House Build Blog

Mike2006

I started my house build back in October 2009 and have been recording the progress step by step on a weekly basis since then.
I am now at builders finish so I have stopped publically recording the progress so I have decided to post it here so that others might be able to take something from it.


http://limerickbuild2009.blogspot.com/2009/10/introduction-oct-2009.html



Mike.

muffler

Many thanks for that Mike. Its a fine house and you have a good blog there.

May you have many happy days (and nights) there

JuniorB

Great blog there Mike and well done on the gaff.

sydthebeat

great blog mike, well done...

im interested to know if youve had an airtightness test carried out yet...

Wolfhound14

Hi Mike,

Thats a great blog, congrats. Have read about 75% of it so far.

I'm hoping to break ground next month and I found your insight on the airtightness brilliant. I'm definitely dreading that stage, but I wish I could get going too....the banks are wrecking my head!:mad:

Have you used the heating much, I would appreciate your input because I am thinking of a similar setup.

ei.sdraob

The house is now at a 'Builders Finish' stage so I am going to finish up recording the progress on the blog. The rest is mainly finishes and hopefully we will hit out scheduled move in date which is the 2nd week in September and on budget!!

please continue it was very good and be interesting to see it done fully

sydthebeat wrote: »

great blog mike, well done...

im interested to know if youve had an airtightness test carried out yet...

there was a blog entry on that

sydthebeat

ei.sdraob wrote: »

please continue it was very good and be interesting to see it done fully




there was a blog entry on that

ta.. didnt get to read it all....

EDIT:

after reading it doesnt clear it up....

what was the Q50 result???

also the test was done prior to slabbing. A true, and better, result will be achieved after skimming.
was one done yet?

Mike2006

Replies below:

Syd: Airtightness: The airtightness test was actually a 'leakage test'.
The guys who performed the test did not have a minneapolis machine with the flowmeters etc...

It was the Proclima WINCON that was used. Basically it is a variable speed fan which extracts the air at a set rate. There is a 1 to 6 setting speed on the fan. 1 equals the approx volume of a 1,000 sq ft house and 6 equals approx 6,000sq ft.
For mine, we set it at 3 and the objective is to get a diff pressure of 50Pa or better. It started at about 40 Pa and after about 3 to 4 hrs of patching up small gaps here and there we got it to 60Pa easily enough. When we lifted the extract speed to 3.5 (which is what it should be for a 3,500 sq ft house) it started to go off the scale and there was a very large draw on the intello...
You could 'see' and 'feel' the whole house getting more airtight while we were fixing holes... Even small nail holes could be felt with the back of your hand.. I was sold on the whole process after the test...


Wolfhound: Heating system:

The heating just got up and running yesterday so I cannot comment too much on it other that it works !!!
I spent a lot of time researching the central heating system for the house before I wne tfor the system that I did so I believe that it will work well. I have made the boiler house big enough to put in a secondary system if necessary. i.e. if oil gets too expensive or if I am using too much etc.. I don't think that i will though, just because of the amount of insulation and airtightness detail that has gone into the house...

ei.sdraob: Unfortunately I won't be carrying on with it.. It is actually a lot of work keeping it updated on a regular basis...
I dodn't think of it at the time, but somebody said to me that if I ever had to sell the house, that having all that detail on record would add to the value and I guess that would be the case.. But I hope that this will be my final resting place!!

Mike.

sydthebeat

mike,

in all respect you need to get an airtightness test done to confirm to yourself that all your efforts and finances have been worth it. Reaching 50 pa is an absolute minimum in order to calculate air tightness, and to be honest, shouldnt be sold to you as the goal of the test. If it was a "leakage" test did the tester go around the whole dwelling with a smoke pen and camera and write up a report on where the air was leaking??? because thats the perfect time to do it.

Mike2006

Syd,

We spent the day finding and repairing leaks as we found them. They were in no hurry and stayed around until I was happy with the results. By the end of the day we could no longer find any leaks.

Once the slabbing and plastering is complete it doesn't really matter when you get the test done because it is too late to remedy any problems without major re-work. Instead we spent the time and effort before the slabbing started. We also slabbed the unstairs ourselves after that because I did not trust a contractor not to drive multiple slab screws through the intello after all our hard work...

I will get a test carried out at some stage but to be honest at this stage of the build, my funds can be better placed as I cannot carry out any remedial action even if I did get a bad result...

Mike.

sydthebeat

mike, thanks for the reply.

Id expect youd get a very good result judging by the pics and effort youve put in; but the proof of the pudding is in the eating so they say.

if you could post up results whenever you get them it would be great as a comparitive to the work you've put in. thanks again

slavetothegrind

thanks a lot for the post, very interesting and a lovely home you have built.
Fair play to you for sharing all that information.

Curious to know how you will get on with the MHRV system in the coming months, particularly regarding noise transfer.
I would imagine the house is nice and quiet regarding external noise sources!

Best of luck to you and your family

Mike2006

Thanks for the replies comments folks.

I will update here whenever I get feedback/information on any of the technical aspects of the house.

i.e. MHRV, Central Heating, Airtightness etc...

Mike

sinnerboy

Just a teeny weeny thing - your boiler flue is very close to a rain water pipe - is it pvc ? If so replace about 1m length with a metal pipe

slavetothegrind

'tis a condensing boiler sinnerboy so the flue itself is plastic the temp is low.

John-Holmes

A great blog from start to finish. Well done Mike and all the best.