Thanks for asking - managed to get the concrete subfloor in before I headed off on holiday. Will be back on it next weekend!
Amateur DIY Extension
- Thread starter VDubDan
- Start date
Thanks for asking - managed to get the concrete subfloor in before I headed off on holiday. Will be back on it next weekend!
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Enjoy your holiday - looks like you've earned it with all your hard work!
Well, it's been a long time hasn't it....! Crikey - I actually thought I'd posted a bit more in this thread before hibernating so I'll have to go and drop up some photos and stuff.
But, in short - we got the sub floor poured with no drama. Then came the block work and, honestly, it wasn't great. I don't know why but I just couldn't get to grips with laying blocks - I did two courses and decided I wasn't having fun. As winter was closing and I had some other projects to crack on with over winter (Work stuff) I decided to pause the project and revisit in spring.
And then of course COVID kicked off. I'd originally considered going on another bricklaying course, or just paying a brickie to help me but in the interest of moving forward I asked a trusted builder to get my blockwork up. I'm a bit sad that I sort of "gave up" that part, but in the space of a few days he's single-handedly got me up to roof height with a chunk of the roof woodwork done too. So in that sense, it's moved us on a huge amount and given me a bit of a renewed energy to crack on and start learning again!
So, as long as I can get materials, I'm back in the room!
But, in short - we got the sub floor poured with no drama. Then came the block work and, honestly, it wasn't great. I don't know why but I just couldn't get to grips with laying blocks - I did two courses and decided I wasn't having fun. As winter was closing and I had some other projects to crack on with over winter (Work stuff) I decided to pause the project and revisit in spring.
And then of course COVID kicked off. I'd originally considered going on another bricklaying course, or just paying a brickie to help me but in the interest of moving forward I asked a trusted builder to get my blockwork up. I'm a bit sad that I sort of "gave up" that part, but in the space of a few days he's single-handedly got me up to roof height with a chunk of the roof woodwork done too. So in that sense, it's moved us on a huge amount and given me a bit of a renewed energy to crack on and start learning again!
So, as long as I can get materials, I'm back in the room!
Concrete Sub Floor
Not much to say here. I did video it, I think, so perhaps I'll edit it and pop it up one day but in short we poured a lot of concrete on top of the DPM! Decided to go for insulation over slab for no other real reason than I wanted the concrete in and worry about the rest later.
Did my best to level it and I think it came out okay. Certainly acceptable for a sub floor:
https://imgur.com/a/TIMmVqf
Overall it went well, no drama, but not much to go wrong really.
Blockwork
Oooh, blockwork. I don't know what it is, but it turns out I'm not cut out for laying blocks. Long story short, I did the first two courses and went off the idea! Decided I wasn't having fun, so rather than struggle and end up with a crap build I got a tame builder. Was also a nice opportunity to check that nothing had gone wrong - I'm glad to report he was able to build onto what I'd started with zero drama!
So, this is almost where I got to (I did complete the two courses after):
https://imgur.com/a/5YP9Z9T
And this is where he left me after a week:
https://imgur.com/a/k8JMFC5
Feeling very chuffed, and very excited to push on now. COVID isn't exactly going to make things easy, but we'll see. I'm going to fit that last gully tomorrow, and then it's on to learn about roofs!
Not much to say here. I did video it, I think, so perhaps I'll edit it and pop it up one day but in short we poured a lot of concrete on top of the DPM! Decided to go for insulation over slab for no other real reason than I wanted the concrete in and worry about the rest later.
Did my best to level it and I think it came out okay. Certainly acceptable for a sub floor:
https://imgur.com/a/TIMmVqf
Overall it went well, no drama, but not much to go wrong really.
Blockwork
Oooh, blockwork. I don't know what it is, but it turns out I'm not cut out for laying blocks. Long story short, I did the first two courses and went off the idea! Decided I wasn't having fun, so rather than struggle and end up with a crap build I got a tame builder. Was also a nice opportunity to check that nothing had gone wrong - I'm glad to report he was able to build onto what I'd started with zero drama!
So, this is almost where I got to (I did complete the two courses after):
https://imgur.com/a/5YP9Z9T
And this is where he left me after a week:
https://imgur.com/a/k8JMFC5
Feeling very chuffed, and very excited to push on now. COVID isn't exactly going to make things easy, but we'll see. I'm going to fit that last gully tomorrow, and then it's on to learn about roofs!
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Last Bits of Drainage
Well, COVID really did make things tricky but hey ho. Getting roofing materials was next to impossible, so to start with I finally decided to finish the underground drainage. Nothing too exciting to report here - I put a new gully in which is for the extension downpipe and anything else we need, added the rodding point and then replaced the downpipe on the original house.
https://imgur.com/a/UuXsyk5
I definitely overegged the haunching around the gully, hopefully it won't be me who has to do something with it next!
For those who don't recall, the original house gully was this ugly affair with a completely knackered clay trap: https://imgur.com/k2KHKv1
Well, COVID really did make things tricky but hey ho. Getting roofing materials was next to impossible, so to start with I finally decided to finish the underground drainage. Nothing too exciting to report here - I put a new gully in which is for the extension downpipe and anything else we need, added the rodding point and then replaced the downpipe on the original house.
https://imgur.com/a/UuXsyk5
I definitely overegged the haunching around the gully, hopefully it won't be me who has to do something with it next!
For those who don't recall, the original house gully was this ugly affair with a completely knackered clay trap: https://imgur.com/k2KHKv1
Roof and Roofline
Pics first else most of it won't make sense: https://imgur.com/a/okZQGnp
What a pain in the neck that was! Had to drive an hour just to get some sample tiles. Anyway, let's talk roofing - we managed to juuust hit over 17.5 degrees pitch, which was a win in terms of tile choice and chances of leaking. Then one company let me down with soffits and fascias (Still haven't heard from those shysters - can feel a chargeback coming on).
But enough of that. I actually found myself with a few decisions to make around the roof and the roofline, and it's times like these that the DIY stuff gets tricky because there's nobody to bounce off or ask. Main things were - what should I do in terms of verge? I feel like I'm the only person in the world who doesn't mind the modern dry verge, though I agree they don't like great close up (i.e., on single storey stuff). In the end, I opted for a continuous dry verge because where's the fun in doing something that's readily available and has loads of information! For the tiles, we went with Marley Modern Duo as we liked the "small form" look about them.
The next challenge was what to do regarding the finished "line" of the soffit and fascia regarding render. This was made more difficult, because the dry verge needed to sit inline, too. In the end, I took a bit of a gamble and stepped the fascia out by 18mm each side. I think this'll give a decent finish for the render - if the render is less, I can finish it off with some trim and/or silicone. If the render is more, it's unlikely to be by much so will work okay. To make the verge work, and give a line for the render in future I popped up a couple of strips of 18mm UPVC. Kind of like (very) mini bargeboards - I don't know if it was really necessary. Unfortunately, I won't know if it all quite works out until we get it rendered.
So with decisions made, I set about trying to pick up my materials. My brother has a Transit he uses for car racing, which was handy, so I was able to borrow that and collect the tiles and dry verge. Then, as mentioned above, my fascias and soffit didn't arrive so I had to borrow it again and collect those!
First task was to undo a little bit of wood work done by the builder. Because I wanted the fascia to finish level with the front of the building, I had to remove his woodwork and rebuild it in brick and block. I carefully used an angle grinder and chisel on the "last" block, to open up space + mortar for my new block. Not my tidiest ever work, but that's the beauty of a rendered finish right
I don't know how people normally affix soffits, but I took my time and used leftover rafter wood to make up square plates. Some of the joists had twisted slightly, so I put my new plates about 10 mm below and squared them up with packers. Oh, I also managed to unset my new brickwork by being impatient and over eager with the hammer drill and impact driver. So that was a trip to Wickes for some fast set mortar - holy crap, that's not false advertising. Rock solid by the next morning!
Apart from everything being a bit fiddly by yourself, the soffit and fascia went up nicely. I tried to level up the nails in the soffit, but that could definitely have been better. By the time I'd done the fascia I'd made a nice little jig to get them spot on. Eaves tray went on, dry verge went up and that was that! Tiled it this afternoon, and they went up a breeze. The Modern Duo requires a cut to give the stepped look, but the Evolution Cutter once again made light work of that. Only slight "gotcha" was that the alternate rows ended with a very small 60mm cut on the left side, with no where to nail. (As in, it's mostly the interlock). To be honest, I've just left them - the dry verge grips pretty well, and then obviously they've got another tile on top of them.
Pics first else most of it won't make sense: https://imgur.com/a/okZQGnp
What a pain in the neck that was! Had to drive an hour just to get some sample tiles. Anyway, let's talk roofing - we managed to juuust hit over 17.5 degrees pitch, which was a win in terms of tile choice and chances of leaking. Then one company let me down with soffits and fascias (Still haven't heard from those shysters - can feel a chargeback coming on).
But enough of that. I actually found myself with a few decisions to make around the roof and the roofline, and it's times like these that the DIY stuff gets tricky because there's nobody to bounce off or ask. Main things were - what should I do in terms of verge? I feel like I'm the only person in the world who doesn't mind the modern dry verge, though I agree they don't like great close up (i.e., on single storey stuff). In the end, I opted for a continuous dry verge because where's the fun in doing something that's readily available and has loads of information! For the tiles, we went with Marley Modern Duo as we liked the "small form" look about them.
The next challenge was what to do regarding the finished "line" of the soffit and fascia regarding render. This was made more difficult, because the dry verge needed to sit inline, too. In the end, I took a bit of a gamble and stepped the fascia out by 18mm each side. I think this'll give a decent finish for the render - if the render is less, I can finish it off with some trim and/or silicone. If the render is more, it's unlikely to be by much so will work okay. To make the verge work, and give a line for the render in future I popped up a couple of strips of 18mm UPVC. Kind of like (very) mini bargeboards - I don't know if it was really necessary. Unfortunately, I won't know if it all quite works out until we get it rendered.
So with decisions made, I set about trying to pick up my materials. My brother has a Transit he uses for car racing, which was handy, so I was able to borrow that and collect the tiles and dry verge. Then, as mentioned above, my fascias and soffit didn't arrive so I had to borrow it again and collect those!
First task was to undo a little bit of wood work done by the builder. Because I wanted the fascia to finish level with the front of the building, I had to remove his woodwork and rebuild it in brick and block. I carefully used an angle grinder and chisel on the "last" block, to open up space + mortar for my new block. Not my tidiest ever work, but that's the beauty of a rendered finish right
I don't know how people normally affix soffits, but I took my time and used leftover rafter wood to make up square plates. Some of the joists had twisted slightly, so I put my new plates about 10 mm below and squared them up with packers. Oh, I also managed to unset my new brickwork by being impatient and over eager with the hammer drill and impact driver. So that was a trip to Wickes for some fast set mortar - holy crap, that's not false advertising. Rock solid by the next morning!
Apart from everything being a bit fiddly by yourself, the soffit and fascia went up nicely. I tried to level up the nails in the soffit, but that could definitely have been better. By the time I'd done the fascia I'd made a nice little jig to get them spot on. Eaves tray went on, dry verge went up and that was that! Tiled it this afternoon, and they went up a breeze. The Modern Duo requires a cut to give the stepped look, but the Evolution Cutter once again made light work of that. Only slight "gotcha" was that the alternate rows ended with a very small 60mm cut on the left side, with no where to nail. (As in, it's mostly the interlock). To be honest, I've just left them - the dry verge grips pretty well, and then obviously they've got another tile on top of them.
Well, I got the screed in today but I've got a horrible feeling I've screwed it right up. Readymix was delivered at the same time that the torrential rain decided to arrive - managed to keep it pretty dry, but in my rush to bash it in I pretty much forgot about the compacting side of screeding.
Feeling pretty foolish at the minute, and not quite sure what to do for the best as I've read some right horror stories about crap screeds. Although, looking at videos and stuff people tend not to do much.
I basically set up my battens across the floor, tipped a load of screed in and worked over the top with a straight edge. Then floated and troweled.
But I'm thinking I should have done some more compacting when tipping in the mix.
Feeling pretty foolish at the minute, and not quite sure what to do for the best as I've read some right horror stories about crap screeds. Although, looking at videos and stuff people tend not to do much.
I basically set up my battens across the floor, tipped a load of screed in and worked over the top with a straight edge. Then floated and troweled.
But I'm thinking I should have done some more compacting when tipping in the mix.
Last edited:
Nah, just regular sand and cement - I just went readymix as it was only an extra £50 or so, and comes with the fibres and retarded
Was it possible to go plastic with the water main while you were in the thick of things so to speak?
It's a nightmare tallying up costs eh? There are so many 'bits and bobs' you have to nip out for on the spur of a moment that unless you're ultra organised, unlike me, it's really difficult. You've been meticulous at documenting you're extension journey tho so I bet you're far better organised than I am!
Hahaha..hahaha....haha....sigh.....
That's a long story. The lead discussed is a shared connection from next door. We actually do have a brand new plastic watermain which was put in a couple of years back now. Unfortunately Severn Trent Water messed us about for over 6 months and once it was made live we couldn't get the company back to terminate at next door. That's also a long story, but the end result is that as of writing we have two water mains in the house - plastic and lead. I have to periodically run the lead to stop it stagnating until we can terminate it properly.
Once lockdown is over I have a lead on another company who can only hopefully come out and terminate next doors lead pipe and that'll be the end of that.
Funny you should mention that. In honesty I kind of gave up on that to a degree - I do have a folder of invoices to add up, but I've long since stopped including the 10 quid Screwfix trips.
Feel your pain there mate...it’s the time it saps as well more that the little additional costs
Feel your pain, I have a box of invoices bursting at the seams which feels more difficult to tally up than the build itself.
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