied to dormers and gable end of house where sunroom is before slates were finished.
-Solar and TG roof windows installed
-Roof slates and lead work completed Dec and week1 Jan.
-Granite cills installed
-Then nothing happened for 6 weeks until mid Feb, now its all go again!
-TG windows and doors were installed
- Plumbing first fix underway
- HRV ducting in place
- Metal frame ceiling in place - thanks MFCeiling:-)
- Metal stud walls in place for the few walls I made as partition rather than block so plumbers and sparks aren’t working with imaginary walls.

Next up is Jrail for fascia soffit then acrylic render can be done on ICF walls, following that electrical and home automation first fix, central vacuum first fix, then insulation to floors and screed.

No major problems to date, however the biggest mistake was not putting an air tightness membrane over the walls before slabs were dropped.

If we have a few rooms ready and can move in by 6 or 7 months from now I will be happy.

Cheers

October, March and now July. Not the most frequent updates but my time is scarce lately:)

Considerable progress since March.

External render finally finished and scaffolding down!
alu Facia soffit gutters in place ( same ral as my windows and doors)
air tightness done on warm roof ,windows and doors
floor insulation fitted then UFH both floors then self levelling screed
Electric first fix Power AV and KNX complete cabling just complete
Plumbing first fix just complete too (stove installed , boilers, solar tanks , water thanks , sanitary ware dry fixed and I hope to turn on the heating in the next couple of days for the first time.

Next up is Air tightness test then slabbing and plastering
External groundworks also starting next week- biocycle, RW soak pit, footpaths etc

I revised my target and if Im in by xmas Ill be happy

stevie200621

House Lookin well there !! Plenty of hardship eh ;-) just startin my own at the minute !! Waitin on the engineer ta design a steel schedule for me ring beam now !! Takin forever !!!!!!

just do it

sas wrote: »

Hi,

So we're in 5 weeks now. Things are going well.
The cold that I'd complained about in my previous post is gone. Bedrooms and bathrooms are all very pleasant, regardless of what it's doing outside.

We haven't dropped below 20 degrees in the living area since the hot spell 2 weeks ago. It feels like the heat from then (and it did get very warm) helped boost the overall temp in the structure and we're seeing the benefits of that now.

During the hot spell the ovens in the kitchen became a problem. The sunday we did a roast and the kitchen hit 26 degrees. We just turned off the HRV and opened the sliding door. This helped.

Solar is performing ok, I'm unimpressed with how little I get from it on cloudy days this time of year. It would suggest that I'll literally get nothing on damp winter days. It is all very subjective though as I have the most basic solar controller (miss on my part) and it's all adhoc readings\monitoring. If I had my time again I'd seriously consider not having it, it's beginning to feel like eco bling. It's not helped by the fact that I paid too much for it, again you live and learn.

The one thing I am dubious about is the HRV. The air in the house feels dead. It's working away, we've no condensation whatsoever. Filters aren't bunged up yet. While cleaning up after lunch yesterday I turned it off and opened the sliding door. Herself isn't complaining about it though so it may simply be that I'm "missing" drafts. Potentially it could be a himidity problem too, i.e. too dry. I'm going to introduce some greenery and see how it goes. May simply be the case that this time of year I use the windows and the HRV becomes a winter thing when heat recovery is needed. I'll reserve judgement until we've spent more than a few weeks in the house.

I'll leave the ramblings there for now.

Hi sas,

I'm just picking up on 2 points in your post now that you are in another few weeks. Firstly the solar. What would you go for instead? And do you think it is just the configuration you went for that is letting you down?

HRV. Are you any happier? I've heard this mentioned before about the house feeling "airless". I've only been in 1 completed PH and neither my wife or I noticed it. There is a PH completed a few miles from me that I hope to visit in the next week or two. I'll report on that after...

sas

just do it wrote: »

Hi sas,

I'm just picking up on 2 points in your post now that you are in another few weeks. Firstly the solar. What would you go for instead? And do you think it is just the configuration you went for that is letting you down?

HRV. Are you any happier? I've heard this mentioned before about the house feeling "airless". I've only been in 1 completed PH and neither my wife or I noticed it. There is a PH completed a few miles from me that I hope to visit in the next week or two. I'll report on that after...

FClauson has made a very strong case for an airsource heat pump which is what I would consider, rather than solar and oil which is what I ended up with. Since May 4th we haven't run out of hot water on any occasion I will say, did come dame close though on 2 occasions.

I'm no solar expert but I can't really see how configuration comes into play. The pump to my tubes will kick in when the panels are 5 - 7 degrees (I'm not 100% sure at which point) warmer than the bottom of the tank where the solar coil is. When they kick in they will lift the temperature in the tank to whatever is available. When there is little solar radiation however, it can't collect it.

The house does feel better now that the warm spell has passed. It does get very warm though every so often. It's been 23 degrees in the living area several times over the last few weeks. It bodes well for the winter I suppose.
I like that there is never any condensation on the windows. With wall\window vents you could never guarantee this I believe. We've taken to tilting a window in our bedroom an hour before bedtime in order to cool it down. This has been working well. It was something that the PHI had said I'd need to do anyway so it's no big deal.

just do it

sas wrote: »

FClauson has made a very strong case for an airsource heat pump which is what I would consider, rather than solar and oil which is what I ended up with. Since May 4th we haven't run out of hot water on any occasion I will say, did come dame close though on 2 occasions.

I'm no solar expert but I can't really see how configuration comes into play.

Yeah FC makes a convincing case alright.

Regarding the configuration, I was probably reading a little too much into your post when you talk of having the most basic controller. Funny thing about most the renewables is they're production potential is inverse to when it's needed. A combination of solar, wind, and energy store seems the ideal but just isn't economically viable.

Do-more

sas wrote: »

the bottom of the tank where the solar coil is.

Does your 1000 litre tank just have the one solar coil sas?

I know you can get 1000 litre tanks with two solar coils one nearer the top of the tank and one at the bottom, likewise I'm no expert but I believe it helps with maximising the useful hot water you have in the shoulder months were the danger is that with just one coil at the bottom of the tank you get lots of lukewarm water which needs further heating for DHW use.

Whilst I am at it I might as well give a little update on my own build.

I'm taking the "self-build" thing a little more literally than many as now that the frame is up I am doing most of the remaining work myself single handed (bar electrics & plumbing which has to be done by certified companies for the building failures insurance here and the exterior plastering which I am not up to).

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Peter Flaherty who gave me a step by step guide in the correct sequence to follow of all the work I need to do up to taping & jointing before he headed back to Ireland after erecting the frame, it's already saved me a lot of time by not doing things in the wrong order.

I have to juggle my time on site with running my own business so I never know from one day to the next how much time I can put in which doesn't help with the flow of work.

Up until now a lot of the work has been time consuming details which will all soon be buried in the walls, hopefully never to be seen again, things like forming the air gap under the sarking board, nogging out the first floor, air tightness detailing around the joists, insulating the areas under the dormers where loose insulation cannot be blown in later etc. all stuff that does very little to change the physical appearance of the house so sometimes it can feel a little depressing that things aren't moving along quicker.

Of course the danger is that you get frustrated and skimp on stuff you shouldn't but I haven't fallen for that temptation yet I hope.

My feeling is that you only get one shot at doing it right so I am trying to do everything to the best I can. For example the windows and doors came pre-installed with the gaps around them filled with expanding foam. The excess has to be cut back and the vapour barrier will be taped to the frames in due course with air tightness tape but I am also taking the time to fill them all now with silicone so that there are two lines of defence should one or other fail at some point in the future. Possibly OTT but I like the belt and braces approach.

I'm at least 10 days behind where I expected to be by now thanks in part by having to stay home with a sick child for almost a week. It also doesn't help that I have only been a pen pusher for the last four years so whilst the mind might be willing the body is still a bit weak, although I have managed to lose almost 5kgs already.

All going well I should be ready to slab the downstairs ceiling by the middle of next week and the downstairs interior walls will go up then so it will feel a lot more like making progress. Plumbing and electric first fix can then start. Sometime after that my brother is coming over from Wales for a week to help me with the roofing.

Now that they are fully paid and officially at least their involvement in my build is over I would like to say a personal word of thanks to Anders Johansson, Lars Pettersson and Peter Lohr from my frame suppliers who have been a tremendous help during the last year. Building a house is no small task in itself but when you are doing it shortly after moving to a foreign country with only a basic grasp of the language it has been a tremendous help to have had a great team to call on for support.

Sorry for the long winded post but it's a little therapeutic. :cool:

just do it

Thanks for the detailed post Do-more, it gives a realistic picture of the self-build process. Wait till I get started and then you'll see long-winded!:cool:

Do-more wrote: »

Of course the danger is that you get frustrated and skimp on stuff you shouldn't but I haven't fallen for that temptation yet I hope.

This is one of the key benefits of you personally doing this painstaking "invisible" work. It's hard to see anyone you'd hire pay such attention to detail. And of course, these are the bits that will really pay in such a low energy house.

Do-more wrote: »

I'm at least 10 days behind where I expected to be by now

10 days is a short time when compared to 40yrs living in the house kicking yourself that you didn't do such or such. I don't know how many episodes of Grand Designs I've watched only to see the build being held up for weeks to months waiting on windows! Oh yes, work and children, but we'd definitely prefer to have them! So being able to count the time behind schedule in days is no mean feat;).

Do-more wrote: »

it has been a tremendous help to have had a great team to call on for support

It's great to hear such positive feedback and at least there was one "Paddy" in the mix!!:D

about2build

Just a quick one, got windows measured and ordered, joists up and gables being built mon-wed...then the roof....still moving well in spite of regular rain the last few weeks

Do-more

just do it wrote: »

This is one of the key benefits of you personally doing this painstaking "invisible" work. It's hard to see anyone you'd hire pay such attention to detail.

There is more than one way to look at it though, some of the work is just a question of tedious attention to detail which anyone with a little patience can do but more of it involves good technique.

Guys who are doing this sort of work day in and day out know what to do to get a good air tightness test result, they have the experience of knowing what works and what doesn't.

As an amateur coming to this for the first time there is quite a learning curve. Air tightness tape is not easy stuff to work with, it's got a very high grab so you only really get one shot at putting in on right.

In the short space of time I have been working with it I can see that I am getting better but I'm still no pro and I just hope that my first attempts are not going to let me down.

In this game you are only as good as your last air tightness test result, if you get good guys to do the work you can get very good results, I know Peter said that their last one was 0.2something, I do have the benefit of him giving me lots of tips for getting it right but it remains to be seen what an enthusiastic amateur can achieve, if I can get below 0.6 I will be over the moon but being honest I am not overly confident of that.

There is of course a school of thought that says that unless the house is in a very exposed location and subjected to frequent high winds any difference in air tightness below 1.0 is going to be marginal in terms of running costs, but I still aim to get the best result that I can.

just do it wrote: »

at least there was one "Paddy" in the mix!!

There were 6 hard working Paddies on the job but I already thanked the rest of them a few pages back! There will probably be some more too before the job is finished as I will probably get some lads from Mayo to do the rendering.

sas

Do-more wrote: »

Does your 1000 litre tank just have the one solar coil sas?

I know you can get 1000 litre tanks with two solar coils one nearer the top of the tank and one at the bottom, likewise I'm no expert but I believe it helps with maximising the useful hot water you have in the shoulder months were the danger is that with just one coil at the bottom of the tank you get lots of lukewarm water which needs further heating for DHW use.

Yes, just the one coil. I've seen tanks with more than 1 coil also but it wasn't something I explored. Will be interesting to see how the system fairs in winter. In theory stratification should help reduce the effect that you described. I'm hoping for a few long spells of hard frost this year to test the house and also because I'd take that over this continuous rain any day!

just do it

Do-more wrote: »

There is more than one way to look at it though, some of the work is just a question of tedious attention to detail which anyone with a little patience can do but more of it involves good technique.

Guys who are doing this sort of work day in and day out know what to do to get a good air tightness test result, they have the experience of knowing what works and what doesn't.

Valid point. And unlike other elements of building due to the airtightness test at the end there is no hiding poor workmanship. Is it purely to save money that you are doing it, and if you don't mind me asking how much do you think you're saving by diy?

Do-more wrote: »

I know Peter said that their last one was 0.2something

Wow:)

Do-more wrote: »

There is of course a school of thought that says that unless the house is in a very exposed location and subjected to frequent high winds any difference in air tightness below 1.0 is going to be marginal in terms of running costs

Interesting and of course 1.0 is still an excellent result, unless PH standards are the goal. Unfortunately my site is as you describe, very exposed and subject to frequent high winds. I look forward to posting on here soon as we're getting close to turning the sod;)

Do-more

just do it wrote: »

Is it purely to save money that you are doing it, and if you don't mind me asking how much do you think you're saving by diy?

It's partly to save money and partly for the satisfaction of doing it myself.

It's hard to express it in Euros now as the exchange rate keeps shifting the whole time with the Swedish krona appreciating against the euro by quite a large amount in the last while.

Turnkey builds from both big & small house builders are quite common here. I didn't get any quotes for that but I am told that our build would be something between 4 - 4.5million SEK, whereas I am working to a budget of 2.2million SEK, so by going direct labour + own labour I am saving somewhere north of €150,000.

Anything labour intensive costs a fortune here, most trades price their labour at between €55 - €70 per hour inc. VAT.

Hard to say what total savings will be for my own labour but I am doing the internal carpentry, air tightness membrane, some insulation, install HRV, slabbing, taping & jointing, roofing, install kitchen, painting, tiling and wood floors, against Swedish prices I would expect that the savings amount to about €50,000.

Anyway just home for my lunch, time to get back to work...

clonna

Hi!
just wondering if there is a reclaimed god out there who can help???
New house just about to start-site cleared and foundations hopefully being dug next week.
And heres the question...
I would love to use reclaimed oak for the majority of the flooring (living/dining, two hallways, sitting room and maybe master bedroom).
I've had an initial look and it seems that the architectural salvage yards are the place to go for this flooring. Then i heard that to fit these costs almost as much as the wood itself. I also got a few warnings about the quality of the wood flooring, and perhaps my best bet is reclaimed wood (from a beam etc that has been machined into floor boards) because i may be able to get better wood from the sense that it hasnt been laid and lifted before. I then heard about the issue of concrete versus batten surfaces that the wood is being fitted on. We will have concrete. So we then have to consider the height of the concrete on the areas where tiling meets the wood. Tiling concrete needing to be slightly higher presumably, so as to avoid a slight step difference. And then just the fact that the wood needs to be in the house a while before it is fitted so that the wood adapts to the PH of the house bfore it is laid.
What i want to know really is whether anyone else has considered this option and if they experienced high costs for fitting, problems with the quality of reclaimed oak flooring, how i could check the quality while in the salvage yards and if there are any other issues which i am as yet unaware of?

Sorry-its a longwinded one i know...
Thanks!

New build in sight

OK everyone we have finally broken ground, well 2 weeks ago we did....

We're at footings stage now, i will try and post as we go along to keep everyone updated and hopefully pick up some tips.....

muffler

New build in sight wrote: »

OK everyone we have finally broken ground, well 2 weeks ago we did....

We're at footings stage now, i will try and post as we go along to keep everyone updated and hopefully pick up some tips.....

Good man. Best of luck with it and it would indeed be appreciated if you could keep us updated.

Oh, and dont forget to buy a pair of wellies

Innish_Rebel

muffler wrote: »

Good man. Best of luck with it and it would indeed be appreciated if you could keep us updated.

Oh, and dont forget to buy a pair of wellies

Ah come on it is the Summer they'll hardly need a pair of wellies...:)

It is more like a pair of waders...

just do it

New build in sight wrote: »

OK everyone we have finally broken ground, well 2 weeks ago we did...

Congrats and best of luck. I look forward to following your progress

about2build

few more pics guys

New build in sight

So here we are almost our first month down and the wellies have been used quite more than we thought they would be needed building in July!!

Luckily we have progressed nicely and all according to plan,

Sub floor done,
145mm Xtratherm down,
Today the plumber installed the UFH,
tomorrow pressure test and pouring screed.

We installed a central vacuum system too which went in during the week.


I have a query that some of you might be able to offer some opinions;

I am not keen on our groundworks man cutting the exposed pipework i.e. the vacuum system and cold and hots coming into the house. He wants to cut them all to floor level so the screed can be completely level, he said once complete the pipes can be extended again using joints etc.

What are all your thoughts on this? And what experience have you all encountered when pouring the screed regarding pipework?

Many thanks

Do-more

New build in sight wrote: »

I have a query that some of you might be able to offer some opinions;

I am not keen on our groundworks man cutting the exposed pipework i.e. the vacuum system and cold and hots coming into the house. He wants to cut them all to floor level so the screed can be completely level, he said once complete the pipes can be extended again using joints etc.

What are all your thoughts on this? And what experience have you all encountered when pouring the screed regarding pipework?

Many thanks

I wouldn't be keen on that at all, I've never seen that done but have only limited experience.

All our pipes were up about a metre over finished floor level supported by rebar where necessary and it had no adverse effect on levelling the floor.

Sounds like he is just trying to make it very handy for himself.

just do it

New build in sight wrote: »

So here we are almost our first month down and the wellies have been used quite more than we thought they would be needed building in July!!

Luckily we have progressed nicely and all according to plan,

Sub floor done,
145mm Xtratherm down,
Today the plumber installed the UFH,
tomorrow pressure test and pouring screed.

We installed a central vacuum system too which went in during the week.


I have a query that some of you might be able to offer some opinions;

I am not keen on our groundworks man cutting the exposed pipework i.e. the vacuum system and cold and hots coming into the house. He wants to cut them all to floor level so the screed can be completely level, he said once complete the pipes can be extended again using joints etc.

What are all your thoughts on this? And what experience have you all encountered when pouring the screed regarding pipework?

Many thanks

Congrats on work done thus far. Regarding your query, why not ask your architect, engineer and builder who will be taking over after the groundworks man is done?