The Roundhouse - Luxembourg
Discussion
The government just announced that construction sites will be able to reopen from the 20th so hopefully this will mean things can get moving again and we're maybe only looking at a 5 or 6 week delay.
Edit: Developer confirmed that works will restart next week, might be some delays due to supplies, labour not being available though. Might get in by August?
Edit: Developer confirmed that works will restart next week, might be some delays due to supplies, labour not being available though. Might get in by August?
Edited by loudlashadjuster on Thursday 16th April 13:43
Another site visit; some good progress, and some bad news.
Plastering just about finished, floor insulation has been sprayed, heating going in, and terminations started in the consumer unit and associated boxes of gubbins.
Recalculations on the insulation snafu have been completed and the good news is that due to the original insulation being over-specified, and higher performance from the roof as constructed, the external insulation on the rear wall can just be 'shaved' and re-coated. That's going on now, but creating a bit of a mess.
You can also see the brackets for the heat exchanger. (thanks, forum software, for being unable to handle a portrait photo from an iPhone)
White really opens the space out, the wide-angle lens does the rest
Gubbins!
More gubbins!
They've done a good job with this crown I reckon
Loft will be going in above this room.
We've also perused the RAL colour chart and gone for a completely radical not-quite-white for the exterior, with some grey for the bit round the garage, and the wall at the back which will inevitably pick up a bit of green from the proximate foliage. If you've seen almost any building completed in Luxembourg in the last five years you'll be able to picture it
We discussed the thernal properties of the various colours and as the main aspects will get the sun all afternoon and evening we felt it was better to keep it as light as possible. Apart from anything else, the developer says the darker colours don't last as long in high exposure situations as the additional heat means the coating breaks down more quickly. That was enough for me to stick with RAL 9010 as the original proposal was to break up the facade with a different shade at one of the 'creases' at the left of this picture.
Bad news? Still don't know when it will be ready.
Biggest problem in terms of getting a completion date is just getting commitment from tradesmen. That's hard enough at the best of times in Luxembourg (there's a severe lack of skilled trades) but now, it's just a gamble. Once the floor screes are done the developer reckons he'll be able to give a date but I'm resigned to that date being in September now, meaning another three months of rental payments. Oof.
Plastering just about finished, floor insulation has been sprayed, heating going in, and terminations started in the consumer unit and associated boxes of gubbins.
Recalculations on the insulation snafu have been completed and the good news is that due to the original insulation being over-specified, and higher performance from the roof as constructed, the external insulation on the rear wall can just be 'shaved' and re-coated. That's going on now, but creating a bit of a mess.
You can also see the brackets for the heat exchanger. (thanks, forum software, for being unable to handle a portrait photo from an iPhone)
White really opens the space out, the wide-angle lens does the rest
Gubbins!
More gubbins!
They've done a good job with this crown I reckon
Loft will be going in above this room.
We've also perused the RAL colour chart and gone for a completely radical not-quite-white for the exterior, with some grey for the bit round the garage, and the wall at the back which will inevitably pick up a bit of green from the proximate foliage. If you've seen almost any building completed in Luxembourg in the last five years you'll be able to picture it
We discussed the thernal properties of the various colours and as the main aspects will get the sun all afternoon and evening we felt it was better to keep it as light as possible. Apart from anything else, the developer says the darker colours don't last as long in high exposure situations as the additional heat means the coating breaks down more quickly. That was enough for me to stick with RAL 9010 as the original proposal was to break up the facade with a different shade at one of the 'creases' at the left of this picture.
Bad news? Still don't know when it will be ready.
Biggest problem in terms of getting a completion date is just getting commitment from tradesmen. That's hard enough at the best of times in Luxembourg (there's a severe lack of skilled trades) but now, it's just a gamble. Once the floor screes are done the developer reckons he'll be able to give a date but I'm resigned to that date being in September now, meaning another three months of rental payments. Oof.
Edited by loudlashadjuster on Friday 22 May 21:27
Good to see progress.
For the exterior paint, we had a silicon based covering on our last place in Larochette, which was surrounded by forest, and there was no hint of green on it after 9 years - unlike our neighbours.
As to skilled trades, you know they start this stuff in technical high schools, whether carpentry, plumbing / heating, tiling, etc. It's part of their multi-year apprenticeships.
Although the sites have only recently reopened, they will, of course, have their 3 week August shutdown, as most tradesmen will bugger off to Portugal. Finishing (2nd fix, tiling, painting, etc.) does longer than you'd think. We thought ours would be mid-year and it was the beginning of December when we got the keys. Fortunately I was able to take the whole month off to move / build IKEA furniture, install lights, etc.
Fingers crossed for a speedy run to the finish line for you!
For the exterior paint, we had a silicon based covering on our last place in Larochette, which was surrounded by forest, and there was no hint of green on it after 9 years - unlike our neighbours.
As to skilled trades, you know they start this stuff in technical high schools, whether carpentry, plumbing / heating, tiling, etc. It's part of their multi-year apprenticeships.
Although the sites have only recently reopened, they will, of course, have their 3 week August shutdown, as most tradesmen will bugger off to Portugal. Finishing (2nd fix, tiling, painting, etc.) does longer than you'd think. We thought ours would be mid-year and it was the beginning of December when we got the keys. Fortunately I was able to take the whole month off to move / build IKEA furniture, install lights, etc.
Fingers crossed for a speedy run to the finish line for you!
Well, I’m resigned to October at the earliest now, and maybe even November if things continue with the lack of trades. Can’t get the tiling started until after the August construction break which pushes everything out. Ho hum, it’s only money
They also didn’t plumb in the bath which we had moved from one bathroom to another, but we’ve caught that in time so they can route the water and waste without too much hassle.
In positive news, the exterior is just about finished as the down pipes are now fitted, and loft floor is in. The heating is also on with a temporary circulator to dry everything out. It was toasty in there!
They also didn’t plumb in the bath which we had moved from one bathroom to another, but we’ve caught that in time so they can route the water and waste without too much hassle.
In positive news, the exterior is just about finished as the down pipes are now fitted, and loft floor is in. The heating is also on with a temporary circulator to dry everything out. It was toasty in there!
Nearly October and still waiting for a date
We do finally have tiles being laid at the moment though, and a painter lined up. Some sanitary ware is already in and the third fix electrics are well underway too.
Really can't see what's stopping us being in by Christmas now (famous last words), but of course we must wait for firm commitment from the developer first.
Piles of tiles!
A bath!
Sure hope all this works!
We do finally have tiles being laid at the moment though, and a painter lined up. Some sanitary ware is already in and the third fix electrics are well underway too.
Really can't see what's stopping us being in by Christmas now (famous last words), but of course we must wait for firm commitment from the developer first.
Piles of tiles!
A bath!
Sure hope all this works!
Edited by loudlashadjuster on Monday 21st September 15:02
RC1807 said:
G,
Good to see some progress.
Keep the pressure on!
R.
Few emails and phone calls this week have resulted in a firm(ish) commitment for end of November. Tiling should be finished early October, painters should start towards the middle of that month and finish in early Nov, leaving a few weeks for the kitchen, internal glass works, commissioning etc. Good to see some progress.
Keep the pressure on!
R.
I’m not naïve enough to book the movers for exactly 30 November, but will now plan around moving in the middle of December. Be in for Christmas, surely
Edit: first quotes for removal came in surprisingly affordable. Thinking they must’ve made some mistake
Edited by loudlashadjuster on Wednesday 23 September 19:53
No updates on this for months as it was too depressing!
Progress was slow, albeit continuous, but after handing in our notice on the rented property we forced the developer's hand on the mid-Dec date. They really pulled out all the stops to get it ready, and against all odds we actually did get the keys before Christmas...on the 24th! We even have a kitchen. Almost. This allowed us to move in before the end of the year.
That's not to say it's the project is actually finished though.
Main things missing are internal doors, glass panels on the stairs, finishing on the terrace and balcony, some electrical and plumbing snagging, and the fact that they messed up the placement of a section of the kitchen which meant we couldn't get the worktop measured and fitted before we had to move.
The doors have been on order for three months now, but the German supplier's production has been severely constrained by Covid and we still don't have a date for them. Currently "enjoying" the additional open planned-ness, with a makeshift curtain between the kitchen and garage to minimise the heat loss.
The glass for the first floor just wasn't ready in time so we currently have three massive bits of chipboard instead, which kinda spoils the look. Hopefully these won't be too long though as the lower three panels were ready in time and are in place, although needing aligned and the handrail fitted.
There were some inevitable screwups with light placement and some bits of sanitary ware are wrong, nothing too major that can't be easily fixed or ignored though. I don't doubt that a lot of these were just because the site visits and co-ordination between trades was less effective due to Covid, but in comparison to the kinds of problems we know a lot of builds face, these are pretty minor things.
Yeah, great placement of the switch and socket, m8...
This is the only light they fitted in the upstairs bathroom, despite the drawing calling for three adjustable spots and a light on the mirror. Who fits a pendant light there?!
As for the move-in, well pretty late in the day the commune informed us that due to the school at the end of the road, we wouldn't be able to have a removal van parked outside of the house during term time. That meant the original date around the 17th had to be put back to the 28-30th, leaving only one day before we had to be out of the leased property. No stress there then.
The heating had been commissioned in early Dec so it was toasty inside when we did the last pre-handover meeting in mid December, but I noticed it was a little cooler when we actually got the keys on Christmas Eve, despite the boiler being on. I put it down to the fact the weather was now properly bitter, and the garage door will have been open for a lot of the time as the various trades finished things off. It turns out there was slightly more to it than that...
By the time we arrived on-site on the 30th to start the move-in proper it was clear there was a problem with the heating. Although the boiler was working, the floors were stone-cold. Cue a few panicked calls to the developer and then the installer. Most trades are off for the duration and it was going to later that day before anyone could come out, maybe even the 31st. It was snowing and the external temperatures were forecast to hover around 0C for at least the next week. I got the call late on that the engineer wouldn't be able to make it until the 31st.
We really had no choice but to move out of the rental though and spent our first night in the rapidly cooling house on the 30th. Leaving the oven on for a few hours and using a couple of portable heaters we just about managed to keep a couple of rooms habitable, but without internal doors it really was a losing battle.
I played with the unfamiliar heating controls to try and coax it into operation, even managing to get into the installer options, but there were no fault codes or obvious mis-configured settings. As I became more familiar with the system, and after a lot of googling, it did start to become obvious that there was actually no heating circuit defined in the system. DHW and the exchanger/mixer were all configured fine, but any settings related to the heating temp or timing were just not there.
When the engineer arrived on the 31st he confirmed it. At some point between about the 15th and the 24th, someone somehow ended up screwing it all up, leaving the system to believe there was no heating circuit installed. It's all bus-based and there are dozens of possible configs with gas, ASHP, GSHP, PV etc. so I can sort of see how this could happen. The system needs to a) be told that a circuit is present, and b) actually be able to reach it on the control bus before the relevant option screens appear. I think the problem was simply a wrong connection when the downstairs controller was wired up, about the only visible thing that was done between our visits. I doubt we'll ever get to the bottom of it, but anyway, after about 20 minutes the system was restarted and the heating kicked-in.
It was pretty bloody cold by this point though and I knew it was going to take days to get heat into the place. Five days in and the floors are all toasty, but the walls and unheated parts (stairs etc.) are still noticeably cooler. It's going to take a few more days until the heat soaks into these parts of the building. It also takes an age for water to get fully hot in more distant bathrooms as the pipework snakes through tens of metres of cold concrete. I'm sure this will improve in time though.
Much better!
The ASHP was obviously having to work full-pelt and is a little noisy at that kind of output. I dropped it to 45% output at night where it is all but silent. That's still capable of kicking out 4-5 kW, with up to 9 kW of additional emergency heating available too. Now that the flow temp has reached ~40C I've set it to automatic and it's much quieter all the time.
So, it feels good to finally be in, albeit at the cost of an additional six months and the thick end of €30k extra.
The question is, what will happen first? All the outstanding items fixed, or us managing to empty all the boxes?
Progress was slow, albeit continuous, but after handing in our notice on the rented property we forced the developer's hand on the mid-Dec date. They really pulled out all the stops to get it ready, and against all odds we actually did get the keys before Christmas...on the 24th! We even have a kitchen. Almost. This allowed us to move in before the end of the year.
That's not to say it's the project is actually finished though.
Main things missing are internal doors, glass panels on the stairs, finishing on the terrace and balcony, some electrical and plumbing snagging, and the fact that they messed up the placement of a section of the kitchen which meant we couldn't get the worktop measured and fitted before we had to move.
The doors have been on order for three months now, but the German supplier's production has been severely constrained by Covid and we still don't have a date for them. Currently "enjoying" the additional open planned-ness, with a makeshift curtain between the kitchen and garage to minimise the heat loss.
The glass for the first floor just wasn't ready in time so we currently have three massive bits of chipboard instead, which kinda spoils the look. Hopefully these won't be too long though as the lower three panels were ready in time and are in place, although needing aligned and the handrail fitted.
There were some inevitable screwups with light placement and some bits of sanitary ware are wrong, nothing too major that can't be easily fixed or ignored though. I don't doubt that a lot of these were just because the site visits and co-ordination between trades was less effective due to Covid, but in comparison to the kinds of problems we know a lot of builds face, these are pretty minor things.
Yeah, great placement of the switch and socket, m8...
This is the only light they fitted in the upstairs bathroom, despite the drawing calling for three adjustable spots and a light on the mirror. Who fits a pendant light there?!
As for the move-in, well pretty late in the day the commune informed us that due to the school at the end of the road, we wouldn't be able to have a removal van parked outside of the house during term time. That meant the original date around the 17th had to be put back to the 28-30th, leaving only one day before we had to be out of the leased property. No stress there then.
The heating had been commissioned in early Dec so it was toasty inside when we did the last pre-handover meeting in mid December, but I noticed it was a little cooler when we actually got the keys on Christmas Eve, despite the boiler being on. I put it down to the fact the weather was now properly bitter, and the garage door will have been open for a lot of the time as the various trades finished things off. It turns out there was slightly more to it than that...
By the time we arrived on-site on the 30th to start the move-in proper it was clear there was a problem with the heating. Although the boiler was working, the floors were stone-cold. Cue a few panicked calls to the developer and then the installer. Most trades are off for the duration and it was going to later that day before anyone could come out, maybe even the 31st. It was snowing and the external temperatures were forecast to hover around 0C for at least the next week. I got the call late on that the engineer wouldn't be able to make it until the 31st.
We really had no choice but to move out of the rental though and spent our first night in the rapidly cooling house on the 30th. Leaving the oven on for a few hours and using a couple of portable heaters we just about managed to keep a couple of rooms habitable, but without internal doors it really was a losing battle.
I played with the unfamiliar heating controls to try and coax it into operation, even managing to get into the installer options, but there were no fault codes or obvious mis-configured settings. As I became more familiar with the system, and after a lot of googling, it did start to become obvious that there was actually no heating circuit defined in the system. DHW and the exchanger/mixer were all configured fine, but any settings related to the heating temp or timing were just not there.
When the engineer arrived on the 31st he confirmed it. At some point between about the 15th and the 24th, someone somehow ended up screwing it all up, leaving the system to believe there was no heating circuit installed. It's all bus-based and there are dozens of possible configs with gas, ASHP, GSHP, PV etc. so I can sort of see how this could happen. The system needs to a) be told that a circuit is present, and b) actually be able to reach it on the control bus before the relevant option screens appear. I think the problem was simply a wrong connection when the downstairs controller was wired up, about the only visible thing that was done between our visits. I doubt we'll ever get to the bottom of it, but anyway, after about 20 minutes the system was restarted and the heating kicked-in.
It was pretty bloody cold by this point though and I knew it was going to take days to get heat into the place. Five days in and the floors are all toasty, but the walls and unheated parts (stairs etc.) are still noticeably cooler. It's going to take a few more days until the heat soaks into these parts of the building. It also takes an age for water to get fully hot in more distant bathrooms as the pipework snakes through tens of metres of cold concrete. I'm sure this will improve in time though.
Much better!
The ASHP was obviously having to work full-pelt and is a little noisy at that kind of output. I dropped it to 45% output at night where it is all but silent. That's still capable of kicking out 4-5 kW, with up to 9 kW of additional emergency heating available too. Now that the flow temp has reached ~40C I've set it to automatic and it's much quieter all the time.
So, it feels good to finally be in, albeit at the cost of an additional six months and the thick end of €30k extra.
The question is, what will happen first? All the outstanding items fixed, or us managing to empty all the boxes?
Good points?
- The external doors and windows, chosen before we took over the project, are good quality and the level of sound and thermal insulation is excellent.
- The loft space is a huge success, much bigger than I expected it to be. I only realised its true size once I started putting things in it. Will take a lot of
crapvaluable family items. - The showers are great. I was unconvinced about 'rain showers' but my wife insisted on them and those, combined with the generous size (most showers are at least 1m square), good flow rates and decent brassware mean they really are a luxury to use.
- The little outside area off the kitchen is surprisingly spacious and with a little decoration, will be a lovely little "hidden" space in the summer. The fact that it will inevitably fill up with leaves means I can justify buying myself a new leaf vacuum too
- Our cat has settled in amazingly quickly, she was at home immediately and is enjoying exploring inside and outside her new manor.
- The front door is ugly and, considering it faces directly on to a road, the fact that it has clear glass sections means nosy buggers can peer straight in at night. Will need to apply privacy film, and we'll probably change it at some point for a solid one. Again, this wasn't chosen by us and was only fitted near the end of construction. We could've maybe vetoed it before it was installed, but never thought about it.
- The wooden-look tiles we chose in for most of the house look great but their texture means the felt feet on most of our furniture doesn't always slide nicely over them like it did on varnished wood. Will either have to replace the feet with new felt ones that aren't compressed/filled with crap, or look at PTFE ones or something.
- A gutter downpipe has a near-90 degree bend in it which means water hits noisily off the horizontal section. This is just outside our bedroom window so will need sorting. It's not hugely loud from inside, but it will annoy me and the developer has already agreed it needs fixed.
CharlesdeGaulle said:
Interesting update. Frustrating, but overall it sounds good news. When's the house-warming?
Frustrating is one word. Another would be ‘terrifying’, which it was at times, particularly after we’d served notice on the rental then it seemed like a catalogue of things were going to prevent us moving in.First it was the heating commissioning, then the kitchen which apparently wasn’t ordered, then the problems with the commune, then the fact the developer couldn’t get a cleaner, then weather, the heating...etc etc etc
We also had long-term low-level anxiety about the lease check-out. Having heard so many horror stories about landlords keeping the whole deposit for spurious reasons it was real concern, but in the end they didn’t even take a cent off us. A huge surprise, not to mention relief!
As for a house warming, well we can start to plan that a) when Xavier says we can consider it, and b) after we actually unpack everything!
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