ufh battens @ 14" centres

If I had a chance to do the ufh upstairs again I wouldn't use the battens @ 14" centres. Reason being that

1 - the 9" x 2" battens are nominal in size, i.e. slight variations from the 9"was doing the ufh upstairs

2 - the 2" x 2" battens are aslo nominal in size - slight variations again

3 - the odd noggin / bracing timber between the joists was proud of the joists

The 3 factors above meant that the 2" x 2" battens while they were level enough to nail boards to weren't level enough to screed concrete off - mainly due to their close positioning - screeding felt like using a see-saw at times and was very frustrating! -- less timbers to screed off = better average "leve" to the floor and would allow the use of power float and steel mesh.

as it stands I'll have to rip a few sheets of 1/2" ply into 2" strips, screw onto the 2 x 2 battens and then fix the floor boards onto that.

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If I was doing it again I'd
1 -- cover OSB / PLY with Plastic

1 -- use 2 1/2 " x 2 1/2" screeds (5 x 2 ripped down the centre ??) placed 6ft apart

3 -- cut 12ft sheets of light steel mesh in half and place between the battens, making sure the steel lay flat with the OSB by nailing down with pipe clips where necessary.

4 -- mark the 14" centere with spray paint

5 -- Get the ufh pipes laid and tied to the mesh with cable ties

6 -- Pour concrete, screed and power float when concrete is ready for it.

upstairs ufh manifold
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more ufh pipework - note roll of chicke wire to rhs and paslode gun I borrowed from my chippy crew - thanks Willie/Steve/Darren
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ufh piping in place - 50mm counter battens (i.e., at right angles to direction of joists) @ 14" centres over chicken wire over clear plastic. Ufh pipes kept in place with 15mm pipe clips nailed through the osb3 board
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ufh pipes in tracks, over chicken wire, over clear plastic, in position for pouring of 50mm concrete screed. Note pipes stopped short of gable wall to allow for waste water pipe from shower and cold water pipe to wc (waste from wc exiting straight thru wall)
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Gable wall
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guide rafters for the sun room, 25 degree pitch was decided upon because anything higher would interfere with the view from the upstairs room
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another pic of the extra block and then the cavity closer after the sheeting over the joists is completed
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guide rafters in place to give a picture of the kind of roof space we are dealing with, the shorter upright timber indicates the knee wall position and the longer one the position of one of the stud walls (space between is a bathroom)
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joists before 50mm kingspan insulation fitted and the sheeting completed - note joists embedded in blockwork and an EXTRA block + cavity closer then laid
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joists being sheeted out with 11mm OSB3
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Pic showing the reason why it was necessary to raise things by one block above joists - the original height of the opening would have required me to wear a helmet when upstairs :-)
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OSB & Kingspan 50mm for first floor

We're putting in underfloor heating on the first floor over 9" x 2" joists.

As we're still a bit caught for space in one spot have decided to friction fit the kingspan insulation between the joists instead of over the joists to gain 50mm / 2" of height

With the help of my brother in law Joe I ripped the insulation into strips to fit between the joists (joists are at 16" centres as far as is possible) -- Thanks Joe !

quiet a lot of the strips need fine tuning to fit snugly - a slow process.

The OSB3 boards aren't too bad to fit but stil need quiet a bit of trimming to size.

Have got a bit of a hand from Noz Nagle and my brother Mike doing this - thanks lads.

Had to build a makeshift ramp to get the OSB boards up to the first floor - all 60 of them. thanks again to Mike and Paddy Ahern for a bit of a digout with this.

Cills & Shed

Cills are in place for windows and blocklayer is finally finished!

Had to return one cill as it was damaged during delivery.

Got an old timber shed 8' x 6' delivered by the guy doing the cills at no extra cost - went to school with him!, will be able to use this to store stuff under lock and key. It's not fort knox but better than nothing.

Had to pick up a 2' 6" cill myself and have a cill to return as I've decided to replace the individual cills around the sun room with one long one "cased in" by my carpenter.

Blockwork too low :-(

I discovered after the block work was finished to wall plate level that I was going to be caught for head room going from one section of the upstairs to the other :-( [picture to follow later will show this clearly ]

To avoid this decided to remove the block on the flat already in place on the external walls and raise everything by two blocks and a proper cavity closer. The total gain of course was 9" as the blockwork between the joists accounts for 9" that was going to be there anyway (i.e. was planning on using 9" joists all along.) and the cavity closer is merely replacing the block on the flat that was removed.

This meant

* Remove Block on flat on external walls
* Carpenter put 9" x 2" joists in place with bridging / noggins in place to prevent warping distortion
* Joists were propped with acros in spots to support the weight of all the blocks needed for
- gables ends +
- 2 rows of "new" blocks on the front and back external walls +
- the cavity closers.
* placed plywood sheets and some pallets in place on the joists to take blocks
* took delivery of blocks which were loaded onto first floor joists/plywood/pallets
* Truck driver delivering blocks also raised three RSJ's in place
* Blocklayer raised external walls with 2 courses of 9" blocks (had to cut the blocks on the bottom row of the inner leaf to fit between the joists)
* Blocklayer laid cavity closer block to close the cavity (those blocks do what they say on the tin !)
* 3 Gables built

Roofing begins, joisting materials list

garrettshed

Materials needed for joisting

9" X 2" length list

18' x 24 -- twenty four 18' lengths of 9" x 2"
17' x 30
15' x 17
14' x 10
13' x 26
10' x 09
09' x 15

9" x 3" (around stair opening I think)
18' x 01
09' x 02

1 x box 4" nails, galvanised

another pic showing cavity closure at top of walls, red arrow indictes area that needs insulation
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piers underway for the sun room / dining room - note wasn't able to use L blocks to close cavities, will have to do this myself
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breast overhead the kitchen stove begins, lintel in place, concrete platform needed overhead this to take flue closer later. note red arrow pointing to pipes in place for stove connection later
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view of 3 of the front windows with lintels overhead also shows a block on the flat closing the cavity
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chimmeny construction in lounge continues, flue liners in place
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top of cavity showing block on flat closing cavity, insulation needed on inside leaf in the area highlighted in red to help reduce thermal bridging
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Underfloor heating 4 - Red spray used to mark areas where no ufh pipes to be laid, in this to allow toilet bowl to be screwed to floor at a later stage
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Underfloor heating 3
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Blockwork5 - Detail of window ope being built, note L shaped block on RHS of photo to close (almost) the cavity and the small recess - space left for insulation ??
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Blocwork4 - Ealrly stage of chimmeny in lounge
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Blockwork3 - early view of full house black things are covered underfloorheating manifolds X 2
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Blockwork2 - with guidline measurement for 900mm wide windows for blocklayer
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Blockwork 1 - note hockey stick in place for ESB connection
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Block work begins

Blockwork above ground level began today (well yesterday actually since this is being logged 12:14 am). So far so good, but they have forgotten to build one stretch of wall on the flat - this was to hold an RSJ that will support blockwork for the eaves of the "overlapping" section of the "roofs" of the house. Might be able to work around this by resting the blockwork on some lintels built into the 4" wall to spread the load.

Decided to split the plastic dpc (floor dpc) that was travelling "down and out" bridging the cavity as in my opinion this has the potential to allow a buildup of mortar droppings that might reach the floor dpc. Now any mortar droppings should drop 9 inches below the floor dpc.

Removed any excess mortar where the blocks meet the floor with a flat hoe