May
2010
Glazing Over
Following the news of
our chosen plasterer's broken wrist, Project Manager Mike Neate decided that
he'd step in,
having had considerable experience with lime plaster when he lived in Spain
for a number of years.
Feeling his plastering
skills were possibly a little rusty, he decided to try rendering
the outside of the garage, and soon got back into his stride.
The mezzanine storage
area floor is now complete, with just enough room for Lizzie to
walk under the glulam beam without banging her head.
And opening up yet
more electrical wiring opportunities for Mike.
Finally our windows
arrived direct from Austria in an enormous lorry, apparently advertising some
kind of ski resort.
Having waited an additional
and rather frustrating two weeks, on delivery day the windows turned up two
hours early,
meaning the specialist installation team hadn't yet arrived, so we had to
unload the lorry ourselves.
Cameraman Lee from the
BBC 'To Build or Not to Build' programme captured all the grunting and straining.....
....but fortunately
no windows or personnel were damaged in the entire operation.
Finally to everybody's
relief the cavalry came riding over the metaphorical hill, in the form of
the installation team
from the Green Building Store in Yorkshire, headed by foreman Barry (on the
right).
Mike gives his take
on the morning's events, generally feeling relieved not to have strained anything.
Once on site, Barry
and his boys Luke and Jason were quick to get on with the installation, starting
with
one of the smaller windows to get into the swing of it......
....rapidly moving
on to the largest single window in the entire house......
.......which went in perfectly without a hitch.
Just a quick alignment check from outside.
Because of the huge scale of the job, Mike Neate decided he'd prefer to employ
another
plasterer to deal with the ceilings inside the house. Here Graham's preparing
one of the bedrooms for plastering,
using a special 'grippy' primer, which the lime render is supposed to stick
to.
However, as plasterer Roger discovered, most of it fell off onto the floor,
so it all had to be shovelled back up again,
and so as not to waste it, it seemed to make sense to put it on the walls.
It turned out that the best strategy was to fill in any wrinkles, then apply
a thin skim coat afterwards.
All part of the learning process, as plastering with lime direct onto concrete
is pretty unusual.
Meanwhile the Green Building Store team had pretty well all of the windows
in place,
and began installing the airtightness tapes.
This is all part of the strategy to seal up all the leaks, so that the mechanical
ventilation system can do its job properly.
The taping of every single window is very important and our architect
Neill Lewis came along to check on progress.
Another part of the airtightness the membrane which lines the first
floor ceiling is taped down to the walls,
and then rendered over to seal it. It's absolutely crucial that we get these
details right.
'Tadaa!' Plasterer Roger amazes Neill and Mike with his successfully-stuck-to-the-ceiling
technique.
So here's one of our Optiwin windows, installed in the kitchen. Triple-glazed
and with highly efficient seals, they have a
glass specification developed exclusively for this house, to help achieve
the 'zero heat' design which we're aiming for.
Superbly engineered with a maintenance-free aluminium exterior, and real wood
on the inside, we think they look great too.
With all the windows installed there's now only one way in and out of the
house, but eventually Max managed to find it.
There's been more window work going on outside too, as Mike has installed
all the glass in the garage, meaning that, as far
as we're concerned, it's 'glazing over' (as per the title of this update
boom boom!!)
Mike's long-standing chum George also known as Elektra Electrical Services
paid a visit to check how the wiring operation's
progressing. After some tests and a thorough inspection all was pronounced
in good order. George will be returning to complete
the critical parts of the installation and test it all thoroughly before the
system can be connected to the mains electricity supply.
Through the round window today we can see Simon....
......just installing the very last section of wood wool board on the west
elevation.
This is now ready to be lime-rendered in the same style as the garage, after
which we'll be able to begin removing the scaffolding.
With the windows installed the house seems to look quite different
a significant step which took less than a week to achieve.
But even with work due to begin on the conservatory shortly, we still can't
answer the most commonly asked question:
'When do you expect to move in?'