May 2023

 

3 May: Pipework for water and central heating are threaded through the timbers.

3 May: Pipes are joined together with connectors.

4 May: Warm fluffy rolls of rock wool insulation are waiting to be put in place.

4 May: The roof tiling is progressing well. These are proper clay tiles, as traditionally used in Kent. Below the tiles, the battens are waiting to have hanging wall tiles attached to them.

9 May: This side of the tiled roof is all done.

9 May: The ground floor is made ready to receive its top layer of construction material. It's a sand and cement mix known as screed.

10 May: The screed is not like the cement that was pumped in earlier. This time, it is dumped in a pile (next to the green shed at the back of the photo) and all has to be carried into the building in wheelbarrows. Once smoothed in place by the professional screeder, the beautiful surface is left alone for a couple of days to dry out and harden.

13 May: Two views of the beautifully smooth screeded floor after two days of drying out.

13 May: At upper storey level the fixing of the hanging wall tiles to the battens is nearly complete. 

15th May: Rock wool is stuffed inside the ceiling spaces too, not just the walls.

15th May: Plaster board is fitted to the rooms upstairs.

15th May: These gleaming copper pipes will be attached to a radiator. 

17th May: The brains and nerve centre of the building will be housed in a small "plant room" downstairs. Not so much a room as a corner cupboard, this is where the life-support system will be switched on or off. The beating heart (i.e. oil-fired boiler) will be in a small semi-outdoor space between the Annexe and the main house.

17th May: The water pipes and wires form a complicated system of veins and arteries, with plumbers and electricians jostling for space.

17th May: Water pipes waiting to be connected up to the rest of the circulatory system. Beyond the doorway is the plant room.

 

20th May: The internal walls upstairs are made up of timber frames stuffed with rock wool between the vertical and horizontal timbers (see 28th April). The timber grid is then sandwiched between vertical layers of plywood board and white plasterboard (see detailed in lower photo). External walls upstairs have thick foam insulation instead of rock wool, and various protective membranes.

20th May: Plasterboard is fitted to walls and ceilings.

23rd May: Downstairs, the brickwork is lined with foam insulation.

23rd May: Vertical timbers secure the layer of foam behind them.

23rd May: Red markings show the location of pipes.

23rd May: A flue is fitted which will connect with a woodburning stove below.

23rd May: The flue rises up into the second bedroom and then into the attic and through the roof.

26th May: This downstairs cupboard will be the nerve centre of the house. It will house all the switches and controls for the utilities.

31st May: Detail of a piece of downstairs wall: the cavity between the bricks is left empty. Inside, a thick layer of foam insulation is wedged behind vertical timbers onto which plasterboard will be fixed.

31st May: Temporary supports where a hole has been created for a cupboard under the stairs.

31st May: More plasterboarding today. Pink plasterboard covers steel beams. The pink colour signifies that it is a special type of plasterboard that will burn more slowly than the standard type.