Reply With QuoteJust let us know when the house warming is! :D
Originally Posted by thieuster
Hi Menno
They use "Piles" in the UK but they are either pile driven OR bored and concrete and steel re-enforcement, The bored method is quieter but equally as expensive!
In the area I live, South Wales there was a lot of coal mining and whilst it hasnt affected me lots of houses are built on 2rafts" which sound very similar to the method used in the Netherlands, basically the whole foot print of the house is poured together and contains re-enforced steel mesh so that if one side of the house moves it all holds together.
I suppose our foundations have been over engineered when you consider we are on bed-rock and the likely hood of the rock moving is slim but better safe than sorry! I gread to think what the cost of having lots of piles constructed must be especially down to a depth of 20 metres :shock: The crazy thing is that essentially the foundations whilst costly add very little to the value of any home :evil: It is not until the house starts to reach the first floor that you add real value from the perspective of a mortgage company or potential investors!!
Glad the techy stuff was of interest. Whilst I'm loving our little project I'm conscious that some people will find it very boring and slow :lol:
Paul
Just let us know when the house warming is! :D
Is their a custom watch storage room or a man cave? Great story, very impressive stonework.
Sorry Andrew but you are not allowed any where near my cars any more after you broke the last one so no chance you are allowed near my new house!!
:D
Paul
Oh yes!!
Can't bloody wait to have my own space 8)
Paul
Ha! I thought I was going to have to get the spare room ready that day. :lol: :lol:Sorry Andrew but you are not allowed any where near my cars any more after you broke the last one so no chance you are allowed near my new house!!
:D
Paul
a further update posted
Jealous isn't something I normally do but I'll make an exception in this case :wink: .
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
That looks lovely and the location and views are brilliant. Nicest watch storage box I've seen in a long time.
great thread and thats a cool pad 8) i think i remember many moons back when you sold some watches to buy the land
Bloody hell Red, very good memory you have there my friend :-)
WhT seemed like a tough thing to do several years ago to finance the purchase of the land is now paying off at long last!!
Paul
you should be proud of yourself paul 8)Bloody hell Red, very good memory you have there my friend :-)
WhT seemed like a tough thing to do several years ago to finance the purchase of the land is now paying off at long last!!
Paul
I'm glad to see the project taking shape Paul and the views are outstanding.
Well done Paul
Nice to see it progressing well. I deal with a number of projects like this and you seem to be the type of client i would like. You have done your research, know what you want and take advice from the proffesionals when needed :)
Make sure you make a photo book of the completed project! the stonework looks great!
keep the pics coming its good to see it progress.
now updated with more pic's in the original post on page 1...... more pictures to follow
Paul
I'm curious, are you planning on fitting any network cables into the walls?
Flipping heck mate ! It's fair moved on since the last update 8)
Now which room will I be staying in ? :twisted:
Cheers
Simon
Ralph Waldo Emerson: We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.
:shock:
I hope you're insurance covers landslides
:lol:
:shock:
I hope you're insurance covers landslides
There is a retaining wall going there, plus quite a bit of the bank being used as in-fill behind the wall so worse than it looks especially as composition wise the top layer of soild is about 12" at it's thickest point and bed-rock below that :wink: . The ground works were a bloody nightmare due to the bed rock and took about 2-3 weeks longer than expected :shock: :shock:
At one point we had two stone monoliths that were approx 9-10 ft tall and about 4ft in diameter :D They took some shifting and the contractors got through 1 hydraulic pecker which completely broke, 3 seal kits, one main shaft and 2 retaining bolts that sheared completely :lol: . I think they loved doing the ground works on our build.... NOT :D
Funny actually as most visitors to wales comment on houses built in to the sides of hills and yet it is the norm around here.
Paul
Some years ago I lived in a house that was built into the side of a steep hill, you went in the front door level with the road and it looked like a bungalow then you went downstairs to most of the house, the back of the house just looked like a normal two story house. I was never happy there :lol: :lol::lol:
:shock:
I hope you're insurance covers landslides
There is a retaining wall going there, plus quite a bit of the bank being used as in-fill behind the wall so worse than it looks especially as composition wise the top layer of soild is about 12" at it's thickest point and bed-rock below that :wink: . The ground works were a bloody nightmare due to the bed rock and took about 2-3 weeks longer than expected :shock: :shock:
At one point we had two stone monoliths that were approx 9-10 ft tall and about 4ft in diameter :D They took some shifting and the contractors got through 1 hydraulic pecker which completely broke, 3 seal kits, one main shaft and 2 retaining bolts that sheared completely :lol: . I think they loved doing the ground works on our build.... NOT :D
Funny actually as most visitors to wales comment on houses built in to the sides of hills and yet it is the norm around here.
Paul
I know someone who lives in a place just like that. Looks like a small bungalow with a massive garage until you go down the stairs. You then realise it's got 6 half floors and looks like a 3 story townhouse at the back!
Hi Paul
House looks great mate :) loads of room for those great big dogs :lol:
Hope you and the family well
Looking good Paul, I'm still very jealous
What can I say... I'm not. No, just kidding Paul, it seems like a very impressive house and building your own (or having it built under your supervision if I understand your story correctly) is a always a brave thing to do. Incomparable to just buying a place that is all done, either new or used, and dabbing some paint on it to adapt it to your taste... If it works out (which this seems to be doing) it can be immensely satisfying as the place is really yours in more than just the sense of being your property.
This is our place, designed mostly by me with some details adapted by the architect, and we worked alongside the carpenters in their workshop while they pre-fabricated the walls. We sanded and treated every beam in that house as well as all the walls before they were even loaded onto the truck.
We picked woodframe with a twist - which is first in the thickness of the walls which are about 50% thicker than was normal at the time, and second a classic very heavy A-frame roof and corresponding ceiling beams from laminated wood. So it's kind of a hybrid construction, with the kind of heavy support beams with wood-pin connections you tend to see in old farms, but all done in modern laminated wood. Like you, I like a large sloping roof... It's how a house is supposed to look, the way a child will draw it: a triangular roof on a squarish body.
The major difference between classic stone build and woodframe is speed. The ground floor outer walls were put up in just one day on the foundation and the builders handed me the keys to the front door symbolically when they went home for the evening. Doors, windows and even bay windows were already in. The whole house was put up and essentially waterproof in less than two weeks once the wall sections and frame parts had been pre-fabbed in the workshop. We elected to do most of the interior finishing, including separation walls, insulation etc. ourselves, while leaving the more technical stuff like plumbing and electricity to the pros. The place is still not finished yet, we have the loft to turn into a real top floor with guest bedrooms and additional bathroom and such. But meanwhile we had to build a stable for donkeys, a garden shed, plant fruit trees in hard ground, start a vegetable garden, put up a shed for the balloon, construct a root cellar outside (I can relate to the trouble Paul's contractors had with the bedrock, we have no basement because we are sitting right on top of a vein of massive granite thet defies all but the heaviest machinery suitable for mountaintop removal), build a five-star chicken pen, and there is the greenhouse that is about 25% under way which I'm doing myself in very classic wood construction (I've never been trained as a carpenter, I'm finding out how as I go along).
This, btw, is in central France, 640 meters above sea level and being Dutch the house is at the highest point in the plot so it will never ever get inundated... ;-)
I'm also interested to know if you are getting any solar tech, like a solar hot water system or PV panels. With that great roof it would almost be a shame not to ! We got a solar heater a year ago (the photo was taken before that) and I am working out the kinks.
I don't know how I have missed this before, but bl@@dy well done.
My business in commercial and residential developing and contracting as well. I built my house 9 years ago and it was the hardest thing I have ever done, stressed my nuts off, but there was my family to consider and work round, 3 month old and 13yo sons and 15 yo daughter, planning scares and the obvious financial worries.
Dug the founds at the end of May and we moved in 11th December.
Huge amount of respect for taking it on and beleive me curled up in the finish article will seem unreal
Well done mate
Pitch
Trying to pm you Paul, but your inbox is full. I realise you're a bit busy, but could you pm me please?
Many thanks
Martin
ps. great thread/project btw
No pictures but a brief update and I will get sme pics this weekend once we have moved in :-)
Still not quite finished but not far off! Patio to do which is 3 days work, then the drive and a couple of walls to sort out, in real terms a few weeks worth of work tops.
All the main things are sorted such as decorating, water, electric, gas, central heating commissioned, carpets going in yesterday and today, tiling done in the bathrooms etc, tiling down stairs and lots of it, just a matter of getting in and sorting our stuff out.
Had our SAP test (sealed air pressure test) and EPC (energy performance certificate) which you basically must have to get a completion certificate. Of all the things the SAP test is probably the one thing I have worried about the most as it isn't exactly you come across everyday.
In simple terms younare given a SAP rating that you must achieve based on the design drawings and spec, by spec I mean construction spec, whether the house is timber frame / traditional construction / green energy etc etc. basically we had to achieve a score of 8 or less and managed to achieve a score of 3 :-)
To say I was over the moon would be an understatement!! The lower the score the better and also affects your EPC rating which is the equivelant to the ratings used for white goods etc (AA, A, B, C, D, E.....)
I certainly wouldn't choose to do it again in a hurry and probably not the way we have done it this time! Between the builder and the bank it is a juggling act keeping momentum going and resisting throwing the builder in a deep hole :-)
Anyway, I'm waffling now but will get some pictures up soon.
Paul
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