Rather than try and keep thinking up blog posts to accompany the mass of photo's we're collecting, I've created a couple of Albums on Facebook.
I'll carry on posting here, as we progress and detail the various decisions we make, along with the occasional update when I load more photo's in to the Facebook albums.
General Photos - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220261&id=708651418&l=43f93a5378
Timeslip Photos - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=225146&id=708651418&l=64eca6bcef
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Foundations complete, still a leak!
The beginning of this week saw the completion of the foundations. So all is running along, more or less, smoothly.
The only issue at present is what seems to be the always present water leak! We've had Southern Water to site on about 3 occasions, each time I call I'm told that the leak has been fixed, whilst our groundwork team tell us otherwise. The key problem is that it's the old property's water main - a nice old fashioned metal pipe with no locatable stop-cock. As the "nice" SW representative told me on the phone, we are responsible for the pipework our side of the stop-cock, so I kindly informed him that SW were therefore obliged to tell us where said stop-cock was located!
Luckily, whilst Keri was on site taking the photo's below, an Engineer turned up. Initially they thought it was a faulty valve, replaced that and still the leak persisted. Next up was a radio tracker, whereby they tracked the pipe to our boundary and then picked it up again at the roadside - I'm convinced the original stop-cock is located in the garden of what is now the new property built in front (completed in 2007). Anyway, the upshot is that SW are going to excavated where they picked it up by the roadside and finally fix it.
In the meantime, the first lot of below DPC materials have been delivered to site and, as I write this post, the brick layers should be getting on with the blocks you see in the photo.
The Signage by the road on entrance to site - a nice mock-up of how the house will eventually look.
The first delivery of blocks to site... not quite an action photo :o)
The only issue at present is what seems to be the always present water leak! We've had Southern Water to site on about 3 occasions, each time I call I'm told that the leak has been fixed, whilst our groundwork team tell us otherwise. The key problem is that it's the old property's water main - a nice old fashioned metal pipe with no locatable stop-cock. As the "nice" SW representative told me on the phone, we are responsible for the pipework our side of the stop-cock, so I kindly informed him that SW were therefore obliged to tell us where said stop-cock was located!
Luckily, whilst Keri was on site taking the photo's below, an Engineer turned up. Initially they thought it was a faulty valve, replaced that and still the leak persisted. Next up was a radio tracker, whereby they tracked the pipe to our boundary and then picked it up again at the roadside - I'm convinced the original stop-cock is located in the garden of what is now the new property built in front (completed in 2007). Anyway, the upshot is that SW are going to excavated where they picked it up by the roadside and finally fix it.
In the meantime, the first lot of below DPC materials have been delivered to site and, as I write this post, the brick layers should be getting on with the blocks you see in the photo.
The Signage by the road on entrance to site - a nice mock-up of how the house will eventually look.
The first delivery of blocks to site... not quite an action photo :o)
Saturday, 8 May 2010
We've got piles!
No, not the sort from sitting on damp ground for too long. Although there has been plenty of dampness from those pesky water pipes from the old house.
The piling work has been making progress, though according to the logs they've managed to go further down than initially quoted. The original quotation indicated an average of 8m, even though the site survey and exploration bore holes indicated around 10.5m. The actual piles have gone down between 9 - 13m. It's going to make a bit of impact on our contingency fund, literally pouring money in to the ground!
Foundation materials are due on site in just over a week and the following week are the blocks for the ground floor. It'll be around then that we start taking regular photos as the skin of the building begins to appear out of the ground.
Here are a few photos of our piles for those interested.
The Piling Machinery
Piles in and the concrete poured
After the initial concrete, the steel mesh will be laid for the concrete ring beam on top of the pile.
The piling work has been making progress, though according to the logs they've managed to go further down than initially quoted. The original quotation indicated an average of 8m, even though the site survey and exploration bore holes indicated around 10.5m. The actual piles have gone down between 9 - 13m. It's going to make a bit of impact on our contingency fund, literally pouring money in to the ground!
Foundation materials are due on site in just over a week and the following week are the blocks for the ground floor. It'll be around then that we start taking regular photos as the skin of the building begins to appear out of the ground.
Here are a few photos of our piles for those interested.
The Piling Machinery
Piles in and the concrete poured
After the initial concrete, the steel mesh will be laid for the concrete ring beam on top of the pile.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Construction has started
Yes, finally the construction phase has begun! It's been almost 12-months to get from purchase completion to this point and almost 18-months from our original offer.
So, what's happened since our last posting?
Contractor Selection
The contractor selection process worked well, although a certain contractor who shall remain nameless attempted to strong-arm us - he was subsequently dumped from the selection. To get things moving, we decided to tender separately for piling and construction. Our thought process was that we could get the piling work moving faster and could take more time deciding on the main build contractor. Upon verbally awarding this contractor the piling work (to give you a hint their trading name has "Foundations" in the title), he decided to drag his feet on providing a contract! After pushing for almost 2-weeks he responded by telling us he would only do it if he got both the piling and construction! Knowing we were pressed for time on making the decision to allow us to hit the December move in date. We reviewed our options and went back to the piling contractor that came in 2nd - they were prepared to mobilise quickly and it's those guys that will start piling tomorrow.
Next up was the main build contractor. We were now down to 3, though quickly 2, as after the site meeting day we realised one of the contractors hadn't cropped up in our conversations over the next couple of days - a sure fire indication that they hadn't done enough to impress, even though they were number 2 in terms of costs. In the end, it came down to budget, as whilst we'd built decent rapport for both the final runners there was no denying who on paper appeared most cost-effective and we appointed MPR projects to manage the build. Though it was a close run thing with Bassett Homes (they don't advertise it, but they do full builds too).
Building Regs
The next step, before we could start was to get the Building Regs through and the final planning conditions discharged. Building regs went through fine, though it was touch and go with the final planning conditions as Environmental Health questioned whether any vibration tests had been conducted by the appointed piling contractors and if not, there needed to be good reason why.
Luckily, the appointed contractor, Able Piling, had conducted the piling work on one of our neighbours, so were in a good position to explain why one was not needed - Our biggest concern was what would have happened if tests were mandated? We were guessing it would have taken weeks to arrange access to neighbours properties to perform the tests!
This and the report from the Arboroculturist (Tree chappy), that our planned landscaping changes were okay and we were ready to begin work!
Making friends of our new neighbours
To smooth progress, our first task was to send personal letters to all our neighbours, introducing ourselves, indicating when work was due to begin and our contact details in the event of any issues/concerns. We used the planning application list of consulted neighbours to target our letters, and a couple of websites that provide electoral role info to personalise them (which was done through some clever cross-referencing of two websites that provide differing partial electoral role info).
Service Provision and pre-start activities
Make sure you allow plenty of time dealing with the Utility companies, though in all fairness both electricity and water were fairly responsive. the latter even more so, when I expressed that I thought there may be a leak on-site from the demolition work! ;-) It was a bit cheeky, but saved my skin as once the engineer was on-site and I chatted with him, he quickly sorted out getting the existing standpipe and new metered supply back up and running (it had been done by the builder of one of the other properties in expectation of winning this build too).
Also, ensure when having the temporary build electric supply, you specify that it will later provide the residential supply - this can possibly save additional cost later.
All of that lined up and the Ground Worker in place to lay the piling mat (Able Piling don't do that, or the setting out themselves) and we're good to go. Trees removed from site, piling mat down and the construction phase is about to begin.
So, what's happened since our last posting?
Contractor Selection
The contractor selection process worked well, although a certain contractor who shall remain nameless attempted to strong-arm us - he was subsequently dumped from the selection. To get things moving, we decided to tender separately for piling and construction. Our thought process was that we could get the piling work moving faster and could take more time deciding on the main build contractor. Upon verbally awarding this contractor the piling work (to give you a hint their trading name has "Foundations" in the title), he decided to drag his feet on providing a contract! After pushing for almost 2-weeks he responded by telling us he would only do it if he got both the piling and construction! Knowing we were pressed for time on making the decision to allow us to hit the December move in date. We reviewed our options and went back to the piling contractor that came in 2nd - they were prepared to mobilise quickly and it's those guys that will start piling tomorrow.
Next up was the main build contractor. We were now down to 3, though quickly 2, as after the site meeting day we realised one of the contractors hadn't cropped up in our conversations over the next couple of days - a sure fire indication that they hadn't done enough to impress, even though they were number 2 in terms of costs. In the end, it came down to budget, as whilst we'd built decent rapport for both the final runners there was no denying who on paper appeared most cost-effective and we appointed MPR projects to manage the build. Though it was a close run thing with Bassett Homes (they don't advertise it, but they do full builds too).
Building Regs
The next step, before we could start was to get the Building Regs through and the final planning conditions discharged. Building regs went through fine, though it was touch and go with the final planning conditions as Environmental Health questioned whether any vibration tests had been conducted by the appointed piling contractors and if not, there needed to be good reason why.
Luckily, the appointed contractor, Able Piling, had conducted the piling work on one of our neighbours, so were in a good position to explain why one was not needed - Our biggest concern was what would have happened if tests were mandated? We were guessing it would have taken weeks to arrange access to neighbours properties to perform the tests!
This and the report from the Arboroculturist (Tree chappy), that our planned landscaping changes were okay and we were ready to begin work!
Making friends of our new neighbours
To smooth progress, our first task was to send personal letters to all our neighbours, introducing ourselves, indicating when work was due to begin and our contact details in the event of any issues/concerns. We used the planning application list of consulted neighbours to target our letters, and a couple of websites that provide electoral role info to personalise them (which was done through some clever cross-referencing of two websites that provide differing partial electoral role info).
Service Provision and pre-start activities
Make sure you allow plenty of time dealing with the Utility companies, though in all fairness both electricity and water were fairly responsive. the latter even more so, when I expressed that I thought there may be a leak on-site from the demolition work! ;-) It was a bit cheeky, but saved my skin as once the engineer was on-site and I chatted with him, he quickly sorted out getting the existing standpipe and new metered supply back up and running (it had been done by the builder of one of the other properties in expectation of winning this build too).
Also, ensure when having the temporary build electric supply, you specify that it will later provide the residential supply - this can possibly save additional cost later.
All of that lined up and the Ground Worker in place to lay the piling mat (Able Piling don't do that, or the setting out themselves) and we're good to go. Trees removed from site, piling mat down and the construction phase is about to begin.
Monday, 25 January 2010
The old building is gone!
Well, it's been a few months since we last wrote anything.The plans were approved on 18th September (these are the plans published on the EBC website), we then went through the process of selecting a demolition contractor.
Demolition started just before Christmas and completed mid-January (see the photo of nothingness!), in parallel we also went out to tender for the main build. The tender went out to 7 builders, with 5 responding. The quotes have been interesting, varying by almost 80% between the lowest and highest!
January 30th will see the site meeting day, in which we'll be meeting the 4 shortlisted builders to discuss their proposals. We went through the process of taking the most comprehensive response and taking the content to produce a checklist (supplemented by items from the others too), which will allow us to do an "apples for apples" comparison. Hopefully it'll clearly show what each is providing us for the money it's going to cost.
We've also confirmed since our last blog that we will need piling, possibly all the way down to a whopping 10.5M! Talk about pouring money in to the ground :-(
Hopefully by the end of the first week in February we'll have selected both the piling contractor and main builder. Afterwhich it'll be all systems go, all seem to believe that it'll be an 8-month build meaning we should be in by next Christmas!
We'll be keeping a photo journal of the whole thing by cementing in an old camera tripod at the bottom of the garden and taking regular photos as the build progresses.
Watch this space!
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