Timber Frame Disappointment

Today the forklift was dropped off in order to be ready for Monday when the timber frame is due for delivery. Three year old son just said 'wow' and is very excited that more machinery is on site. Unfortunately a couple of phone calls and a visit from the builder brings news that certain elements of the kit are not ready - namely the steel portal frame and the first floor TGI joists. This means that work can start on erecting the timber frame next week but the extent will be limited because the steel portal is to be integrated within some of the prefabricated wall panels on site. This is disappointing for us but is outwith our control or influence so not worth stewing about. For the builder it is perhaps more frustrating, particularly as there has already been a break of three weeks of fairly good weather since significant work on site and as he has lined up scaffolding and crew to go full steam ahead on the frame.

Wall plates installed

On Tuesday of this week the builders spent the morning fitting the wall plates (also called 'sole plates'). In timber frame construction these set out the plan of the ground floor layout and form the interface between the walls (both external and internal) and the ground floor slab/foundations.
The wall plates comprise timber of the same width dimension of the wall panels they support (ie. 140mm and 89mm), and are simply cut to length and laid on a bed of mortar (and damp proof course at the outside walls).
Whilst an apparently straightforward process, locating the wall plates in the correct positions is critical to the ultimate accuracy of the frame installation.
As an aside, this process also introduced a simple but effective airtightness detail to the building, in that the overhanging damp proof membrane (from under the slab) is folded back over the slab at the edges for later trimming and connection to the vapour membrane to be installed on the inside of the wall panels. Whilst not an essential detail (and usually omitted), this ensures an airtight and flexible linear floor/wall joint that should last through the first few years of the building 'settling' and drying out, a process often responsible for significant degradation of airtighness as cracks open between differing materials (eg wood/mortar) and thus worsening energy efficiency. Polythene membrane, being a flexible material, withstands this movement.
As an aside, airtightness is a key component to low energy building design alongside insulation, the minimisation of thermal bridges, orientation and glazing. Coupled with this it is essential to have an effective ventilation system to ensure good air quality inside - more on this and other airtighness details as the house takes shape.

Four Months of Caravan Living

We've been living in the caravan for just over 4 months now, its hard to believe and generally has worked a lot better and been much easier than we expected (all those years of camping provides good training!). Yesterday was a horribly cold damp foggy day though and I felt chilled to the bone. By the evening I just couldn't get warm and the prospect of a warm bathroom in a real house would have been lovely. Its a better morning outside today but the water heater won't work and after attempts to remedy the problem we've called the engineer who is coming out this afternoon thankfully. If it doesn't work I'll be 'phoning a friend'.

We have two caravans both of which are on a concrete area, formerly one of the farm middens (for the English readers that's the place where all the cow muck is piled up!) Our main van has two wee bedrooms, a dining kitchen and a sitting/lounge area as well as a shower room with a sit-up bath tub which is great for the children. The cooking and heating (one gas fire) are by bottled LPG.
The second van is a bit smaller but has been kitted for the washing maching, tumble dryer and lots of clothes rails, our 'walk-in wardrobe'. Initially this van was used as our office and for our nephew who stayed here in the summer. One of the main problems with caravan living is the lack of space but we're lucky enough to have the second van and lots of outbuildings to overspill into.

We don't have a completion date as such but we can easily assume another 4 months to go, it is a nice thought that we're at our halfway point of temporary accommodation but we are now heading towards winter....!!!!

All quiet on site...

It's now two weeks since the floor slab was poured with most of the ground floor plumbing and underfloor heating pipes in-situ. The planning and preparation work appears to have paid off as overnight rain reveals little ponding of water indicating we have a flat and level slab within the specified tolerance. All services are also now in place within the slab, having been 'introduced' to the inside of the building via pipework and ducts, with just the soil pipes to be revealed by tapping away the few mm of concrete over their sealing caps. Little has happened since on site with the exception of the delivery of the timber frame sole plate material to be fitted in readiness for the main house frame, this being schduled for delivery w/c 29th October, although there has been much 'to-ing' and 'fro-ing' between frame supplier, builder, architect and client (us!) over minor changes to dimensions of components and materials. In the meantime, we've put some more effort into landscaping works and have started to plant up behind the drystone faced retaining wall, this being almost complete bar coping stones (proving quite hard to come by!).