June: Floor insulation laid and floor screeded

Joe spent last week insulating the floor (50mm Celotex). Today the plasterers arrived and screeded the floor. Once the materials finally arrived, all went smoothly. The hard part is keeping all pets and wildlife off it until it has cured (a few days).

nh.

Coping stones, gutters and vent pipe completed! (Friday)

Today marked the end of the build! They spent the day putting the concrete coping stones on top of the parapets (to deflect water), then put on the gutters and extended the soil stack up to the roof line.

Roof completed (Thurs)

Today they insulated and felted the roof. The building inspector came to check the correct amount of insulation had been used (100mm) to create a "warm roof".

A few pics!

Week 3: Roofwork begins (Wed)

Today the roof went on! What speedy roofers they are! Here are some pics from the end of the day. Tomorrow I think they are going to felt the flat section, insulate the pitched part and finish off the lead flashings.

Roof preparation and cavity closers (Thurs)

Today the straps went on, cavity closers installed, and roof materials delivered for next week. Am sure they have done more than that as had a team of 4 men working all day. They also installed the fascia board.

Wed (more parapets I think)

Week 2: Brickwork finished (Tues)

I have lost track a bit of what was done on each day this past week. They finished off the brickwork at the start of the week, including fitting cavity trays. They had to grind out all of the old pointing and repointed it, then on Thursday they started preparing the roof (securing the timbers with straps). They fitted the cavity closers so our doors can go in. They have also cut a hole for the vent pipe through the roof.

On Saturday the groundworkers came in and dug the soakaway, and fitted a gulley for the kitchen sink waste.

Parapets built (Friday)

Today one of the parapet walls was built, completing one wall. He also cut the bricks for the soldier course. He has wrapped it all up in hessian in case of a frost, so not a lot to see unfortunately.

More brickwork (Thursday)

I have been out all day and the weather has been terrible. But they got some more of the brickwork done, working under a tarpaulin. They are also filling the cavity with the correct amount of insulation (unlike before).

Wall rebuilt and cavity floor cemented (Wednesday)

Today the builder concreted the floor of the small cavity (between us and the neighbour) with a run off. As this gap is only about 20cm and thus inaccessible, this will prevent weeds from coming up and also will allow water to run off outside. Then they started building the walls back up.

Old pointing ground out (Tuesday)

Today our new builder ground out all the old pointing. Looks better already!

*NEW BUILDER* Building work resumes after 8 week break (Monday)

We have had an eight week break from building work as our builder walked off the job, taking our funds with him. So I have spent 8 weeks documenting his work, working with building control and other builders to compile a record of incompetencies and errors in his work. To cut a long story short, the work, although shambolic to look at, is not structurally unsound, and therefore has passed building regs. However, the builder has taken so many shortcuts that we are having to undo a lot of his work. All of this is at a cost to us, so we will be taking him to small claims court as he is in breach of contract.

One of the main findings was his brickwork. He has mixed the mortar incorrectly, so our walls are basically stuck together with sand that can be chipped away at with a fingernail. So some of the bricks have got to come down, and rebuilt. He also used the wrong bricks on one side, so we are having to replace them. There are countless other issues which I can't honestly be bothered to list here, but here are some photos of the new builders' work, who are like a breath of fresh air.

Here you can see the builder has taken down the blocks (both internal and external skin)

Here you can see how he has propped the steel up to stop the roof falling down

The first builder didn't tie the bricks in properly to the wall (!) so our new builder has put these metal straps on