Claire & Stephen's Self Build Story

The box beam that carries all the weight from the intersecting roof beams is now finished, almost. There a few additional fixings to goon but the beautiful wooden engineering done by Makers Mark Joinery
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Will be lost from sight😔.

I bought a family tent on Ebay without the instructions 🤔, the good news is that Claire can't complain that I'm not following them🤣🤣🤣

There is something very appealing to seeing wood bathed in natural sunlight. I almost wish we could it on display.

As you can from thumbnail insert the house has been designed with a standing seem metal roof and we have chosen to go with Pagurek who make the panels in the UK.

Pagurek LTD Home | PAGUREK - BUILDING MATERIALS SUPPLIER We are a small and dedicated team, specialised in supplying building materials. We supply and distribute metal roofing and guttering systems as well as timber and timber/aluminium composite windows, doors and prefabricated timber I – beams and I – beam structures.

First floor frame going up today, the height of the ceiling is crazy 🤪 .The last picture is the view from the landing

More i-beams installed today on living room. Thanks to John-Jo and Tom from Makers Mark for all your help.

More i-beams put in place today despite the rain pouring down and wind blowing a gale.

Today saw the first of the i-beams going on Thomas's bedroom. Hoping to put more in place over the next few days.

No pictures as not much has happened. Tom from Makers Mark, the frame makers is on holiday and John-Jo called to say his mum was taken ill. We wish her a speedy recovery nut without the guys there is not much we can do to progress the frame going up.
Claire and I are keeping busy with odd jobs but it's frustrating to see the machine we hired to loft the panels sat idle. Yhe guys asked for a crane at a cost of £1800 per day but the thankfully the overhead power caused a rethink so we didn't go ahead. Thank goodness.

Feels like cheating today as I bunked off school early 4,30.
Finally got all the first floor joists fitted and closed the gap from the scaffolding, so just a few noggins left to go.
I thought a photo from the south side may be appreciated to show a different angle.
It was supposed to rain this afternoon but the sun continued to shine 😊
With the radio on it was ti relax and enjoy the work, shout out to Heart 70's for some cool tunes.
Looking forward to next week and more frame sections going up

It's been a disappointing day today because I worked 12 hours and didn't finish the one job I wanted to , and that was the noggins.
I put this down to the "in between " jobs that need to be done before I could complete my task. In this case, it was replacing the frame braces that were in the way.By the time that was sorted I got into a rhythm with noggins until it was 7pm and time to put the noisy tools to bed. I will definitely finish it tomorrow and then I can relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend.🤔

Day 14,
Work continued today on the first floor joists, while John-Jo continued to work on the headed plates for the kitchen and Thomas's room.

Day 13
Wow, really getting to see the perspectives and space of the building today. Steve and I have placed the first floor joists, whilst Makers Mark continued with the ground floor header plates. Let us know what you think?

We have a difficult choice ahead of coming up with regards to insulation. As you know we want the building to be carbon neutral or even better in the build, but also we have minimised using man made products that create a lot of land fill waste after the life of the building.
PIR insulation for the build would be around £3000.
Fiberglass £5000
Rockwool £6000
H**pwool £9000
Woodwool £9000
Lambs Wool £10000
Aerogel £50000
The other concerns for us are off gassing VOC's and it's not until you look into it that you realise how many nasty chemicals there are in your building. I have not mentioned spray foam for that reason, it's so bad I'm surprised they are allowed to sell it.
Steve

Day 12,
Lots of activity again today, scaffolders back for a half a day, Tom and John-Jo from Makers Mark have continued to work on the frame with Steve.
Tomorrow we'll be ready to hang the first floor floor joists.

Day 11,
Lots of activity on site today despite the inclement weather.
Makers Mark continued putting up the frame.
Scaffolding partly put up and the guys will be back tomorrow to finish.
Weather due to change tomorrow so hopefully there will be lots of activity again.

Day 7, 8 and 9 - Steve and I have had a relatively quiet bank holiday weekend here at Carreg Las.
First Floor pillars have been resized and the flitch beam put back in place. Ordered the door tracks for our two pocket doors.
Scaffolding due today ready for second floor frame, joists and i-beams

I have bought myself a retirement present 🎁 😊, it was this or a rocking chair 🤣

Day 6 - Quiet day today on site, Steve has been busy adjusting the height on the block pillars for the flitch beam to sit on.
I have travelled back to Cardiff to take Thomas home. Now back in West Wales enjoying the evening sunshine. Enjoy your bank holiday everyone x

Day 5, Steve has hired a new vehicle for lifting all the beams.

Day 4, Steve moved the remaining I-beams to site, ground floor frame nearly complete. Sansa and Brianne made their inspection.

With every section going in its easier to under the building. It's already looking amazing.

Day 3, transporting the 6 and 7m I-beams from the workshop at Pontygafal to Carreg Las. Many thanks to Colin for the loan of the jeep and trailer.

Day 2, more frame going up with Tom and John-Jo from Makers Mark Joinery. Steve has been building up the columns for the flitch beam today.

First sections of frame secured to foundation plinth, didn't realise how big this building was from the plans. Now that it's taking 3d form, it looks huge.

Day 1
Work will start today on putting together the wooden frame for the new house here in West Wales. Very excited but a little nervous also, watch out for plenty of photos and videos over the next few weeks.

Couldn't stop ourselves from putting up the corner of Thomas's bedroom to see how it will look.