Feeling blue (garage floor)

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Rory

So that I can move out of my current house, where the sale is going through, I need somewhere to store my stuff.

So I brought forward some progress on the garage, that already has the main roller shutter.

The debate was resin floor or polished concrete. Both of which would give a smooth, easy to clean surface that should stay dust etc. free.

Time scale I couldn’t find a supplier who could polish the floor in time, and I did like the idea of a bright blue (to tie in with the blue GRP Yprado window and door frames.

They first polished the concrete back to take off the top layer where the water comes up through the concrete as it dries out. This exposes a good surface to key the resin too. They also have to have a smooth floor so that the resin is an even thickness for how it sets.

Then after a painted on compound and some infill’s of some shallow dips (2 to 3 mm) were dry they poured on the resin, that then got smoothed out with various tools:

Given the planned move this week, the letter box has also been temp put up !

Garage progress

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Rory

With the most recent items first, there is now a garage door & the membranes are going on the garage roof for the slate paving and grass areas:

Garage roof progress

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Rory

The central steel I beam, the door steel I beam, the concrete cross beams & the blocks going in:

Garage wall blocks get to their top

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Rory

The blockwork garage wall is now at it’s max height.

There might be a layer of bricks on the top to bring it to the desired / planned end height.

That means the land behind, some of which is my neighbours garden, can be back filled and their garden re-instated.

The space that is the garage is going to be left open for the crane to lift the house panels in place.

Once that is done, the garage roof will go on. At the end the roof will be earth covered and grassed over.

The Natural Home – Ecobuilding Consultancy

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Rory

It was a while ago, that I met up with Adam & Sarah from The Natural Home, Ecobuilding Consultancy.

It was great to get input from a team that don’t have a vested interest with a particular main project supplier, such as the architects or builders.

Amongst their many comments and recommendations:

If you find a contractor you trust, they’d recommend their employment under a ‘prime cost’ (also know as ‘cost-plus’) contract. This means the contractor charges for the total price of buying goods, materials and components, of using or hiring plant and of employing labour, in order to delivery the construction project plus a management fee.
Their are apparently a broad range of contracts available and they could advice / assist with this.
Adam pointed out that the distance from the proposed house to the garage at the front may need advance consideration in relation to the surface water run-off from the building and soak-away. This / these have to be at least 5 meters from the building, so may need to go beneath the garage.
Adam recommended a permeability test to ensure a soak-away can accommodate the volume of discharge.
Current building re-use. As clearing the current building will give a large amount of aggregate, Adam suggested that it might be possible to crush and use some of this in the concrete mix for retaining wall sections.

External Layout

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Rory

Rob from ra-studio is continuing to come up with amazing architectural and design solutions for the project. Successfully converting my “living requirements”, tear sheets, thoughts and ideas into something that is really coming together.

As the house layout gets closer to something that will need to be costed up, we need to add in the context of the space in front and behind the house, so I went through my notes and found this magazine page and sketch:

I like the low wall from the patio, for sitting on, then a flower bed, instead of a wall. Central steps that’d go down to the flat grass over the garage roof. I don’t like the drop in height from what will be the lounge.

Interesting to find this early days sketch layout:

The idea of the external hot shower being under the stairs down from the rear parking, so you can look out through the stairs at the view. This assumed the stairs wouldn’t be in the ground behind the rear courtyard, which is the current likely and sensible plan.
Suggests downstairs utility to include a shower.
Small side walls to the living space courtyard. I wonder if these will now be included or not. I’ll leave that for Rob’s input.
I’d forgotten the idea of a space for bins on bin day. The current idea, is that there could be a side door from here into the garage.

There is also the “Droskyn Development” planned for the land to the south of the house. Below is an annotated illustration from the thus far proposed plans. This means there will be properties, across a road to the rear of the property.