Discussion
Nice family and lovely black lab, I quite like upside down houses but not sure the views were that great in Turton. The stonework was lovely and the kitchen too, the rooms seemed to be on a large scale but if they have a big family then that could be a bonus. I wish the programme could show more of the build rather than melodramatic Kevin saying everything is going to crap.
I thought there was a garage over to the right looking at the front of the house. I thought Kevin should have taken his shoes off going in, dirty sod.
I thought there was a garage over to the right looking at the front of the house. I thought Kevin should have taken his shoes off going in, dirty sod.
Agreed over the questionable design details and not sure how they managed to make that airtight.
Having made the mistake of stick building on site myself, I'm not convinced that they made the right decision in doing it that way.
Had they got that built off site, they would have had it watertight before the bad rain came. They had July to November to get watertight and they missed the boat.
I recognised them making the same mistakes as we did. We were lucky though as we were working on a much smaller scale so when we made mistakes, we could just throw money at the problem to get back on track.
Overall I wasn't impressed with the finished build but that's my taste. The finished build, assuming the plot was about £300K, represents great value.
Their old house is still up for sale so once that sells, their money issues should be gone.
Having made the mistake of stick building on site myself, I'm not convinced that they made the right decision in doing it that way.
Had they got that built off site, they would have had it watertight before the bad rain came. They had July to November to get watertight and they missed the boat.
I recognised them making the same mistakes as we did. We were lucky though as we were working on a much smaller scale so when we made mistakes, we could just throw money at the problem to get back on track.
Overall I wasn't impressed with the finished build but that's my taste. The finished build, assuming the plot was about £300K, represents great value.
Their old house is still up for sale so once that sells, their money issues should be gone.
greygoose said:
..lovely black lab...
I woke Mrs9 up to tell her that ours was being carried up ladders, over my shoulder, from now on 
I really wanted to like that house but it just wasn't doing it for me, for some reason.
Was it that good value in the end? No idea what house prices there are like but it seemed quite close to a main road/other houses and they were £550k deep with work still to do.
Still; they seemed very pleased with it and that, after all, is all that matters and it certainly wasn't small!
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
I did think my Lab would wriggle like a bag of snakes in the Ladder clip of VT !
I say the write up for the house and hoped to find a build I would like, but to me it seemed an odd folly.
Unnecessarily huge - especially as the concept of getting older and downsizing seemed bizarre to create mammoth empty bedrooms for children that have fled the nest - far more likely demand for average size visiting rooms and add in more 'grand children friendly' / child bunk bed rooms etc if they aim for big Family times and consume square footage ?
Not sure the views deemed the huge vista windows either
I'd understand if the backdrop to the house was the front view, but to over look (and equally be displayed too) the houses out front made little sense to me.
I just did not warm to it, at all - ugly on the outside (despite some lovely brick work), and cavernous on the inside. Imagine hoovering the bowling alley never mind the rest of it !? (in your old age.......)
If they did it all 33% smaller I am sure it would not have been so crippling on the cost / cashflow side of things, ticked all the boxes they'd desire from a 'living standards perspective', and whilst I understand it's theirs to live and die in (or the impression was given) the house would never make that kind of money on the open market I would imagine, making it as I suggest : a folly.
However, as you say : "Still; they seemed very pleased with it and that, after all, is all that matters"
I have to agree with that totally.I say the write up for the house and hoped to find a build I would like, but to me it seemed an odd folly.
Unnecessarily huge - especially as the concept of getting older and downsizing seemed bizarre to create mammoth empty bedrooms for children that have fled the nest - far more likely demand for average size visiting rooms and add in more 'grand children friendly' / child bunk bed rooms etc if they aim for big Family times and consume square footage ?
Not sure the views deemed the huge vista windows either
I'd understand if the backdrop to the house was the front view, but to over look (and equally be displayed too) the houses out front made little sense to me.I just did not warm to it, at all - ugly on the outside (despite some lovely brick work), and cavernous on the inside. Imagine hoovering the bowling alley never mind the rest of it !? (in your old age.......)
If they did it all 33% smaller I am sure it would not have been so crippling on the cost / cashflow side of things, ticked all the boxes they'd desire from a 'living standards perspective', and whilst I understand it's theirs to live and die in (or the impression was given) the house would never make that kind of money on the open market I would imagine, making it as I suggest : a folly.
However, as you say : "Still; they seemed very pleased with it and that, after all, is all that matters"
I'm with you P&M, house too big for the location, overbearing to it's neighbours and no privacy for itself. I can't comment on the suitability as a retirement home as I guess we don't know their individual requirements but like you I can't fathom why such a huge pile would be the ideal requirement.
No one knew just how bad the weather would be last year but as someone else has mentioned the decision not to pre-fab off site killed the project with it falling into winter, he came across as a worrier but quite how that didn't occur to him I'll never know.
I'd be interested to hear skodasupercar's and shoegrip's thoughts on the mistakes that were made....
No one knew just how bad the weather would be last year but as someone else has mentioned the decision not to pre-fab off site killed the project with it falling into winter, he came across as a worrier but quite how that didn't occur to him I'll never know.
I'd be interested to hear skodasupercar's and shoegrip's thoughts on the mistakes that were made....
Early on in the programme, when they showed the 3D flyaround, I did think it was so big for the two of them with the 5 bedrooms etc that it might be another one like that Lake District house that was really a B&B (and isn't too good now http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/abandoned-gra... ). At the end though, not sure, I think they just built a massive house.
Did anyone catch where they got the recycled cladding from? I was next door to our telly when I heard him talking about it but was too slow to catch any details. I've been looking for something similar for my own wee project and the stuff they used looked better than any I've seen so far. Couldn't find anything on the C4 website.
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
Unnecessarily huge - especially as the concept of getting older and downsizing seemed bizarre to create mammoth empty bedrooms for children that have fled the nest - far more likely demand for average size visiting rooms and add in more 'grand children friendly' / child bunk bed rooms etc if they aim for big Family times and consume square footage ?
I don't know - we seemed to manage fine in our house with 2 kids growing up. Now they're married with kids and come to stay a lot it feels a real squash.Our next door neighbour moved to a bigger house when his kids left home and I can understand why now.
LaurasOtherHalf said:
I'd be interested to hear skodasupercar's and shoegrip's thoughts on the mistakes that were made....
I wasn't making a list at the time but a few things that came to mind, the solid studs looked closer than they needed to be so more material and more thermal bridging. The insulation had lots of gaps around some of what we saw. They used timber lintels with no reinforcement. No problem in compression but would allow lateral movement which whilst structurally sound just feels not nice when closing windows and doors. The biggest issue though was that they were not serious about the internal membrane being airtight. The interface between the stone and the cladding was flat, I would have angled that to help water flow away. I made many mistakes on my build too so am not casting stones at all.
I know the area very well and it is nicer than the teraced houses made it look. A friend sold a 2 up 2 down terraced not long ago for £250K nearby and £1M doesn't go far so I still say that it is good value to them even though it didn't appeal to me.
GD is about people building their imagined properties. I think the finished house will be grand as it is so big but I prefer smaller builds with architectural merit. Size is not everything.
LaurasOtherHalf said:
I'd be interested to hear skodasupercar's and shoegrip's thoughts on the mistakes that were made....
I also wasn't making a list, and of course we only get to see what was shown on TV, so other things may have been done etc.However:
1) The long back wall appeared to be built up against (all-be-it likely to be a cavity) the storey height retaining wall. That isn't generally allowed due to the risk of high relative humidity in the cavity causing the moisture content of the timber structure to exceed 20% moisture content (decay threshold). If the retaining wall ever leaks, there is also a risk of direct water transfer and a similar risk of decay. It is advised against in Approved Document C.
2) They had installed a cavity tray at the base of the timber frame kit. That also isn't normal practise as it can block drainage and ventilation of the external wall cavity around the sole plate area. Again, high RH in the base of the cavity can lead to a risk of decay.
3) They didn't appear to install a header joist around the perimeter of the intermediate floor, or indeed install any kind of timber blocking. Head joists and blocking are needed to help transfer vertical loads from the walls and roof above. They also help provide rotational stability to the joists.
4) They didn't run the floor joist under first floor walls which ran parallel to them. The first floor walls sat directly on the ground floor walls. The floor deck was not tied into the adjacent walls. In platform timber frame construction, the intermediate floors sit on top of the lower walls with the upper walls sat on the floor joists and deck. Without creating this tie in the intermediate floor cannot act as a diaphragm and provide structural stability to the walls. This is a key fundamental flaw and may compromise the structural stability and wind resistance of the structure.
5) There did not appear to be any provision for ventilation to their cold flat roofs.
6) They installed a second, standard breather membrane behind the open jointed composite cladding. Standard breather membranes are not UV resistant and so over time UV exposure of the bits of breather membrane in the gaps will cause it to fatigue and fail.
7) That second membrane suggests that their weatherproofing details around windows and doors would be less than ideal (although that is pure speculation).
8) Horizontal joints in their OSB sheathing board were not supported by and fixed to noggings. In order for racking boards to provide justifiable racking resistance, all edges must be supported and fixed to prevent buckling. They didn't do that.
9) The first floor OSB sheathing appeared to over-sail the floor zone and butt up against the ground floor OSB. As shrinkage of the timber floor zone occurs (as much as 7mm with engineered timber floor joists) the upper sheet of OSB will press into the lower causing bucking and damage to the OSB.
10) VCL installation was potentially poor, but exact detailing was difficult to ascertain from the TV shots. Might have been ok, but not 'super insulated air tight' spec as quoted.
Was it me, or did all the down lighters look like halogen bulbs? Not very eco if they were halogen GU10s or MR16.
As for stick building, if the wall that they moved was non load-bearing, then they could have done that with a prefab kit. If it was load-bearing then yes you could have modified it on site but would still have had to consult the engineer etc. If wall was NLB then you can do whatever you want with them, whether prefab or not! A competent team of erectors could have had that up and weather resistant in two weeks.
Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 20th October 18:52
brrapp said:
Did anyone catch where they got the recycled cladding from? I was next door to our telly when I heard him talking about it but was too slow to catch any details. I've been looking for something similar for my own wee project and the stuff they used looked better than any I've seen so far. Couldn't find anything on the C4 website.
Search for composite cladding. 
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