Self Build project

[PikeyDIY]

Hi everyone

Only stumbled upon this forum from Google while doing some research at work to find out about Caltite's waterproof concrete guarantee.

Ignore the stupid sounding username - my name is Jeff Pike and I usually use the nickname '*****' wherever I register on one of these forums, but it was already taken so I added DIY on the end without really putting much thought into how it would sound

Anyway, we have a blog which I update pretty much every lunchtime, which charts the progress on our self build project which I started in March this year with my girlfriend Emma. The address is http://jeffandemmashouse.blogspot.com, check it out

Jeff

 

[raydar]

great blog, read it all last night. I will be watching it to see how you get on so keep it up to date please.

 

[hairybiddy]

Great blog, I have it on RSS now.. All the best with the build

 

[ColJack]

recon he'll be back?

he's got water in, and waste out cast into the slab.. but what about the electric? or the gas? or the cable tv / phone..?

 

[RF Lighting]

Surface / cavity into meter boxes?

 

[PikeyDIY]

No gas. No immediate plans for home phone.

Electricity into a wall-mounted meter box and into the house through the wall

 

[ColJack]

you definitely want gas.. storage heating or electric boilers suck by comparison..
unless you're going for ground source heat pumps?

didn't notice the brickwork before.. why haven't you stagered the courses.. you lined all the bricks up.. thet will be a weaker bond won't it?

 

[PikeyDIY]

Air source heat pump - was the only way to meet level 3 of Code For Sustainable Homes, couldnt do it with a gas boiler! Madness I know, but that's how it is.

There is steel 'Bricktie' reinforcement in the mortar joints

 

[ColJack]

ground source is much better than air source..
and you have a large area of grass that you could excavate to put it under..

if you need a sparky, give me a shout..

 

[PikeyDIY]

But also much more expensive

We will be needing one once we've got the walls up and the roof on, which we're still hoping to do before winter this year. How much roughly are we looking at for first fix of a new build 2 bed bungalow? PM me if you want

 

[ColJack]

depends on what you want and how many..

if you could do us a rough plan we can have a look..

 

[ColJack]

having looked back to the first few posts on the blog I recon that this is not going to be far from the actual?

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did you consider SIPS panels for the construction method?

 

[PikeyDIY]

Yeah that's about it, roughly. 60 sq metres internally. We havent started thinking about exact locations of light switches and stuff, but by the time we come to getting in proper quotes we'll have a proper drawing with everything drawn out exactly where we want it.

SIPS were briefly considered, but not really in any great detail. I think they're a pretty cool idea.

 

[ColJack]

from what I've read about them, SIPS are about the same cost as stick framing, but they are faster to put up..

 

[ColJack]

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this you?