Busy time had by all.

A busy few weeks have gone by, busy being the operative word, the house has its roof, windows and doors, even more importantly locks, so the building can be secured. Done the first layer of insulation and work is underway on the outer cladding.
We are at the 50% stage, next 20% goes quite fast, then the last 30 which is the finishing touches takes a lot of time, still it's a good feeling to have achieved so much in 12 weeks.

Ari and his son laying out the packets of tiles ready for laying, these are concrete tiles, they have a special surface on them to protect them, it has a 30 year guarantee, so I would expect never to have to do anything else with them.

MONIER PROTECTOR



lifting the tile packets off the pallet, we had a crane on hand to lift the pallets up, makes the job a lot easier.




House with the roof done on one side. Excellent weather for it,




While the boys were cracking on with the roof, Ari and I proceeded to get on with the windows and doors, living room and kitchen were the big heavy ones, the kitchen in particular as it is triple glazed with toughened glass, it took 4 of us to lift it into position.




Living room window, 2.1 x 1.6m





from the inside





The other on the gable





from the inside




Kitchen window and door, this will give access to the glass terrace.




Door to the main terrace.




Door from utility room to back garden.





Main door.





all windows and doors fitted




That is the building secured now. It is now time to start on the first layer of insulation on the inside walls, this consists of sheets of ´´rockwool´´ it is a fire resistant insulation made from fibres taken from molten stone, in the first instance the insulation is 150 mm thick, on top of this comes a vapour seal then horizontal battens. After the electrician visits we can then do the second layer of insulation, this time 50mm then drywall boarding on top.



Packs of insulation material.




What it looks like, 150mm




The sheets come in a standard size to fit the normal frame width, in this instance the frame is set at 60cm intervals, the insulation is 56.5cm to fit snugly between the frame posts.




fitting the insulation, it is important not to compress it, therefor retaining the insulation properties





Just tuck it nicely into position.



For the places where the frame posts are not 60cm this can occur for various reasons, mainly the position of the door and window frames, then it's a knife job, using a long bladed fairly stiff knife get as straight a cut as possible,




How it looks when its finished. The insulation is carried on up to the attic space, this avoids what we call a cold bridge.




Insulation packs in the attic space, these will be fitted between the roof trusses and the ceiling, on top of this will come 30 to 40cm of granule insulation.





Vapour seal, insulation sheets up in the attic space.



Vapour seal on wall and ceiling, any holes made in this will be taped closed.





vapour seal and horizontal battens in place, just require an electrician do do his thing and it can be drywalled.




It was time to move to the outside, start to take care of that 3km of cladding timber, this is Spruce panel, 28mm thick with a profile height of 75mm.
It is nailed straight onto the battens that were fitted same time as the weatherboard, the battens ensure the free transfer of air, avoiding moisture build up, which in turn extends the life of the timber.


Panel in profile





Corner of terrace area, I will be making a special list to cover the corner.




Around the front door and window.




Front of house done as high as I can reach at present, I will do all way around the house this way, then a visit to the tool hire to get the scaffolding back on site.




One more small job to do for this week, I have to assemble one of the dividing walls in the house, this is the firewall, as the fitter is due to arrive on Wednesday to fit the fireplace and chimney, this may be lightly problematic, we are having a little difficulty getting the chimney, it was due to arrive last week, unfortunately, last week has come and gone and still no chimney, if it does not arrive tomorrow, then we will probably have to cancel the fitter, when he would be able to come again is any ones guess.

Firewall, this is just a normal stud wall, the exception being is the board that is screwed to it, it is a stone based fireproof material. Once it is fitted I will be facing it with ceramic tiles to make it even more durable.




Half way tiled, cement based glue applied with a toothed trowel.


The finished article, now all I need is a chimney.




Next on the agenda, finish off the cladding, or as much as possible, drywalls on the outer walls, do all the studs for the internal walls, fit the plumbing sockets for taps etc, electrician can come back and fit switch boxes, finish off the drywalling. Then I might have a beer or two.