Schedule?

10kg demolition hammer made much quicker work of the stubbornly solid chimney breast.

I had hoped to have most of the roof work done by now, but instead we are just about ready to start it.  I keep remembering Kuba's comments about the works schedule (Kuba Wihan, strawbale building design/consultancy): I'm not sure of the exact words but the gist was that the schedule was something you do and then watch it go to hell (though I think he put it more nicely than that).  The written schedule is more a means of working out what order to do things in, and it provides me a framework to keep check on whether we're vaguely on track or not.  If I remember to check it often enough it should also remind me when to order things at roughly the right the time.  Should...

Right now the schedule is kind of dictating itself.  Structural details weren't approved earlier, I didn't get some things sorted earlier, I fell through the sunroom roof and that slowed me down etc etc.  I've decided to use a firm of local builders to (hopefully) speed things along a bit with the structural changes to the roof, so that we can still get the Bat-loft (as I've started thinking of it) re-roofed and sealed off from the rest of the build by the end of April, so that we comply with our Bat Mitigation Plan and have it ready in time for any bats that fancy it to hang out in there and breed.  Further roof work (insulation, running of MVHR - Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery - ducting and the like will then have to wait until October when the next bat-safe window opens).

Machines, boxes and holes

This exciting image is what I've been tackling this evening.  The spreadsheet was provided by the ever brilliant Kuba (project designer/strawbale consultant extraordinaire), for me to colour in the boxes.  A coloured box indicates a chunk of time when a bit of the build should be happening.  Piecing it together is a bit mind-melting but it is good to start to visualise the work involved, and see a potential progression from sitting here thinking about building to eventually finishing building and moving in!  That final objective is a long way off yet, but the chart is equally useful for knowing when to start, what with, what to do next, and what needs to happen before other things can happen.  It seems traditional in any build to get ridiculously behind schedule, so now we have a schedule we can follow that tradition with vigour.

Of bats and bureacracy, Part 2

Brief summary of Part 1: the bat man checked for bats and found bat poo indicative of one bat, but couldn't rule out the possibility of there being more bats hidden between the felt and the tiles of the roof.  He then wrote us a bat plan which received the necessary approval from the bat people at Dorset County Council, once we'd resolved a few glitches (they initially failed to read the plans properly).

The bat plan (Dorset Bat Mitigation Plan/DBMP) sets out an approach to roof works that will minimise any potential disruption to bats.  Although the plan describes "a bat roost of low conservation significance", we have to act as though there may be more bats roosting in the space between the roofing felt and the concrete roof-tiles, just in case.  Had we known earlier about the need for a Bat Survey we could have carried out emergence surveys - checking at dusk to see how many bats emerge from the roof - and based the Bat Plan on more specific information.  Sadly, it was already October by the time we knew a survey was needed and at this time of year the bats aren't active in that way.  I'm not sure what they are doing, but it isn't flying in and out of roof roosts.

Design and Access Statement?

Below is a draft Design and Access Statement (DAS) to accompany our planning application.  It now appears we may not be required to submit one as the regulations have changed since the guidance I've been using was issued.  If nothing else I hope it provides a pretty good summing up of our plans and the reasoning behind them.

The property is in an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty which used to require a DAS for householder applications, but now it's unclear.  I'm sure the planning officer I'm meeting tomorrow will be able to tell me.  In any case, our project is unusual compared to standard applications for building an extension so it may help to submit the DAS by way of explanation.  Any comments from anyone used to dealing with things very gratefully received!  I'm sure it's too long for starters, despite a fair bit of editing down.

The wonderful world of wood-pulp

As explained previously (see The Importance of Fitting In) when we wrap our bungalow with strawbales the bedroom that projects forward of the main building will remain as brick outside, in order to visually tie the building with the other brick bungalows in the street and appease the planners (see Elevated Greenery).  This presents some problems.

We want the whole building to be very well insulated and maintain a comfortable temperature without central heating.  The cavity walls of the existing bungalow will be filled (with glass-fibre granules made from recycled glass) but this only gives a U-value of around 0.57.  To achieve a central-heating-free home, we need the external walls to have a U-value of around 0.15 or less (there's some explanation of U-values here).  The strawbale wrap will easily achieve this for most of the building.  But in order to retain the external brick wall of that bedroom some kind of internal insulation will be needed there.  This in turn, presents some problems.

Cobwebs and measuring headaches

The most taxing mission yet (mentally at least) has been gathering the measurements necessary to arrive at the above sketch of the main roof trusses.  It looks so simple now it's done, but gave me major headaches as every time I tried to draw it in Sketchup major bits refused to meet where they should.  Unsurprisingly the bulk of the problems were my fault, usually not notating my on-site sketches clearly enough, thinking I'd measured from one point when in fact I'd measured from another.  The same issue applied when translating the measurements on the computer, starting a distance guide from the wrong point etc.  After a few trips back and forth from the bungalow I got it sorted, and was able to email the crucial info to Kuba (our designer).  The purlins in the sketch (long chunky timbers running the length of the roof to support the rafters - barely visible on the skethch as they're end on) still don't sit quite where they should, but I blame that on the impossibility of using perfectly straight lines to represent a fifty-year-old timber structure.

A good pair of boots

It's been a week or so of structural fact-finding missions for me and the bungalow.  Lots of crawling about in the loft, lifting roof tiles, sticking my head into small spaces to see what's going on (or just hands and camera into the smaller holes), and digging down through clay.  Large hairy spiders and their face-clinging webs are featuring large, and no doubt will do so in increasing amounts from now on.

The foundations.  Featuring large quantities of concrete, splashed liberally around and up the sides of the orginal foundation trench...