The Roundhouse - Luxembourg
Discussion
Been back to Trier to revise bathrooms. We're only at double the allocated budget for that 
, mainly because it has become apparent that the included build 'allowance' for sanitary ware seems to be the list prices from the plumber's supplier. If we'd known that we'd have challenged at the time. We just looked on prices at reuter.de etc. and assessed that they would be getting similar prices, but no, it seems that this is a nice little earner for the plumber who no doubt gets 30-50% off list and is proposing to charge us full whack.
A robust conversation will be had!
First electrics survey also done, just waiting for the estimate. I'm sure that will contain no surprises either...
Deciding whether to bother with heated towel rails (electric) or not. They're not in the plan so would be extra, not sure if just having heated floors and normal rails would work fine. Never had underfloor heating before, but going on our current house there's a huge amount of latent heat in all that concrete, even in summer, so don't think they'll be necessary.
Work is apparently due to recommence on 22 Oct
, mainly because it has become apparent that the included build 'allowance' for sanitary ware seems to be the list prices from the plumber's supplier. If we'd known that we'd have challenged at the time. We just looked on prices at reuter.de etc. and assessed that they would be getting similar prices, but no, it seems that this is a nice little earner for the plumber who no doubt gets 30-50% off list and is proposing to charge us full whack.A robust conversation will be had!
First electrics survey also done, just waiting for the estimate. I'm sure that will contain no surprises either...
Deciding whether to bother with heated towel rails (electric) or not. They're not in the plan so would be extra, not sure if just having heated floors and normal rails would work fine. Never had underfloor heating before, but going on our current house there's a huge amount of latent heat in all that concrete, even in summer, so don't think they'll be necessary.
Work is apparently due to recommence on 22 Oct
I feel your pain and understand entirely!
We spent way more than foreseen in the Cahier des Charges on sanitary ware, tiling, electrical wiring, internal doors, window vs sliding door switch, front door.... perhaps more than €50k in all?
Electrical was €13k or so more than foreseen, alone!
Of course, the construction co. get big discounts on what they’re buying from tilers and bathroom places. You pay retail, they pay trade less 30%. Welcome the the Bourg!
As for towel rails - get them. Really.
In the grand scheme of things, the electrical point will be probably €60, and the rail perhaps €200, but no one likes a stinky towel because it didn’t dry properly.
UFH won’t help the towels.
Good luck!
Russell
We spent way more than foreseen in the Cahier des Charges on sanitary ware, tiling, electrical wiring, internal doors, window vs sliding door switch, front door.... perhaps more than €50k in all?
Electrical was €13k or so more than foreseen, alone!
Of course, the construction co. get big discounts on what they’re buying from tilers and bathroom places. You pay retail, they pay trade less 30%. Welcome the the Bourg!
As for towel rails - get them. Really.
In the grand scheme of things, the electrical point will be probably €60, and the rail perhaps €200, but no one likes a stinky towel because it didn’t dry properly.
UFH won’t help the towels.
Good luck!
Russell
Yeah, but we have them in this house but they're only on in when the heating is (they're the only heaters in the bathrooms), so maybe only working six months of the year, and we've never had problems with drying towels.
The bathrooms are all on separate thermostats so can be warmer than bedrooms, hall etc. in the winter, and in summer there's always been enough heat and air movement anyway.
We'll probably put them in anyway, but one option the spark gave was to run the cable and terminate in a blank outlet so we could add them at a later date.
As with everything, we'll see what the costs come out at!
The bathrooms are all on separate thermostats so can be warmer than bedrooms, hall etc. in the winter, and in summer there's always been enough heat and air movement anyway.
We'll probably put them in anyway, but one option the spark gave was to run the cable and terminate in a blank outlet so we could add them at a later date.
As with everything, we'll see what the costs come out at!
loudlashadjuster said:
Been back to Trier to revise bathrooms. We're only at double the allocated budget for that , mainly because it has become apparent that the included build 'allowance' for sanitary ware seems to be the list prices from the plumber's supplier. If we'd known that we'd have challenged at the time. We just looked on prices at reuter.de etc. and assessed that they would be getting similar prices, but no, it seems that this is a nice little earner for the plumber who no doubt gets 30-50% off list and is proposing to charge us full whack.
Traditionally in Germany the plumber would get about 50% off for trade but would then be able to offer you a "deal" such as free installation whilst charging you the list price. Sanitaryware production costs are more like 10% of the retail price!, mainly because it has become apparent that the included build 'allowance' for sanitary ware seems to be the list prices from the plumber's supplier. If we'd known that we'd have challenged at the time. We just looked on prices at reuter.de etc. and assessed that they would be getting similar prices, but no, it seems that this is a nice little earner for the plumber who no doubt gets 30-50% off list and is proposing to charge us full whack.Build has now recommenced. We have exterior doors and the scaffold is up so they can apply the external insulation. I presume they're going to try and get it as weatherproof as possible before the winter really kicks in so they can minimise downtime.
Bathrooms done, electricals still going back and forth. Will probably have to go with a KNX system for the downstairs lighting and blind controls as the engineer is, surprisingly, not a huge fan of routing cabling for about 10 dumb switches right through one of the major structural walls in the middle of the ground floor. A KNX panel there will allow all the heavy cabling to be terminated at the panel with only thin control cables needing to be pulled through to the central support column.
I guess this is our fault for wanting all the control in one place instead of individual switches for each blind right next to the window, as is traditional.
Slightly annoying thing is that after a long sabbatical I have somehow managed to fall back into the world of work which is impacting my ability to go on site, to showrooms etc. and deal with the increasing amount there is to do now. All that time sitting on my hoop while not much was going on and now they start doing stuff?!
I does remove any niggling doubts about being stingy with the budget though, a few extra € here or there won't matter as much now.
Bathrooms done, electricals still going back and forth. Will probably have to go with a KNX system for the downstairs lighting and blind controls as the engineer is, surprisingly, not a huge fan of routing cabling for about 10 dumb switches right through one of the major structural walls in the middle of the ground floor. A KNX panel there will allow all the heavy cabling to be terminated at the panel with only thin control cables needing to be pulled through to the central support column.
I guess this is our fault for wanting all the control in one place instead of individual switches for each blind right next to the window, as is traditional.
Slightly annoying thing is that after a long sabbatical I have somehow managed to fall back into the world of work which is impacting my ability to go on site, to showrooms etc. and deal with the increasing amount there is to do now. All that time sitting on my hoop while not much was going on and now they start doing stuff?!
I does remove any niggling doubts about being stingy with the budget though, a few extra € here or there won't matter as much now.
Insulation complete, looks like they're getting ready to do the rendering. Also, I have a garage door!
These seem to me to be 'do later on' things, but then what do I know about building a house?
Place also looks much bigger now. Not sure if that's the colour of the polystyrene blocks, or just the fact its visual mass is increased because of the scaffolding.
External insulation adds ~15-20cm in depth
They've a mesh to adhere to that, then the traditional LuLu rough rendering
For the exterior blind controls, I just remembered, whilst we have switches in each room, we can control those too from a central panel on the living room wall. So long it is since we used that control panel, I forgot about it!
Good luck with the continuing work.
They've a mesh to adhere to that, then the traditional LuLu rough rendering
For the exterior blind controls, I just remembered, whilst we have switches in each room, we can control those too from a central panel on the living room wall. So long it is since we used that control panel, I forgot about it!
Good luck with the continuing work.
Edited by RC1807 on Monday 11th November 16:00
Rendering in progress. Will look pretty much finished from outside when it’s painted and the downpipes etc. are fitted.
Picked tiles and went back to Laeis in Trier with a sample to pick matching finishes for bathroom units etc., so I think we’re pretty much done with the ‘picking stuff’. Now we just need to make sure they build it the way we’ve asked!
Well, things are progressing well...mostly.
The electrics are pretty much done, underfloor and vent pipes are being routed and the plastering is proceeding at pace.
There are a few snags of course, the heating people didn't appreciate the type of exterior wall which means they couldn't embed the pipes going up the living room wall. We'll need to enclose them, but it should be possible to do as a single flat surface between the windows rather than an ugly box.
The kitchen lights might need some changing. Although the spark said we could embed the spots in the concrete, this is also a no-no apparently, so we need to decide on spots + a lowered ceiling (80-90mm), or just to have some traditional strips of spots. The cost for the lowered ceiling will be about €120/sqm + VAT though, so we'll be at the €2500-3000 mark for it. Her decision though
I have a plan to make my own pendant light out of an old carbon fibre bike wheel for the atrium, but speaking to the builder it would appear there will be nothing solid to attach it to so I've been advised to keep the weight down
Apparently I'm not permitted to screw into these metal supports...
Not that we're not peering at the underside of the roof I can gauge the loft space and it is looking good, will be plenty big enough. Thought I'd got a better shot than this, but the floor will be roughly at where the damp plaster line is on the wall at the side.
Against my better judgement we've decided to go for floor-to-ceiling glass panels for the stairs. Advantage is they look cool af
and will significantly reduce the noise that travels between floors. Disadvantage is that with two kids they will inevitably always be manky with fingerprints, Nutella etc.. I guess that's one chore they can do themselves though
Oh, and my bedroom is currently a kitchen
The electrics are pretty much done, underfloor and vent pipes are being routed and the plastering is proceeding at pace.
There are a few snags of course, the heating people didn't appreciate the type of exterior wall which means they couldn't embed the pipes going up the living room wall. We'll need to enclose them, but it should be possible to do as a single flat surface between the windows rather than an ugly box.
The kitchen lights might need some changing. Although the spark said we could embed the spots in the concrete, this is also a no-no apparently, so we need to decide on spots + a lowered ceiling (80-90mm), or just to have some traditional strips of spots. The cost for the lowered ceiling will be about €120/sqm + VAT though, so we'll be at the €2500-3000 mark for it. Her decision though
I have a plan to make my own pendant light out of an old carbon fibre bike wheel for the atrium, but speaking to the builder it would appear there will be nothing solid to attach it to so I've been advised to keep the weight down
Apparently I'm not permitted to screw into these metal supports...Not that we're not peering at the underside of the roof I can gauge the loft space and it is looking good, will be plenty big enough. Thought I'd got a better shot than this, but the floor will be roughly at where the damp plaster line is on the wall at the side.
Against my better judgement we've decided to go for floor-to-ceiling glass panels for the stairs. Advantage is they look cool af
and will significantly reduce the noise that travels between floors. Disadvantage is that with two kids they will inevitably always be manky with fingerprints, Nutella etc.. I guess that's one chore they can do themselves though Oh, and my bedroom is currently a kitchen
Now the bad bits.
The neighbour has complained that the building encroaches on their property and there's a survey next week to assert the actual extent (or not) of encroachment. You can see here where the insulation overlaps the stone step (neighbour's) which is nominally the property boundary. I think we're talking about 10-12 mm encroachment onto land which is unusable and not zoned for any type of construction...I know.
If the survey confirm this then the whole insulation will need to be taken off and redone. Thankfully tere is a thinner, higher-performing alternative insulation available so it it at least feasible without actual walls coming down, but it's still a PITA to have to consider.
This is the wall that would need to be redone.
The neighbour has also complained that the gutter is overhanging their property, but this was as-before so the developer reckons they'll be told to shut up about it by the commune. If not, it will need to be redone too.
None of this would be at our cost though, thankfully!
There are also a couple more boo-boos by the electrician. These lights down the stairs are meant to be 30-40 cm above the stair treads, not 2m!
Also, he somehow mistenterptered our instructions/drawing and it trying to put four (!) spots on the underside of the balcony. We only wanted a bulkhead light!
All in all, not too bad. Place is looking good!
The neighbour has complained that the building encroaches on their property and there's a survey next week to assert the actual extent (or not) of encroachment. You can see here where the insulation overlaps the stone step (neighbour's) which is nominally the property boundary. I think we're talking about 10-12 mm encroachment onto land which is unusable and not zoned for any type of construction...I know.
If the survey confirm this then the whole insulation will need to be taken off and redone. Thankfully tere is a thinner, higher-performing alternative insulation available so it it at least feasible without actual walls coming down, but it's still a PITA to have to consider.
This is the wall that would need to be redone.
The neighbour has also complained that the gutter is overhanging their property, but this was as-before so the developer reckons they'll be told to shut up about it by the commune. If not, it will need to be redone too.
None of this would be at our cost though, thankfully!
There are also a couple more boo-boos by the electrician. These lights down the stairs are meant to be 30-40 cm above the stair treads, not 2m!
Also, he somehow mistenterptered our instructions/drawing and it trying to put four (!) spots on the underside of the balcony. We only wanted a bulkhead light!
All in all, not too bad. Place is looking good!
Aaand I've just been told that the build will likely be delayed due to corona. Bit expected, but still a huge pain as we obviously need to consider the move, getting out of our current lease etc.
Guess everyone building a house (or doing pretty much anything else ) will be in the same boat.
Guess everyone building a house (or doing pretty much anything else
) will be in the same boat.paulrockliffe said:
How is your lower ceiling 120E a square metre? You could stud it in C24 and tile it for less! I would just fit something other than spot-lights!
Because Luxembourg We have decided to spend the money on some fancy lights instead.
paulrockliffe said:
Can't believe your neighbour decided to fall out with you over 10mm, that's pretty amazing!
Yes, I wouldn't be that arsey, but we haven't fallen out, they just (correctly, as it turns out) said we'd built our house on their land. Rules is rules No cost to us though, so...Won't help in getting the building finished on time though.
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