Week 42, Day 2

Week 42, Day 2:

  • Another good day’s work by Full Metal Roofing who have now completed the zinc over the curved section of the north roof
    • It’s not clear from the photo but there’s still quite a lot more zinc to install on the section above the curve, but that should be fairly straightforward (apart from dressing it around the two skylights)
    • Then there will be the tricky matter of cladding the fascia sections on the end of the curved section and a few more finishing touches – and then it will be done
  • More work on the kitchen, of which the highlight was installing the cooker hood
    • With a whole-house MVHR system you don’t want a hood which exhausts to the outside, and it’s also a bad idea to connect an extraction hood directly to the MVHR system since the grease tends to clog the heat exchanger
    • The best approach is to have a recirculating cooker hood which will take out some of the grease from frying, remove some cooking smells (via activated charcoal filters) and then exhaust the air in the direction of the kitchen extract vent for the MVHR system – which is fitted with a fleece filter pad to remove further grease – to get rid of the humidity
      • At the same time I guess the MVHR unit will recover some of the heat from cooking and circulate it around the house
    • The Miele DA 7006 D Aura hood fulfills these criteria, although it’s not that energy-efficient itself and it’s not cheap – plus it looks a bit like a flying saucer which some people love and other people aren’t very impressed by (I love it)
  • More plastering – mostly in the Dining Room
  • More second-fix electrical – mostly fitting the isolator switches for the kitchen appliances
  • More wall-tiling in the bathrooms
  • More trimming of the cedar cladding around the windows
Week 42, Day 2

Week 42, Day 2

Zinc completed on curved section of north roof

Zinc completed on curved section of north roof

Miele DA 7006 D Aura Cooker Hood

Miele DA 7006 D Aura Cooker Hood

Week 41, Day 5

Week 41, Day 5:

  • Some rain showers, hence the water-spot on the camera lens
  • The busiest day on site so far – 16 people and nearly as many vehicles:
    • 4 zinc roofing installers
    • 3 plumbers
    • 2 kitchen fitters
    • 2 plasterers
    • 2 tilers
    • 2 main contractors
    • 1 electrician
  • The zinc roofing team were back to prepare for the curved sections on the north roof – only one piece installed so far but the rest should go on fairly quickly next week now the preparation is complete
  • More work on the kitchen, installing and wiring up the ovens
  • Good progress on the wall tiling in the shower cubicles
  • More progress on the plumbing, including installing the baths and about half of the towel radiators
    • There is one radiator per bath / shower room so 7 in total, fairly evenly distributed throughout the house
    • They’re all the same and roughly 1m tall x 0.5m wide but they’ll run off warm water from the Ground Source Heat Pump rather than hot water from a Boiler and hence need to be over-sized
    • Running with 40 degree water from the GSHP I reckon they’ll only produce about 25% of their rated output (560W at 50 degree delta T) so that’s roughly 1kW in total
  • Still more plastering, finishing off the Living Room
Week 41, Day 5

Week 41, Day 5

Lots of workmen on site today

Lots of workmen on site today

Zinc roof panel forming machine

Zinc roof panel forming machine

Array of ovens in the kitchen

Bank of ovens in the kitchen – Steam Oven, Main Oven and Microwave with Warming Drawers below

Wall tiles in one of the showers

Wall tiles in one of the showers (not yet grouted)

Towel radiator (one per bathroom)

Towel radiator (one per bathroom)

Completed plastering in the Living Room

Completed plastering in the Living Room