Welcome to our blog.

This blog will follow the ultimate in home improvement: demolish and rebuild!

This is our starting point: a 1930s bungalow. While not a bad house; it is too small for us with three teenage children so what should we do? A full storey extension versus complete rebuild - ultimately the stronger eco-credentials and more certain finances of a new-build helped to guide our choice.

For a number of years we've been trying to find the right route for us to build an eco-friendly, low energy home. We tried various architects and building companies and have eventually settled with a German prefabricated build. The new house will be nearly to passivhaus standards (but not quite due to budget constraints). In any case, the house will be heavily insulated and airtight.

As a family, we have not built a house before so everything is new and exciting but the risk of making a mess of things is quite high!

This blog aims to outline the day to day steps involved in our build.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

From sandpit to cage!

Jerry and Doru made sure the drains were covered and Andy flattened the type 2 material with the 'whacker plate'.








Then the sand (blinding) went down transforming the ground into an enourmous sand pit. This was then compacted by Andy and the whacker plate again. Jerry thought this was amusing since this is normally what you do for the DPM but now it has been decided to put the DPM above the floorslab.

Meanwhile, back at HQ, that is the tiny study in our rental house, I discovered with some annoyance that we need planning permission for our air source heat pump. Strangely enough, ground source heat pumps are part of permitted development rights but not air source heat pumps. Anyway, I've managed to get the paperwork done. Fingers crossed that the timing works out.


Doru unleashes the cage and starts the next stage of getting the reinforcement for our floorslab prepared. The sand pit is rapidly transformed into a  huge cage.

Andy makes little boxes to house the duct ends so that they can be shoogled in the floorslab if required to ease the pipe work installation later on.


  
The two layers of steel are now primed to take the concrete. It will soon be time for the big pour!
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