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

Fayre

double vanity pics attached

m1b2k3

Looks great Fayre!!

m1b2k3

Looks great Fayre!! - Sorry for the double post - not sure how to delete it

B-D-P--

Up she goes

iwillhtfu

B-D-P-- wrote: »

Up she goes

Odd choice to have the porch isolated like that. Will the space to the left of it not be a bit of a cold unusable area or does the picture provide a lack of depth perception and it's bigger than it appears.

Nice to see it above ground level though I'd imagine.

B-D-P--

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Odd choice to have the porch isolated like that. Will the space to the left of it not be a bit of a cold unusable area or does the picture provide a lack of depth perception and it's bigger than it appears.

Nice to see it above ground level though I'd imagine.

Yea its a design feature, Will prob be used as a dog house between the two walls.

Yea its great to see it on the rise.
Roofer to start monday week.

m1b2k3

We got our back lawn in over the weekend - made use of the good weather! Anyone any tips for drying screed. its been at 4% for the last number of weeks and we need to start the floors next week. Would anyone have any experience with de-humidifiers?

BryanF

m1b2k3 wrote: »

We got our back lawn in over the weekend - made use of the good weather! Anyone any tips for drying screed. its been at 4% for the last number of weeks and we need to start the floors next week. Would anyone have any experience with de-humidifiers?

your lawns a bit late in the season.. what's your irrigation strategy?

Just open the win/doors and forget flooring until the concrete drys out - natural dry-out is best.

Voodoomelon

Got my first floor living room finished at last, all painting complete and floors sanded & stained. The 4 year project continues...




http://georgianrenovation.blogspot.ie/

m1b2k3

The doors and windows have been opened every day. The heat has been on for 4 weeks and nothing seems to be budging the floors below the 4%! They actually have not moved since the heat went on. The laminate floors are going down next Tuesday regardless one way or another! Its a gamble but cant see any other way

In terms of irrigation strategy, living on the west coast of Ireland I am sure we will avail of plenty of natural watering :-) Never stays dry for too long around here!

m1b2k3

The doors and windows have been opened every day. The heat has been on for 4 weeks and nothing seems to be budging the floors below the 4%! They actually have not moved since the heat went on. The laminate floors are going down next Tuesday regardless one way or another! Its a gamble but cant see any other way

In terms of irrigation strategy, living on the west coast of Ireland I am sure we will avail of plenty of natural watering :-) Never stays dry for too long around here!

B-D-P--

Progress so far!

m1b2k3

Move in date in t-10 days! Wardrobes going into today, kitchen tomorrow, HRV system Thursday, plumber to finish by Friday. painting starting on Monday! All go but hopefully we will get over the line

B-D-P--

m1b2k3 wrote: »

Move in date in t-10 days! Wardrobes going into today, kitchen tomorrow, HRV system Thursday, plumber to finish by Friday. painting starting on Monday! All go but hopefully we will get over the line

To quote an american teen, "I'm well jell!"

m1b2k3

It was a long time in the pipelines,  took us over 3 years to get planning. So even though the build has only taken 8.5 months it feels like we started this project forever ago :-)

B-D-P--

Ok, So I'm at the internal plastering stage of my house.

I was told when undertaking the self build,
"You'll never be able to keep up with regulations"
"You need a contractor to make sure your build will comply"
"If your not in the trade you'll drown"

Thank god I didn't listen to them, they hadn't a scooby doo!!

Building a house now, is very similar to a few years ago only a few regulations, make sure its airtight, and use a good A2W system, (Renewable energy can differ)

If you spend some time on Google, and have common sense, its not all as tricky as they say. However you do need to be on the ball.

I honestly had absolute no issues to date, My engineer been on site half a dozen times, but only for his benefit, and to share opinions.

Whats your opinion, am I just lucky so far or is it a blown up hype with Part L?

Threads merged

W123-80's

Hi,

I am 12 months into a self build. We hope to be in by Christmas.
To be honest I was a little freaked out by all the talk of part L regs before we commenced.
I had guys telling me that it was next to impossible to carry out as a self build without a contractor.
At the time this made no sense to me as I had known loads of guys who had completed self builds before the new regs came into existance, the way I saw it the new regs were there to improve building standards so once I adhered to them surely there would be no issue.
Anyhow, long story short. A self build is completely doable. Once you apply some common sense, do your research and ask plenty of questions you will be fine.

Good reputable tradesmen will not see you wrong. It is in their interests that their job is done right.
Acting as a self builder means you are the project manager, the site cleaner etc There are lots of little 'in between trades' jobs that I failed to consider that I ended up doing myself, but I didn't mind as I took the attitude that every time I swept a floor it was saving me money.

The house when finished will fully comply will all building regs.
189sqm house and 50sqm garage.

caddy16

B-D-P-- wrote: »

Ok, So I'm at the internal plastering stage of my house.

I was told when undertaking the self build,
"You'll never be able to keep up with regulations"
"You need a contractor to make sure your build will comply"
"If your not in the trade you'll drown"

Thank god I didn't listen to them, they hadn't a scooby doo!!

Building a house now, is very similar to a few years ago only a few regulations, make sure its airtight, and use a good A2W system, (Renewable energy can differ)

If you spend some time on Google, and have common sense, its not all as tricky as they say. However you do need to be on the ball.

I honestly had absolute no issues to date, My engineer been on site half a dozen times, but only for his benefit, and to share opinions.

Whats your opinion, am I just lucky so far or is it a blown up hype with Part L?

Starting on the journey so I hope I agree with you when done.

Can I ask when you were pricing heatpumps did you look at geothermal, I've got some quote's back and there is a lot smaller price difference than I was expecting.

tradesman

W123-80's wrote: »

Hi,

I am 12 months into a self build. We hope to be in by Christmas.
To be honest I was a little freaked out by all the talk of part L regs before we commenced.
I had guys telling me that it was next to impossible to carry out as a self build without a contractor.
At the time this made no sense to me as I had known loads of guys who had completed self builds before the new regs came into existance, the way I saw it the new regs were there to improve building standards so once I adhered to them surely there would be no issue.
Anyhow, long story short. A self build is completely doable. Once you apply some common sense, do your research and ask plenty of questions you will be fine.

Good reputable tradesmen will not see you wrong. It is in their interests that their job is done right.
Acting as a self builder means you are the project manager, the site cleaner etc There are lots of little 'in between trades' jobs that I failed to consider that I ended up doing myself, but I didn't mind as I took the attitude that every time I swept a floor it was saving me money.

The house when finished will fully comply will all building regs.
189sqm house and 50sqm garage.

Every time you sweep the floor it COSTS you money! He who makes the mess should clean the mess!

tradesman

W123-80's wrote: »

Hi,

I am 12 months into a self build. We hope to be in by Christmas.
To be honest I was a little freaked out by all the talk of part L regs before we commenced.
I had guys telling me that it was next to impossible to carry out as a self build without a contractor.
At the time this made no sense to me as I had known loads of guys who had completed self builds before the new regs came into existance, the way I saw it the new regs were there to improve building standards so once I adhered to them surely there would be no issue.
Anyhow, long story short. A self build is completely doable. Once you apply some common sense, do your research and ask plenty of questions you will be fine.

Good reputable tradesmen will not see you wrong. It is in their interests that their job is done right.
Acting as a self builder means you are the project manager, the site cleaner etc There are lots of little 'in between trades' jobs that I failed to consider that I ended up doing myself, but I didn't mind as I took the attitude that every time I swept a floor it was saving me money.

The house when finished will fully comply will all building regs.
189sqm house and 50sqm garage.

Every time you sweep the floor it costs you money! My attitude is "he who makes the mess should clean the mess" you could be doing more productive work than clearing someone elses mess

W123-80's

tradesman wrote: »

Every time you sweep the floor it costs you money! My attitude is "he who makes the mess should clean the mess" you could be doing more productive work than clearing someone elses mess

Good man.
Any thoughts/opinions on the OP or are you just going to pick holes and sneer at my approach to a self build?

Aid62

Best of luck with the building. First question is how do you know you are complying with the building regs?
Second question......before you say your "engineer" is inspecting it, what is your engineer qualified and competent to do? Did he design the building? Building inspectors must be qualified in the area that they design. When people refer to engineers they generally mean civil engineers. And your project is not a civil engineering project.
I work in building I can assure you I have met numerous engineers who know little or nothing about building. A chartered engineer has an ethical obligation only to help on project they are competent to deal with.
Get an architect

BryanF

Deleted User wrote: »

Mod Note - 9/10/2012: This thread is for discussing the various aspects of building as they arise. Do not use this thread for "pre-building" queries. Such queries should be posted in their own threads.

---

How many people on boards are in the process of building their own homes at the moment, have recently completed or planning to do so in the near future.

I am about 3/4 of the way through a self-build.
It would be interesting to have a "live" list of current self-builds on the forum.

ok some threads merged.

Keep this about live builds by self builders

BryanF

--[/B]

Aid62 wrote: »

Best of luck with the building. First question is how do you know you are complying with the building regs?
Second question......before you say your "engineer" is inspecting it, what is your engineer qualified and competent to do? Did he design the building? Building inspectors must be qualified in the area that they design. When people refer to engineers they generally mean civil engineers. And your project is not a civil engineering project.
I work in building I can assure you I have met numerous engineers who know little or nothing about building. A chartered engineer has an ethical obligation only to help on project they are competent to deal with.
Get an architect

6 variations of the same post!!.. Welcome to boards, please have a read of the forum charter and read around the forum.

tradesman

W123-80's wrote: »

Good man.
Any thoughts/opinions on the OP or are you just going to pick holes and sneer at my approach to a self build?

Am mot sneering at your approach. Just pointing out that a tradesman should always clear the mess they make. Blocklayers leave cement droppings at the base of the wall when that hardens the self builder has to hire a kango to chop it out. If its not cleared some plasterers just plaster down to the cement lump. Blocklayers leave off cuts on the floor - trip hazard - someone claims off your insurance. Electricians chase the walls leave the mess on the floor. Same risks. Timber and nails etc. Am just saying you pay someone to do a job they should leave the site in a tidy condition as they go along. Makes life easier for everyone involved

B-D-P--

tradesman wrote: »

Am mot sneering at your approach. Just pointing out that a tradesman should always clear the mess they make. Blocklayers leave cement droppings at the base of the wall when that hardens the self builder has to hire a kango to chop it out. If its not cleared some plasterers just plaster down to the cement lump. Blocklayers leave off cuts on the floor - trip hazard - someone claims off your insurance. Electricians chase the walls leave the mess on the floor. Same risks. Timber and nails etc. Am just saying you pay someone to do a job they should leave the site in a tidy condition as they go along. Makes life easier for everyone involved

If your there every evening, you dont have to kango the concrete.
Dont be foolish, If your doing the cleaning, they spend their labor doing what they are hired to do.
So instead of that half hour on the couch, you clean up your site. thats not costing you money.

I honestly think your response is so silly that your trolling.

joebloggs123

Have to agree here. If I'm paying someone it's because I need their skills. I'd rather they get the job done so I can get the next guy in and I can clean up in between times. Saying that it is nice if the guy makes an effort to clean up or if hiring a contractor to take care of the whole job, I would expect it to be left in a clean and tidy state.

tradesman

B-D-P-- wrote: »

If your there every evening, you dont have to kango the concrete.
Dont be foolish, If your doing the cleaning, they spend their labor doing what they are hired to do.
So instead of that half hour on the couch, you clean up your site. thats not costing you money.

I honestly think your response is so silly that your trolling.

Ok, so you hire someone to remodel your bathroom & they leave broken tiles in the bath on the floor, in the hallway. Would you still pay them? On a new house build the trades usually work with a labourer whose job it is to bring all materials to the tradesman & clear any mess they make as the work progresses. You are already paying them to clean up after themselves - it is not an extra! and NO i'm not trolling

ht9zni1gs28crp

tradesman wrote: »

Ok, so you hire someone to remodel your bathroom & they leave broken tiles in the bath on the floor, in the hallway. Would you still pay them? On a new house build the trades usually work with a labourer whose job it is to bring all materials to the tradesman & clear any mess they make as the work progresses. You are already paying them to clean up after themselves - it is not an extra! and NO i'm not trolling

Sometimes, just sometimes your own self build is just too personal to let that sh1t go to the end of the week until clean up.

BryanF

tradesman wrote: »

Ok, so you hire someone to remodel your bathroom & they leave broken tiles in the bath on the floor, in the hallway. Would you still pay them? On a new house build the trades usually work with a labourer whose job it is to bring all materials to the tradesman & clear any mess they make as the work progresses. You are already paying them to clean up after themselves - it is not an extra! and NO i'm not trolling

Phillip Mammoth Jury wrote: »

Sometimes, just sometimes your own self build is just too personal to let that sh1t go to the end of the week until clean up.

lets park it there. And deal with SELF building

BDP,
Interested in your experiences as a sel-builder, and how it may help fellow self-builders