House Build Thread As Promised

House Build Thread As Promised

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BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
OK, as promised in the “what does your house look like” thread – here is my build thread.

First some background:

When my mum died in 2005 I inherited the old family home. This was a bungalow my dad began building in the 1960’s & where I lived in from about 1968 to 1977.

Now, to be fair, dad never quite finished the build – there were lots of the “little” things he never got around to. Living there, it was also clear he hadn’t quite thought out some of the design - rooms all slightly too small, doors & electrical sockets in the wrong places, etc,etc.

Consequently, when we decided to go for the build, I wanted to over-size the rooms so one of my instructions to the architect was that, whatever size he thought the rooms should be, I wanted them bigger!

The original idea was to go from a 3 bed bungalow with single garage to a 4 bed house with a double garage. As I said, that was the idea! The local authority planning bods disagreed and insisted it had to be a dormer! frown Oh, well, it was worth a punt!

However, 3 applications later (including one appeal), we still had a refusal on our hands! At that stage, I engaged a planning consultant. Frankly, he ripped into them and on the 5th November 2009 we received notice that we had won the second appeal – woo-hoo! - (best £1,000 I’ve ever spent!).

The builders began work at the end of March 2010 so here come the pics.



This first one is my dad & me working on the original build - note the H&S compliant scaffolding & footwear! ;-)
|http://thumbsnap.com/5BezF7EL[/url]

BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
These are prior to the start










BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Beginning the footings for the single storey extension










JohneeBoy

503 posts

174 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Hi and sorry to immediately take the thread slightly off topic. What is the appeals process for a planning application? We recently had one refused despite the Planning Officer never visiting us nor having any objections received form any neighbours.

BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
The first blockwork begins








BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
The old garage goes (note they left the workbench!)








BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
The new garage starts to go up











Edited by BIGDAI on Tuesday 28th October 21:06

BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
The single storey extension goes up






BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
The roof comes off
















Moominho

893 posts

139 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Brilliant thread, it's going to be stunning when it's completed.

BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Thank you!
















BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all











BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Up until this point things had been going swimmingly but here is where it all started getting difficult.

We had planned on using the majority of the interior walls but, when we started to take down the ones we didn't want, we discovered that dad had built them first and THEN laid the floors room by room - so the interior walls (block construction) effectively had foundations - wonderful!

To cap that, while we knew the (solid) floors weren't exactly level (dad didn't do level - everything was "by eye") once the walls came down we realised just how "not level" it was - 5½" drop diagonally from the north west corner to the south west if you know what I mean.

The builder decided to have a go at levelling it by using a big circular grinder-polisher-type machine with a view to lower the level at it's highest and then filling in at the lowest - he said it wouldn't be perfect but would be a lot better.

When the machine disintegrated in a cloud of smoke and a big bang we discovered that dad had also used rebar in the flooring - the machine had hit one of the bars! Ooops!

End result was all the floors had to be dug out and relaid - apparently it should have been about 4-6" thick but they had to go down 18" at one part! The good news is that the finished product was completely level and well insulated!









BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Nice shiny new floor!






BIGDAI

Original Poster:

403 posts

210 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Right, that's my lot for tonight - more to follow.

FunkyCEO

157 posts

179 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
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Thanks for putting up - great history to the house. Look forward to reading more late

Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
I recon you're dad would be very proud! Looking forward to seeing the rest, having seen the final build in another thread on here!

BigTom85

1,927 posts

170 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
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Great thread - subscribed! smile

Salterns

650 posts

117 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
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Very interesting, keep us posted with updates.

B17NNS

18,506 posts

246 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Cool thread, look forward to updates. That first picture is ace biggrin

My first thought was wouldn't it be easier/cheaper to take the lot down and rebuild but thinking about it from a sentimental point of view I'm pleased you didn't. thumbup