Day 54 - Timber Frame Complete

The timber frame work is now complete!

The first fix carpentry has already begun, with the soffit boards on the perimiter of the roof on and the noggins for the kitchen and utility room in place to hold appliances and furniture to the wall.

The roofers start tomorrow!

    

Day 53 - Roof Complete

The carpenters finished up work on the roof today and will be finishing off on Tuesday, with a frame inspection from Potton booked for Wednesday.

The axed arch lintel detailing arrived today too. These are pre-made from bricks from my main brick order to save time.

There's some bad weather on the way in for Sunday and Monday so I'll be down here on Monday morning to sweep the first floor deck down and keep the water off it as best I can.

 

Ground Source Heat Pump

There is no mains gas in Wicken so, early on in the planning process, we decided that a good way to go would be to employ a Ground Source Heat Pump for all of our hot water.

Provided by Ice Energy, the heat pump kit is made up of two main parts.

Firstly, three 42m long "slinky" pipes are run underground all around the plot 1m below ground. These pipes, installed as part of the ground works, will be filled with water and glycol that will absorb heat from the ground.

Secondly, the main pump is installed in the utility room. It is connected to the ground pipes and pumps cold water out and warm water back in. The water only increases in temperature by a matter of degrees, but the flow rate is high enough to ensure that significant heat can be extracted.

This heat is fed into a mains pressure hot water cylinder by means of a heat exchanger. The result is hot water around 55 deg C which can be fed directly into the underfloor heating system and hot water taps.

If all goes well the resulting system should be around 300% efficient; for every 1kW we put into the pump as electricity we should get 3kW of heat out.

Good news as the price of gas and oil only seems to be getting higher.

It almost makes up for my car...

Day 52 - Big Crane Part 2

Due in small part to traffic and large part to the Cambridge Beer Festival I didn't get back to the plot today until after 9pm and I only just about had enough light to take these shots of the day's work.

The roof trusses are now all in place and you can really get a feel for how the house will look once its clad in brick and slate in a few weeks time.

   

Day 52 - Big Crane

The crane arrived today on schedule and the Potton team began installing the roof trusses. I climbed the scaffold with them to see the first sections swung into place.

Exciting stuff!

    

Day 51 - Scaffold Part 2

The scaffolders finally turned up today; they were "rained off" aparently. Its amazing how rain suddenly becomes a far greater hazard on a Friday, isn't it?

The good news is that all of the additional scaffold required - the final front section, an extended area to the back left and a new section over the sun room - is now in place. Oh, and the observant or nerdy ones amongst you will have noticed that the silver vapour check has been sealed up on all of the external wall panels. This will act as a barrier to moisture to protect the frame until the brick work is in place and to keep it dry.

I have also spoken to Potton and confirmed that the crane will be on site on Wednesday morning so I'll be down again first thing with my camera to catch the action!

  

Day 50 - First Floor Walls

The work on the first floor is almost complete now. One more day or so and they'll be ready to swing the roof trusses into place with the crane.

I was down on site at 6 am in the rain on Friday to dig out the ground for the scaffolders again who refused to do it themselves for insurance reasons... and then they never turned up! Someone will be getting a irate call first thing tomorrow morning!

Martha and I went onsite together this afternoon to tidy up some of the trees at the back of the plot that were growing in through what will become our bedroom windows. They need a little bit more work but my reach with the loppers from the top scaffold was starting to exceed my grasp (and almost certainly my inurance!).

     

Day 48 - Ceilings!

The pace has not abated!

The final side of the scaffold will be in place tomorrow allowing the Potton team to move onto the first floor, with roof trusses being craned into place next week.

  

Day 46 - Windows and Doors

The first of the windows that will be fitted as the frame goes up arrived today, and the carpenters also assembled the wooden posts that will hold the lean-to roof outside the utility room door.

The weather has been amazing all week which has speeded progress. I've included a picture of the fields on the outskirts of Wicken Fen - it will be worth the wait!

   

Day 45 - We have walls!

The ground floor wall panels went up today and we could for the first time see what it would be like to look out of our windows and walk through our new front door!

    

Day 44 - Sole Plates and Front Doors

You can see some of the wall panels for the first time now with their factory fitted insulation from Kingspan (the insulation company that actually bought Potton Ltd a year or so ago).

Walking around the frame parts I also stumbled across something neat; our new front door frame!

    

Day 43 - Potton Kickoff

7:45am and the Potton team arrive with the first of two fixed rig loads of the day together with their tele-handler fork lift - a very cool piece of kit which enables them to offload the house components from the lorries in a very confined space.

The scaffolders were also on site today to complete the three sides that they started on Wednesday. The final fourth side of the scaffold will be put into place once the carpenters have swung the major pieces of the timber frame into place.

By the end of the day the sole plates were in place showing were the walls of the ground floor will be so once again we got the chance to walk the rooms and get a feel for how the house will be.

Martha is still convinced that it's too small!