Picture of progress

Pictures taken today

Pictures of progress

Pictures taken on last Saturday, 23th November.

 

 

Kitchen floor slab, terracotta brick walls, en-suite door, old kitchen window.

It is a busy day today.  A day full of surprises.  Not all surprise is good surprise.

Kitchen Underfloor Heating

Kitchen underfloor heating - the original plan was to remove the screed of the existing kitchen floor.  He guessed the screed would be 50mm.  That would allow just enough depth to for underfloor heating pipe (15mm) and screed to cover it up.  Unfortunately after digging the whole day, he found the screed is just 25mm.  Therefore, it is not enough for the underfloor heating.

He estimate it is going to cost £900 to do it properly.  This is because to do it properly, he needs to remove the existing slab, pack the soil, put the slab back, and allow space for 4 inch insulation, then underfloor heating, then screed.

Remove slab and dig down soil     240

Skip                                                     200
Scalpings                                              80
Steel cage                                            40
Labour for cage and scalpings         60
Celotex                                                 70
Membrane                                           15
Concrete                                             120
Labour for concrete and celotex      80

Total                                                    900

I feel upset.  Maybe I am upset of the situation.  But it is really no one's fault.  Isn't it?


Terracotta Brick Wall

David wants to charge me £430 to replace the terracotta walls with normal brick walls, so they can take the load of the steel beam and anything above it.  His breakdown is

Extra acro and needle hire       60

Wall removal and disposal     120
Wall ties                                       12
Bricks blocks                               40
Sand and cement                        15
Floor removal                              60
Labour                                        120
Total                                           430


Original Kitchen Window

David told me that replacing the window is not part of the quote.  It is going to cost £350 to replace the window.  That surprises me.  I make sure every builder quotes the same - how could he omit that window.  But I feel guilty too because I didn't check his quote carefully enough to find that.  So at the end, I agree to pay for half of the price.  I don't really need to do it, do I?  But later today he sent me a list of extra charges.  In which he said "Window - TBC".  I don't know what he meant by it.


Kitchen Side Door

Over the weekend, we had a chance to stand in the cubicle to have a feel of the new kitchen.  Nina then regret the decision of removing the kitchen side door.  So we told David that we want the side door back, except it won't be a side door.  We'd like the door to face the patio.  Luckily the brickwork has not progressed that far, so he wasn't very unhappy about the change.

The lintel specified for the back window is more than 1500mm.  This is enough to allow a proper door and a window.  That is what we will have.


En-suite Units

Laurance is making very good progress in the garage.  Today we spent so much time talking about the position of the en-suite door, the units and how to make changes for better.  After going a full circle, we came back to the original layout.  This is except the door will become a pocket sliding door.  For this change David wants £230 extra.  He said the Pocket Door kit is £160 and labour is £70.  I don't think he makes extra money for this one.

Kitchen clear out, garage floor timber joists

Went to check the progress of yesterday before David arrived.  Probably because of the weather, not much was done outdoors.  But there has been some progress indoors.

In the outdoor part, not much progress.

Maybe I didn't pay enough attention yesterday.  But I feel more was done for the drainage.

Inside the house, the kitchen is totally cleared.  It feels bigger now.

Kitchen ceiling is totally removed and the plumbing exposed.

David is saving the LED spot lights for later.

At the corner, David made a cut.  From here the weak internal wall structure can be seen.

Floor damp proof membrane is laid, and joist being put together.

The chimney is still in place, waiting for the final decision.

David told me that he really needs the decision about the internal wall to be made.  Otherwise, he will run out of things to do next Monday.  Therefore, contacted Graham over the lunch.  He was surprised of the terracotta brick and doesn't seem to know what to do.  So he sent an email to Building Control to ask for help.  He however gave the steel beam drawing for the chimney.  If David's quote is acceptable, he will submit it for Building Control's review.

To expedite the process, I asked David to price three things.
1. The price of removing the chimney.
2. The price to support the RSJ with a UC.
3. The price to support the RSJ by replacing the terracotta bricks with structural bricks.

David forgot to lock the garage door, so tomorrow morning I will have a peep of the progress.

A project-free day.

I left very early this morning for London, so I didn't have any chance to talk to David.  But I did take some pictures before I left.

I could see David has taken part of the kitchen out yesterday.

Looking more closely, the terracotta bricks near the window is what put David off.

On the other side of the wall, there are gas pipes which no one knows where they go.  The plan is to abandon them and lay new ones.

Outside, not much progress is made probably because of poor weather.

I told David that he can still call me although I am most likely to be in meetings.  Although he didn't call, he told Nina that we need to talk tomorrow morning.  Talking is good.  I didn't do any about this project today, so it is totally "project-free".  Looking forward to making progress tomorrow.

Chimney, driveway and the internal wall.

Graham replied my email almost immediately last night.  He always replies emails almost immediately.  It is very good especially when you have an urgent technical issue that needs answering.

I went out to inspect what's done yesterday.  And it was... not much.  This is because Jay's son was ill yesterday and Dave was working alone.  Well, this kind of things happens.  I told Jay that it's more important that his son is better now.  He said he is.  Good.

On the concrete footing, I noticed that Dave have left a groove for the electrical wire to the workshop.  Good.

I spoke with David about the chimney.  Graham seems to be more optimistic about using gallows brackets than David.  But the complexity of the seemly simple job bothers David.  He told me two main issues: the access to the top part is not there unless we employee expensive scaffolding; and the waste bricks themselves will take a small skip to dispose of.

Later in the evening, he gave me a quote of £470 to take the chimney down.  This is expensive.  I reverted with an option to remove only the bottom part (if Graham can make it structurally acceptable to the council inspector).  That should reduce the cost of skip, and save the cost of scaffolding.

Good news is that David's quote to make two parking space is £800, which is acceptable.

Bad news is that David found our internal wall is built with terracotta bricks.  He sent a query to Graham and Andrew the council inspector.  I don't know what it will entail.  Feeling very worried now.

Windows ...

This morning I went to see what I couldn't see last night.  The only visible progress is the concrete having been poured, and a short threshold was built for garage.

 

 

Nina told me that the team left about lunch time yesterday. That sort of make sense. Nina also said that David worked alone today. No sight of his two colleagues. But he worked until 4pm-ish, and kept his son waiting. I feel bad that the boy had to wait. He could actually come in a be Heather's friend.

Last time David asked me about the windows.  he told me that windows will be about 1400mm.  I felt strange and I didn't know what to respond to that.  Thinking about it over the weekend, I realised that 1400mm is not wide enough.  And for upstairs, I would like it to be as wide as possible.  Probably having a panorama view is not a bad idea.  That means the window is better to be one single panel.  I then checked with architect today to confirm 1800mm is ok from structure standpoint.  But the window needs to open to allow ventilation.

David is reluctant of the idea.  I need to talk to him again about this.

Nina is cooking in the dinning room, which is very inconvenient.  I wish this will end soon.