Plywood flooring

This weekend we focused on laying the plywood flooring upstairs and putting in the floor noggins (we did not complete these all - there were a lot to do!).  The 'smart ply' will form the base of our first floor build up.

Ductwork for the MVHR

The main supply and extract ductwork for the mechanical ventilation heat recovery system runs within the landing wall (the wall will be extra thick).    The supply pipe runs along the top and the extract underneath.

The ventilation system is required to provide the background ventilation because we are hoping to make the building very airtight and therefore would not get enough from drafts etc.  We also do not have any heating upstairs and are using the MVHR system to redistribute the heat around the house.

The MVHR system will supply air to the 'dry' rooms (bedrooms, sitting room, lobby etc) and extract air from the 'wet' rooms (bathrooms, utility room etc).  By undercutting the internal doors air will move from  the dry rooms (where it is being supplied) to the wet rooms (where it is extracted).

A short section of flexible ducting will be used to connect the main rigid ducts to the supply and extract grilles in the rooms.

More studwork

We finished off the studwork to the landing wall and doorway into the second bedroom.

Visit

Cambridge Carbon Footprint are arranging a visit to look round our house on 1st October, details can be found on their website.  Click here for more information.

Day 470 - more studwork and reed mat test

Rather than using plasterboard on the internal timber stud walls, we are trying out reed mat.  It works in a similar way to laths (as in traditional lath and plaster).  We were quite impressed how easily it went up - so far so good!

We progressed more of the studwork upstairs today (excuse the mess!).

Day 463 - Ground floor studwork progressed

We have not done much work on the house this month - partly because we have been allowing the screed to dry and partly because we fancied a break!  We are now back into it and have made good progress on the ground floor studwork today - just the doorways and noggins to do.  I think we are finally getting better at studwork!

Day 451: Lime screed complete

The rest of the lime screed was completed today.

Day 444 - Screed aftercare

The weather was very hot and sunny yesterday (33 degrees).  To prevent the screed from drying out too fast we will hose the slab down for about 3 days.

Day 443 - Laying the lime screed part 1

The first bay of screed is complete after about 1/2 day.

A piece of timber is used to form a temporary edge to screed up to, where there will be a movement joint in the screed.

The scaffold pole removed and screed being filled in.

The screed progressing...

Leveling out the piles...

The mix is laid very dry.

Loading up with the screed - mixed by the big green limecrete machine!

Scaffold poles are set level with the top of the finished screed, these will be used as a level.

The Limecrete Company are back today to start laying the lime screed.  First step is wetting down the limecrete slab.

Day 437 - Underfloor heating pipes pressure tested

Underfloor heating pipes connected up to the manifold and pressure tested.

The pressure has settled at 1.5 bar.  It was pressurised to more than this but as plastic tubes give a little bit it causes the pressure to drop.  The pipes will remain under pressure while we lay the lime screed.  If the pressure drops to zero then the pipes have been punctured - we hope to avoid this!

Under floor heating pipework is now laid and ready to be pressure tested.