31 A few jottings from Max.

Many people in the ‘industry’ say we have done extraordinarily well in getting this far so fast.  Not having done this before [a new build] I have felt that we have made many mistakes, and could do better next time – though there will be no next time for me.

What follows are some thoughts on the reasons why we might have ‘done well’. – in no particular order.

I think from the outset we understood the difficulties / challenges posed by  architects /engineers and their working drawings.  [and this is of course nothing to do with whether it is good Architecture or not]  I spent hours looking at their working drawings to understand them and then for the basic build drew my own set that we could use to build from. – something that I and a joiner could understand and very importantly, the sequence that things must happen in. This way there were fewer surprises, and materials were on site and were put together in roughly the right order.

I often feel that many builders of Modern Architecture don’t fully realise what they are taking on, and that also professionals do not have sufficient practical experience of how ‘things’ are put together.

Many of the details are quite difficult to achieve in practice [foundation design, or windows up to the ceiling so that the ceiling plaster has to be accurate or you can’t open the window, tolerances very small etc etc.].  We were fortunate that as the client, and also an architect, we were not afraid to change their details etc, so that we could get on and build and I was also confident with the detail.  If I didn’t feel happy with a detail or proposed ‘How to build it’, I changed it. 

After all, you have to pay for it and you have to live with it.

What would actually happen in say 5 years time if the cladding sagged?

We decided to be the general contractor.  No one understands the building as well as we do, and as the design is a one off, non traditional with many special details, it would have taken a long time for a General Contractor to get into it.  We did speak with two GCs early on, but time and again they, and some of our current trades’ people, thought – "this is how one usually does this detail, so we will do that detail here".  Wrong. 

This means working very closely with our team to ensure we get what we want.  Also being the GC, we save about 15 – 20% of costs – their fee for managing the work.

We have had a good team of tradespeople.  Knowledgeable and hands on.

This is partly luck and partly research.  We spent a lot of time before we started building interviewing different people, getting quotes and visiting their sites etc.  Seeing is believing.  You see firms that are lean and mean where management also go on site, and others where there is too much fat – which clients pay for.  Quotes are often 100% different.  £14k for the roof or £31k for the roof.  £15k for the steel or £36k.   Some of these relationships have been built up over 6 – 12 months starting when I did an initial budget exercise in Jan 2012 and keeping in touch with the firms.

Our ground workers have been excellent and hands on - helping us build foundations etc in a very wet December.  Knowing where to take short cuts and where not.  This concept has saved us £1000’s all down the line.

We have only had to let one trade go for poor performance.

Knowledge base.  We knew broadly what we wanted from the start, and although we have a good idea of building trades, when we started this project our skills in planning and building control were out of date.  We tried to bring ourselves up to date quickly, and before any building started.  Building Regs have, and are changing yearly, and this could mean you are caught on the back foot being bounced into doing things that you feel are not quite right, or specifying things – 'just to be on the safe side’.  Every time I hear this phrase I cringe, because what I think this means is – 'I don’t really know [even though I am supposed to] so let’s double the size or add another…. '

Not good enough!

Planning.  They say measure twice and cut once.  So think about what you have to build and organise to get it done - quickly.  My time is free, but two tradesmen have a daily cost - one needs to keep them fully occupied - and they can work fast. 

We generally planned for the ground work – but you have to live with the unknown here, so there is only so much you can plan for.  Use experts with hands on knowledge.

After we got the ground works done/steel frame up, we took Jan – Feb off and started again on March 4^th.  This 2 month break was very valuable as it allowed us to think through ALL the issues that needed to be managed in the next phase.  These planning phases enable us to be highly productive and cost effective when we are actually working on site.

We have just stopped again for two and half weeks to plan the final build phase – at the end of which the windows, roof, cladding, plastering, and kitchen will be in together with water and electric. [end of June] Then probably another pause to think about joinery. [and a rest]

Materials / logistics.  As my tradesmen are expensive I cannot afford to run out of materials [just like a supermarket having a stock out.]  In October we did a major costing exercise with 5 building material suppliers.  Our material list was fairly comprehensive and therefore worth a lot.  We got some very competitive quotes on this bulk and generally chose the cheapest firm to work with.  I am buying now at October prices and get good service as a good client.  I don’t buy every thing from the supplier, as they are generalists and our build is Code 5+ and has many specialist items, but we have a relationship that is worth while. 

I use ebay, screwfix and a host of specialist suppliers, who generally manage to deliver some obscure nut or glue from Birmingham to Bath over night.  Impressive.

Most of the building is enclosed in a sheeted scaffold box which we has proved invaluable.  For a wooden house this has allowed us to be efficient in working full days, attracting good trade people who know their work will not be interrupted, getting lower quotes from some trades – (imagiine putting a roof on in the rain, and being effective in being able to plan ahead with some certainty).

Site access has been a nightmare as delivery lorries get bigger and bigger and our access is poor. A major source of stress for me has been: - will they send the lorry they promised? – no more that 24ft, does it have a crane on? and what the driver is like?  I can’t describe the number of times I have had to block the road as we scramble to unload materials.  But the gods have been kind, and the locals tolerant.  We have also had our fair share of luck.  We were unloading a pallet [1.8tons] of 18mm chipboard and were going to put this via our Hi Mac directly onto the roof from the back of the site.  Half way down the slope the load slipped off the forks and shot down the hill.  The load went between two of our transit vans missing each by 5mm.  Mighty relief all round.

I have found that at least half my day is spent in thinking what we need next, ordering materials, unloading into the dry, and finding out what we are short of.   I have been surprised and impressed how productive many trades are, with air tools, lasers, mobile workbenches etc.  I need to keep on top of their next move. 

The other half of the day is often taken up with explaining drawings, getting their views and organising work.  This means that most hands on work that I do takes place after 4.15pm when trades knock off or at week ends.  This can make for a very long day.  This build has been an unremitting slog from Nov 5^th. Weekends are working on site / preparing for Monday trades or thinking about issues.  The site appears to be very windy – we have had an appalling winter in weather terms, but the end in sight.

We have missed some order/delivery dates, saved a lot of cash on some items [ground works, frame, some materials, but spent more on the little things [which really add up] – air tight membranes, fixings, fireplaces, etc but on balance we are currently on budget.  I thought we were to have our Grand Design moment recently – just before the adverts, when the clients are either getting a divorce, going bust, or are 5 years behind schedule.  One of our suppliers is incredibly bad at communicating with us.  It starts with delays in delivery – next week not this week, then you chase them, and they don’t call back – it goes on, and because they never ring you, one feels – after some weeks of missed deadlines, that the worst is happening.  Then someone rings you and says "we will be there tomorrow".  Huge sigh.

So if we have been productive etc, it’s down to quite a few things. 

There are many items I would change if I were doing this again, - which I’m not, but this is the content of a future jotting.

30 Back on site and feeling part of the team again.

 Coming back to the site after six weeks away was very exciting.  All the walls, rather than just being framework, were all filled with soft insulation, compressed insulation, vapour control barriers, breather membranes, and various layers of horizontal and or vertical battens inside and out to take the finished internal and external walls.  

I can't believe how much timber there is in this building

The silver is the vapour control layer which lines the inside of all the internal walls, whilst on the outside they are lined with a breather membrane

So it was beginning to look more like a solid house.  The roof has a similar format of layering. 
The photo below shows the vapour control layer prior to the insulation boards being laid.

The aluminium angle will create a trim trim at the head of the cladding. It has been fitted all around the building with neatly mitred corners.

The electricians have also been on site and have started the wiring and fitting the boxes for the power sockets.  This is where all the wires meet at one of the two Consumer Units.  Plenty more still to find their way here.

During the last week before I returned, the under floor heating pipes on the ground floor had all been laid, and the super smooth screed had been wheel-barrowed in and tamped smooth by these two super-fit gentlemen you can see in the photo.  (No-one I can recognise! – not that those that I would be able to recognise aren’t super fit – 6 packs are actually becoming visibly noticeable).

Before the screed went down Max also laid all the duct work for the ventilation for the stove and snug fireplace.

Last week (commencing 30th April) has been full of activity. 

The joiners have been fitting internal walls, the stair wall, utility and studio bathroom internal walls, and battening out the ceiling to take the plasterboard

The window fabricators, represented by Pete, visited us again at our request on Wednesday  to re-check all the dimensions.  This was essential from our point of view because too many questions were being asked and we were having to relay dimensions that we were taking.  Not good – because the fabrication then becomes too much our responsibility!  If they don’t fit we could be the ones who have to pay for the second fabrication.  I suggested to them that it would be better to measure twice, and fabricate once rather than vice versa.

The plumbers arrived on Thursday, and continued through Friday and Saturday morning fitting copper water pipes, toilet waste pipes, and everything in between.  

He comes with an air of being a slightly sceptical guy with a sideways view on a minimalist approach to things, but becomes a very amenable, dry humoured, hard working and reliable artisan who is very willing to do something different from the norm and enjoy the challenge.  A great sport – worth his weight in gold.

The electricians started on Friday. I had marked up all the switches and sockets on the plans and had written a schedule stating exactly what each set were related to and which light the switched were meant to operate.  They were also all numbered and positioned on the walls to coincide with the plans.  I hoped that they would find it helpful. 

The scaffolders came back on Friday and Bank Holiday Monday to move the scaffolding so that the window installers will be able to access the openings with enough space to move.

The architect came for a site visit on Friday to see what progress had been made and how we were doing.  He seemed impressed – or else he was too polite to say anything different.

The roofers made a start to the final layer of insulation and weather-proofing cover on Friday and will be here for a couple of weeks or so to get the roofs all finished.

The studio roof with the waterproof membrane being fitted - before rain stopped play.
However they can continue working on the other roofs as they are undercover!

The main house roof with the insulation boards fixed with the magic blue pins, awaiting the waterproof layer

On Friday the rep for the cladding we are using for the living wall area, the links between the three sections of the house, and the fascia panels visited us to advise on the material we have chosen, and how to calculate exactly what size of panels we needed.  I had prepared schematic elevations of the house showing the colourings and the distribution of the different materials to try to visualise more accurately what it would look like. The result filled me with excitement because the colourings and shapes looked so much better than just a black and white drawing.   

We then needed to calculate sheet quantities that we would require having calculated all the cut sizes, and how they would be best cut from the larger sheets.  It took me a day – only to find out that the company had a magic computer programme to do the same calculation. 

So all in all, not an empty week.

This week (commencing 6^th May) has been equally busy on site.  

The plumber has got most of his first fix sorted except for the studio – which is full of insulation panels and therefore not so accessible.  

The electricians have filled all the walls with cables – thankfully all marked as to exactly what they are supplying so that when they come to do the second fix they will know what goes where.  The joiners have pretty well completed all the internal walls as well as completing the overhang to the living room window.

We had the tiler round to discuss the final fit out to the walls and floors so that the specification is correct for all his tiling.  Also planned how the lines of grout would align.

The joiners are away now for 2 – 3 weeks whilst other trades come and do their work. 

So in the next month we will see windows installed, plasterboard being fitted, plasterwork being applied, and the external cladding being fixed. We are therefore approaching the last third of the building programme.  The first being all the groundworks and foundations - getting the building out of the ground, the second being the framework, and then the third and most exciting being the fitting out and putting all the finishing surfaces in place.  We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It hasn’t felt like a long haul either – but that may because I had 5 weeks of holiday with my family.  You’ll have to ask Max what he thinks.  He might have a slightly different view.

This weekend  we are very excited because we are off to see our new granddaughter.

We are going to forget everything about caravans and building sites for a couple of days and come back fully restored for the final stage.

You never know July 31^st may not be so far off the mark as our projected move in date.  Though I am still determined to have it fully finished before I actually move out of the caravan.  But at least I feel confident that we won't have another winter in it.