Outbuildings: Week 37, Day 5

Outbuildings: Week 37, Day 5

A sub-zero night – and it didn’t make it far above freezing all day. The noon snapshot pleasingly caught frost on the shaded north-facing roof – which also shows the loft insulation is working OK in the Utility Room. (I’m not sure why the south-facing wall of the Garage often looks green in these photos, when the sun is bright – perhaps something is upsetting the camera’s attempt at white balance.)

The floor covering team were back on-site, laying the vinyl flooring. That will need further work on Monday, to weld the joints together, fit the threshold strips etc.

The plumbers were back too, though not for a full day. They completed the removal of the last of the redundant sections of underground water main – the main complication for that being that it was upstream of the on-site stop tap which meant the water needed isolating at the meter, which is 600 metres away. They also started fitting the water meters and expansion vessel for the rainwater harvesting system.

The heat pump team made a bit more progress, connecting up the pipework for the second indoor unit.

Outside, the main build team re-installed some of the rainwater downpipes with longer brackets, to clear the ductwork for the heat pump system, then continued work on the GrassGuard blocks – including starting to fill the voids in those with topsoil.

One of the rainwater downpipes reinstated with longer brackets, to hold it further from the wall making space behind for the horizontal trunking enclosing the pipework for the air-to-air heat pump

The long-awaited delivery of the new concrete headwall (and the collection of the one sent incorrectly) did happen as scheduled – while I was off-site turning off the water at the meter. When I got back I realised it looked wrong and checking the drawing confirmed it was a ‘small’ model (815mm high) not the required ‘medium’ model (1150mm high). The story is that it was a mix-up at the dispatch yard, where the one destined for here got labelled for another customer – so we got theirs. The plan is to swap them on Monday.

Outbuildings: Week 36, Day 1

Outbuildings: Week 36, Day 1

Still awaiting news on the manufacture of the replacement concrete headwall so no progress from the main build team today. There was however another monthly site meeting with the Architect and the Main Contractor to review status and value the work completed to date, for the next monthly stage-payment.

The team from Attenborough Doors were back to complete the installation of the roller shutters. They mostly finished the final door but got called away to an emergency repair mid-afternoon so will return in the morning to finish things up.

One of the four Hormann RollMatic 2 roller shutter doors, viewed from the inside

Commissioning of the data networking and home automation systems is progressing, with the local KNX installation in the Outbuildings now operational in a standalone fashion – so the light switches work but it’s not yet possible to control the lights from the House or using Home Assistant.

The block paving blocks were also delivered direct from the manufacturer in Yorkshire, ready for installation in a few days’ time. These are Plasmor Sorrento Permi-8 permeable paving blocks. There is a limited choice of colours for the permeable blocks and ‘Sarsen Stone’ seemed the least-bad option to blend with some other stone on the site. The area by the Garages needs 23 packs, and there were 26 packs for a full lorry-load so the extra 3 will be stored and used to extend the paving towards the house – once the extent of that paving is confirmed.

Block Paving Blocks delivered ready for installation later in the week