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NotJustANumber99 posted:not in your landrover, could be days. Fair point
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Jul 3, 2022 22:13
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| # ? May 28, 2024 00:48 |
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Right, enough chit chat On with the beaming and blocking, first wing of L done, on to the second  But theres no rush, important to take things easy now and then  Also start infilling the blocks. the design has been optimised to allow for the internal walls but to minimise the cutting of blocks because, as I soon find out, thats a real pain in the arse. Ideally you might use a computer to optimise house layout with respect to building faff I think, to, in this instance, minimise block cutting.  Got to remember to get all service ducting in too. This one is for mains water supply, big and fat to allow for the 32mm water pipe to be insulated.  Building up the support walls where necessary to support block flooring edges.  So on the plan for the beam and block floor earlier you maybe noticed the pink blocks, thats ones that need cutting, like this one  Seems right, so now cut a whole row of them... eurgh, these are heavy duty blocks and its hard work. I thought about renting a proper big petrol stihl saw but thats money and even then doesn't go all the way through in one cut so I stick with my grinder and having to flop the blocks over and do the cuts in two runs.    Need to put in place all the sewer receptacles as per earlier diagrams.     I really weirdly enjoy doing sewers. It reminds me of like war of the worlds where I'm laying these alien traps in the ground to one day spring out and decimate humanity. In this instance, hopefully after I've moved out. Hmmm apologies, a very workmanlike post, nothing went wrong, nobody went to hospital and nothing costs hugely unexpected amounts of money. I'm sure I can return to your regular expected programming shortly. NotJustANumber99 fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Jul 3, 2022 |
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Jul 3, 2022 22:52
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NotJustANumber99 posted:Building up the support walls where necessary to support block flooring edges. This is all pretty amazing to look at, living in a place where the concept of "build a house by just stacking blocks on each other with nothing holding them together except gravity" isn't in the realm of possibility due to the ground not being reliably in the same place at all times. I understand cutting blocks is a pain, but I'd take that in a heartbeat over not being able to use blocks at all, or if I did, having to use masonry fasteners to tie them all together. However, it looks like the space under the blocks for the pipes (which I'm also jealous of because you just plopped them down on the ground, looks like? Nothing holding them in place relative to the house either?) is basically just as tall as the pipes themselves. Is that an effect of photo angle, or is that space truly not much taller, i.e. it's not a crawlspace? So if pipes need to be fixed or relocated you have to pull up the floor/subfloor and the blocks below? Admittedly easier than cutting up and patching a concrete slab, but I would have thought still more annoying than having a crawlspace.
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Jul 4, 2022 00:33
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SyNack Sassimov posted:This is all pretty amazing to look at, living in a place where the concept of "build a house by just stacking blocks on each other with nothing holding them together except gravity" isn't in the realm of possibility due to the ground not being reliably in the same place at all times. I understand cutting blocks is a pain, but I'd take that in a heartbeat over not being able to use blocks at all, or if I did, having to use masonry fasteners to tie them all together. However, it looks like the space under the blocks for the pipes (which I'm also jealous of because you just plopped them down on the ground, looks like? Nothing holding them in place relative to the house either?) is basically just as tall as the pipes themselves. Is that an effect of photo angle, or is that space truly not much taller, i.e. it's not a crawlspace? So if pipes need to be fixed or relocated you have to pull up the floor/subfloor and the blocks below? Admittedly easier than cutting up and patching a concrete slab, but I would have thought still more annoying than having a crawlspace. Hmmm I didn't do a great job there of describing things. Although yeah I was a bit surprised, the beam and block floor is just heavy and sits on the foundations underneath. Next post probably shows that they are tied together somewhat by a cement wash over them and into the cracks. The space under the floor is essentially 1 block high, so 225mm ish including mortar joint. The pipe is 110mm diameter. Theres some more in that the blocks sit on the lip of the beams, I forget another 50mm or so. Where the waste pipes break through the floor, they are supported by being concreted into like a saddle lump on the ground. Then the pipe is supported over its run by shingle. But yeah, once were done no one is getting back in there easily.
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Jul 4, 2022 00:47
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Lay a backup pipe in case that one gets messed up in the future. Getting to it otherwise will be a total pain.
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Jul 4, 2022 15:14
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I think these posts are still about the past, so maybe not actionable
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Jul 5, 2022 04:21
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One can dream
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Jul 6, 2022 09:00
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Hadlock posted:One can dream My experience of housebuilding is more nightmares. But yeah we're in the past. Not sure I'd understand putting in two of all my sewers incase the first one broke? How would I guarantee my backup one didnt break first? And we'd just have backup toilets hidden behind walls that we'd have to knock through to and start using and block up the first toilets behind more hidden walls? I am actually coming round to the idea...
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Jul 6, 2022 22:43
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NotJustANumber99 posted:My experience of housebuilding is more nightmares. The Can of Amontillado (edit since you're British, going to the can is slightly uncommon American slang for bathroom, sorry, it's a pretty lovely joke) edit2: 
SyNack Sassimov fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Jul 6, 2022 |
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Jul 6, 2022 22:47
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Anyway its my birthday (in the past not now!) so I reward myself with some aldi workman shorts. I think I am very much an aldi level workman. Making progress with slotting in all these blocks into the beams, need to make sure to run ducting/conduit/whatever its called to the plant (just leaf it) room. mains power and water  and header pipes back from the plant room out to the part of the garden the ground source heat pump will end up in  Those are all bedded in with sand to keep them from moving about. Then, wherever there are three beams together for internal walls need to pack it in with some concrete   Then the whole lot needs a brushing of sand/cement mix into the cracks to firm it all up. Its a dry mix but you constantly wet the surface and work it in with a stiff broom and a bit of spading. It's quite hard work but all done in a day or two.  The first of our lightweight blocks are delivered that will make up most of all the two leaves of external walls and all the internal walls. I'll expound on these a bit later (as I end up having... views) but for now they just all get plonked down... without pallets, meaning I'll have to handball them all back onto pallets to move them about later. They are lightweight at least. Sorry some of them are on pallets but I'm not allowed them, I'll have to pay 15 quid per pallet and its only half refundable? eurgh   Some bricks are chosen, they are OK. not exactly what I was after really but OK. money. I build a little sample bit of wall with a mortar mix to see if its OK. It's OK.  Connecting up the back bit of drains now before too much house (never thought I'd be able to say that) gets in the way of wheelbarrowing materials across the 'slab'.  This need to run from the end inspection cover handling the kitchen/utility and WC, pick up the plant room and connect to pre laid pipe lower down set in the groundbeams to run under the house back to the front side. But it doesn't quite all fit together like on the model, so I have to spend a fortune on a bit of C3P0's arm to get it all to connect up properly.  Backfill nicely with gravel and wait for a building control man to come and have a look at it when he checks out the beam and block floor, before it can be covered over. C3P0's arm is only slightly twisted and the plant room is only going to be some watery overflow stuff so no need for a full inspection cover, just stick in a rodding point and everyone seems happy.  Anyway its my birthday so bugger off for the weekend to see a mate who has just bought a canal boat. Tight bastard insists I bring a jerry can of red diesel with me to pay for the trip lol.     Lovely stuff, forget all about building horrible houses 
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Jul 6, 2022 23:10
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Nice drains, bad tan
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Jul 6, 2022 23:17
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I refer you to my wellies/shorts gap
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Jul 6, 2022 23:35
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This thread was going so well till the socks and sandals Voted 1
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Jul 7, 2022 00:02
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Socks and sandals, socks don't match Goon spotted.
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Jul 7, 2022 01:26
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When are we going to see varying amounts of classic English "Tradie Crack"? If you could genuflect in front of some of them while praying, it would be a great series of pictures. Sort of like this: 
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Jul 7, 2022 02:29
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I dont think I took that many pictures of my builders bottoms. I will double, and triple, check. Right so I'm back off my little holiday... lets get going!  Digger's broken. Won't run for more than a few seconds before cutting out. Seems to be a fuel supply issue, mess about for ages trying to run of a gravity fed jerry can of fuel in the cab before giving up and removing the fuel tank to see whats what.  Builders imminent and need digger to move materials around site to cater to them Havent got the before shot, but this is a little lovely filter on the fuel line in the bottom of the tank and was gummed up to poo poo. A few hours dismantling and cleaning and we're off again. Old boy on the corner says I've been nobbled by some enemy but I dunno that I need nobbling by nefarious external parties really.  Meanwhile more blocks delivered and I just get them to plonk them straight on my reinforced runway rather than move them twice.  Anyway the builders turn up and get building    I'm a bit confused still about what exactly we're building but having selected a builder I know I can work with, ask question off and generally get a long with, I produce a drawing for us to both look at to make sure we're on the same page  He can barely conceal his disgust. Hes been doing this 40 years and no one has ever done this, offended him so badly. To even suggest he looks at a drawing, the nerve of me. He announces he hasn't looked at any of my drawings and just knows how to do this. a massive HMMM.  I retreat to my fortress of (despite my best efforts) solitude to sit staring at and spinning round lovingly assembled sketchup models that appear to be less and less relevant to whatever it is thats getting built. All that sustains me is some stale biscuits. I cheer myself up by convincing myself that my concerns about completely unresolved DPMs and DPCs and ground levels and so on is just because I'm an idiot moron who knows nothing and don't worry these guys, maybe a bit tetchy, but they know what theyre doing. Once they've left for the evening (at 3pm) I venture out to inspect things.   I am not filled with confidence.
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Jul 11, 2022 22:26
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I would love to meet a builder who has even bothered to read a summary of the regs. This is how we have always done it is not good enough when you are getting paid thousands of pounds to do a job.
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Jul 11, 2022 22:42
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Given this is retrospective I’m guessing you already figured out you need to be more assertive with these guys. Builders are especially susceptible to the viewpoint that any outside guidance is a sign of weakness. It’s “I won’t ask for directions” but with your 200k house. When the shower controls were going in at mine, I triple checked with the builder that he understood which of the controls went to shower vs bath, stood with the panel in hand and pointed, he looked at me that I was being ridiculous. Then he installed them backwards. Permanently. Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Jul 11, 2022 |
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Jul 11, 2022 22:53
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With the amount of support in the foundations, how much can the walls really need to provide?
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Jul 11, 2022 23:03
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Jaded Burnout posted:Given this is retrospective I’m guessing you already figured out you need to be more assertive with these guys. I think you missed a zero there, pretty sure he's got 200k in the foundations alone
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Jul 11, 2022 23:07
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goatface posted:With the amount of support in the foundations, how much can the walls really need to provide? The problem is that the bit inbetween the roof and the foundations, traditionally where you might find walls, is where the squishable humans go.
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Jul 11, 2022 23:17
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It'll average out.
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Jul 11, 2022 23:18
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Nice cliffhanger. On the edge of my seat
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Jul 11, 2022 23:28
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Sorry to see this happening in real life, but love it for great thread content
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Jul 11, 2022 23:34
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Jaded Burnout posted:Given this is retrospective I’m guessing you already figured out you need to be more assertive with these guys. Going through this right now, almost ended up with a room with 2m ceiling height...
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Jul 12, 2022 09:50
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CancerCakes posted:Going through this right now, almost ended up with a room with 2m ceiling height... My biggest regret with my house is the downstairs ceiling height. To be fair that one's on the lovely architect not the lovely builder, but I was too new to it to spot it until the ceiling was in overhead. Not quite 2m but if I can touch the ceiling it's too low.
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Jul 12, 2022 10:06
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In my experience builders are universally poo poo
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Jul 12, 2022 10:12
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Yeah I dunno how things are going to go with the builder. He has very little time for me and I kind of want to loving kill him. Basically I just start sneaking in every night (to my own site) and changing all the bits I think are wrong Not much I can do about the damp course and stuff though. We agree half the house will be built with the damp how I want and half how he wants. Which is obviously very normal and sensible. Oh and he won't lay any of the vertical paving slabs behind the bricks cos its too fiddly, which yes, but I did ask you about this right at the start. So I'll work around them and do that.    So I need pallets because the whole point of the digger was having the forks to move materials around. Theres a running joke in my family about how when we were kids other families had days out to the theme park and we got to endlessly move building materials around our parent's self build. So gumtree coughs up some other building sites nearby with leftover pallets that I go and collect  Its really lovely chatting poo poo to all these other guys about how terribly their build is going too. Also round the back of the house, where I've already laid sewer pipe one way, I now need to lay same pipe the other way to take surface roof water away to a soakaway as there isnt space round the back for one.  So all manual digging and barrowing in stuff  I work out a way to bring digger loads of mud up and shovel it out into a wheelbarrow then run it along scaffold boards on the walls and off again to where I need it   Life is returning to site  Which means the loving hedges are going mental and several of the many neighbours are complaining so I need to trim some bush Firstly I make up a treemans basket for the digger so I can elevate myself   Otherwise its just a ladder and flailing  Family chips in  Then more family arrives. My parents have been stuck in france since the pandemic began, during which mum has been diagnosed with the old cancer which has obviously all been incredibly stress free Anyway shes good by now, and against my dads better wishes buys a campervan so they can come back and do their quarantine on the building site. Which technically counts.  supplies delivered  Covid post box identified and tests deposited. My dad has inevitably found the cheapest and least reputable test company just to reduce mum's stress levels. Great.  In the meantime we experiment with vehicular control real time child motion capture tied to my nephew and things seem to work well. 
NotJustANumber99 fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Jul 18, 2022 |
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Jul 18, 2022 22:39
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What were the paving slabs supposed to do? Build looks worryingly according to plan, most concerning.
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Jul 18, 2022 22:47
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They exist solely to occupy space (yellow on diagram). I didnt design it, just stuck with what was on the original plans, probably a mistake. So on the outer leaf of the external walls, there is a 140mm wide block underground that becomes a small brick plinth above, then steps in to allow timber cladding to finish somewhat flush. But bricks aren't that wide, so some material has to occupy that space. Which is not so bad until you start messing with all the underfloor ventilation... er vents and the damp course which means cutting slabs and putting them under and above said cavity crossing dampcourse. a ballache I don't blame the brickie for turning his nose up, but I do for not saying earlier how daft it all is and offering a solution. Given his 40 years experience.
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Jul 18, 2022 22:54
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NotJustANumber99 posted:Yeah I dunno how things are going to go with the builder. He has very little time for me and I kind of want to loving kill him. Basically I just start sneaking in every night (to my own site) and changing all the bits I think are wrong I'm going to give you the same advice I got near the start of my thread but ignored; fire him now before he makes things worse. Easier to say than do, just as it was for me then, but I'm just seeing echoes of the same poo poo I went through for half a year.
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Jul 18, 2022 23:09
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dolly blocks exist for a reason. Replace the four courses of brick on the outer skin with two courses of cast concrete dolly and forget about the slabs. e. unless you have to have that course of brick showing for some planning reason
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Jul 18, 2022 23:12
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Jaded Burnout posted:I'm going to give you the same advice I got near the start of my thread but ignored; fire him now before he makes things worse. You do realize he is not posting realtime?
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Jul 18, 2022 23:15
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Jaded Burnout posted:I'm going to give you the same advice I got near the start of my thread but ignored; fire him now before he makes things worse. As bonoman says, appreciated but too late now lol He was only there for the blocks and bricks, nothing else and doesnt last quite that long Salisbury Snape posted:dolly blocks exist for a reason. Replace the four courses of brick on the outer skin with two courses of cast concrete dolly and forget about the slabs. Hmmm yeah other builder mate told me all sorts of other blocks I could use instead but when pressed on it, neither he nor anyone else could actually source me any either at all or for a decent price. trench blocks I think he called them maybe? But yeah also above ground obviously dont want to see block, its supposed to be a pretty brick. This is where a lot of the argument with the builder about damp levels came from as I wanted the engineering bricks below ground and for god knows what reason he made this as hard as possible so we ended up with visible engineering bricks on the backside of the whole house. Which, jaded is totally right, fire him and get someone who will do what you actually want, or at least explain why not. But at the time I felt like I couldn't eat the delay.
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Jul 18, 2022 23:25
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BonoMan posted:You do realize he is not posting realtime? I do realise but also he's switching from past tense to present tense and I thought the builder was still around (and/or this was closer to "now").
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Jul 18, 2022 23:33
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perhaps putting the date this happened at the top of the post might help
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Jul 18, 2022 23:35
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hmmm, yes. But theres plausible deniability on how long this is all taking if I don't.
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Jul 18, 2022 23:40
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NotJustANumber99 posted:hmmm, yes. But theres plausible deniability on how long this is all taking if I don't. 
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Jul 18, 2022 23:42
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NotJustANumber99 posted:He was only there for the blocks and bricks, nothing else and doesnt last quite that long Is this like no country for old men where the action happens off camera 
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Jul 19, 2022 00:23
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| # ? May 28, 2024 00:48 |
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Building some of the pretty bricks You can see the various damp courses involved.  Oh is that a new fence!  Yes! Was it a stress free and normal procedure? No! The guy restoring the manor house next door has, to no ones surprise sold it for over a million quid, he never intended to live in it, fair enough. But he taken down my fence that his aggressive wife made me put up "for their dogs" despite never living there and moved the fence line like a foot in. Eurgh. Like it shouldnt matter but she has been a right bellend. I knew this was coming, a month or two prior she came steaming over taking photos and pointing ineffectual laser measures at the house yelling at me that I didint have permission for this, its too big. I just can't tolerate that. So rude and arrogant. I've been in this hole for a year, you didn't mention anything then? why now? So I'll be damned if youre going to tell me whats what. he threatens me with various lawyers. I retreat to look up whats what and hes full of poo poo. The next day I speak with the fencing lads and apologise, say no worries I'm not going to physically stop them but this fence is in the wrong place and I'll end up tearing it out. They laugh and say they're used to spoilt rich twats with acres of garden arguing over a foot of land for no reason. My mum makes them cups of tea and they let me keep a company pencil that has fallen onto my side of the disputed boundary. The battle for hearts and minds essentially already won. Dickhead next door turns up and repeats legal threats and I ask for the solicitors numbers so I can speak with them direct and show them all the material I have. Hes not only stupid but lazy and has just tried it on and has nothing behind him. He also then tells me to gently caress off so I revoke a previous agreement I made to move the side fence. Hes obviously full of poo poo and I now hold the upper hand as he's mid sale on this place and I imagine a contentious boundary argument might gently caress him up more than me. So boring long story short, the fence gets moved back. And its a really nice fence, cheers. More bloody slabs on end  and pain in the arse damp course  The blockwork walls are also so long they need expansion joints in them  But, overall, as promised the building starts to fly up   Steels for the bifold doors are delivered! I got the recommendation from the builders.  and... they're wrong. LOL. obviously. I contact him and he blames me of course, he doesnt say how long hes been doing this but that he does it everyday and so can't be wrong. I check my emails and drawings... and whilst he never admits anything, comes out to chop bits off it and drill some more holes for free. So I think he knows. 
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Jul 19, 2022 23:00
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