measuring the floor!

photo

The blockwork is almost finished, you can see the stack of floor insulation next to the car, 200mm takes up a lot of space.

3rd day in a row with no brickies!

well its wed and no sign of the brickies this week, apparantly they went to the pub on Sunday and haven't been seen since!
Oh well, once the rest of the foundations are done then at least the rest of the house is wood so no brickies required.

James

another week, another delay

well, monday morning came, the digger came, the delivery came but no builders again.
They had largely finsihed last week and just have the porch and internal wall to do but they didn't turn up. Still, the digger managed to put down aggregate into the floor, we use recycled concrete where its deep (its cheaper (no aggregate tax) and more environmentally friendly).

I was out til dark compacting the material down.

Still hoping to get the insulation down on wed / thurs and floor in on friday.

James

the house begins to rise!

Well the builders have got underway and the house is beginning to rise!
Floor Insulation arrived as well. I hadn't realised how much space 120m2 @ 200mm of insulation takes up to store, our car park is full of it!

off to a poor start

Well, the builders didn't turn up yesterday so everything looked the same when we got back. Apparantly he injured himself on sunday but will turn up on Tuesday!
Its not too bad, we have plenty of time before the superstructure will be ready but delays have knock on effects on other parts of the foundation. A solid floor on friday might get delayed.
One thing we did find out recently that was useful is regarding the floor. The architect's plans show 200mm of insulation as requested but none under the stove, apparantly for buildng regs. However, as long as there is 200mm of concrete under the stove then thats enough, that means we can still have 100mm of insulation under the stove which is better than none.

James

Introduction

Hello,

I have just started to build a sustainable house in North East Scotland so thought I'd record our progress and maybe help others who are considering doing this.

We live near Ellon, about 20 miles North from Aberdeen. We are building a new house on a 7 acre plot which eventually will become a small holding. We purchased the plot in May 2006 and after several months to get planning permission, and then another month for a building warrant, we finally started last week.

Although we are trying to be a green as possible then some compromises does have to be made. Partly in terms of cost, partly to satisfy regulations, partly because the skills and materials are not readily availble and partly due to lack of time.

At the moment (20 Aug) we have just laid the foundations, convential concrete trenches (some of you are groaning i know). We will have a solid concrete floor with 200mm of insulation and slightly less insulation and more concrete under the central stove (with a back boiler for hot water). We are not having any central heating and will have 300mm of insulation in the wall (Isonat - hemp based).

Tomorrow, the builders will start the blockwork which will contain the solid floor. Finally the house will raise from the ground!.