www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi All,

Thought it was time to start a new thread for my extension to my 200year old lodge.[emoji3]

I renovated the front rooms over the last couple of years which can be seen here:
lodge-renovation-living-room-t69048-75.html

Anyway, back to the project at hand....

My wife & I wanted to create a more useful more modern space at the rear of the bungalow compared to what the existing extensions offered; I guess the middle extension was built in the 30's & the rear extension in the 70's, both were of poor construction.....





We gave our brief to the architect:
Master bedroom & ensuite, dressing room(wife priority), ideally 2 additional bedrooms, main bathroom, open plan kitchen dinning and living area.
Ideally with upstairs - as we would have nice views over the fields at the rear.

After nearly 18months of toing and froing with the council we obtained planning and building warrant in AprIl 2015.[emoji41]
What we ended up with was approval to demolish the two rear extensions and built a new extension with 85m2 useable floor area downstairs and 35m2 upstairs.
To achieve sufficient head height in both floors we needed to have three steps going down into the new extension.





So...I knew this was going to be my most am ambitious DIY project to date - as a confessed DIY geek - I wanted to do most of the work ourselves; from demolishing, digging & pouring founds, steelwork fabrications & installation, ground floor concrete slab, timber frame manufacture and erection, roofing & slating, plumbing external & internal, underfloor heating, electrical, plasterboarding & plastering, tiling, wood finishes, sanitary ware, painting & decorating, etc etc

The only trades I was hoping to rely on was bricklaying & external rendering.....oh & some of you on here!!!!

So before we commenced the works, I purchased a time lapse camera from FFX and have set it to take a photo every 3minutes and mounted this in a near by tree. After the project, I will collate this into a video of the project!



I will be looking for suggestions and comments on how to do things as the build progresses - any ideas then just comment as you see fit!

Onto the build, given that we plan to do the majority of works ourselves in our free time - this project will not be the fastest.....long term...I will try and bring you up to date then I will try and keep the threaded updated as we progress...

Enabling works - Jan 15>April 15

Before starting with the demo we decided to upgrade the main water supply into the house to a 25mm mdpe. We had already had mains gas installed and had the electric supply altered from overhead to underground too. I dug the trench with the digger adjacent to the existing old 15mm copper supply pipe that was there. When digging I found the existing stop valve on my boundary line circa 1600mm down, the cast iron drain cover covered by 800mm of soil.....hence the reason the local water supplier couldn't locate it!!!! The existing valve was by its best so I replaced it with a modern brass alternative with some philmac fittings. Improved water flow rate to the house now!



As we were renovating the front of the house, we thought it would be wise to undertake the slap out works when we had mess from renovating. Propped the roof / ceiling joists with acro props and commenced creating the 2.7m wide opening. The original stone was are 600mm thick! After that we installed 2x 150x100mm pre stressed concrete lintels ensuring 150mm minimum bearing at each end.
As we wanted to ensure we minimised dust etc during the build I managed to pick up a uPVC door from gumtree and build a temporary partition/ back door.




Next up was checking invert heights of the foul & surface water. Out with the digger again this time to dig up my front garden...



As the ground floor was to be lowered it was found that I was now unable to now gravity to the existing old septic tank which currently serviced the property, Therefore, a pumping station would be needed. I figured that if I need to install a pumping station anyway, I may as well pump to the main sewer which was in the road adjacent to my property but elevated hence the lack of connection previously. I submitted a sewer connection application to the water board and they approved this within 6months.....
As this connection needs to be done by an approved contractor I have already had a local company round to supply me a quote which I have since accepted....sadly much dearer than I hoped but this is our final home!!!!

Demolition works - Sept 15>Dec15

As we were demolishing the rear extension this left us a shortfall in storage space! So I levelled some ground and bought a 20ft container which was delivered on a hiab & lifted over a gap in the hedge!!!!



As we were losing our only bathroom & kitchen, I managed to pickup a 2berth caravan locally which had cooking, toilet & showering facilities....so I convinced my wife it would be ideal for the build duration.....
I ditched the caravan toilet ( didn't fancy emptying this weekly) and installed a new standard toilet with macerator and plumbed this into the existing foul lines to the septic tank. The cold & hot water supplies, I took from the house boiler. So all in all it is very functional but glad we have a nice bedroom in the front of the house to sleep in!!

With all the enabling works complete & relocation of all our goods into storage, we could actually now commence the actual build....first up ....demolition!

Sadly no wrecking ball here... We just worked logically from the roof down...

My wife stripped all the old slates of the roofs..the prevous owner had painted them with a bitmastic paint which knackered them....not allowed to breath... So in the skip they went along with the felt from the flat roof rear extension. After that we installed some protect A1 on the roof of the original house which was to remain.



The roofs were then removed fairly easily along with the timber walled rear extension. The middle stone extension had several brick internal walls. Theses were knocked down by sledge hammer until only the perimeter walls remained.



Safety first...





Next up was the concrete floor slabs & perimeter walls.... Step up the mini digger with pecker.....I actually bought the pecker from eBay as I was unsure how long then pecking would take....unfortunately after wasting about 10hours trying to get the pecker goin I gave up & handed it into the local JCB service Center.....£1250 to repair... ECK...Spoke to the seller & he agreed to refund me my £900...& arranged uplift of breaker.

After searching online locally for places that hire breakers (at reasonable cost!!) found I guy that offered me one for £60 for the weekend...done!!!

He came and set it up on my digger and gave me some pointers for how to get the most out of it.... Start at edge, small chunks, chisel always perp insular to concrete, stop pecking immediately after breaking through....




All good....managed to get all my breaking down over 2 weekends... Some of the slab was 8" thick!!! The noise I guess wasn't Ideal for the neighbours... but needs must &'we made sure we were restricting noise between 10am & 5pm.

Site clearance - Dec15>Mar16

As I know we would be shifting a lot of materials back & forth, and being a self confessed tool geek, I was keeping my eye out on skid steers or dumper... Most skid steers were outside my £3k budget until I was browsing gumtree and spotted an old 80's micro bobcat 313 with 227kg bucket capacity. As the site is quick restricted I though this size would be ideal. Test drove, Deal done and managed to get it delivery thrown in within my budget! Plan to sell it at the end of the project so shouldn't loose much on it. You can see it in the background hiding....



So we could commence bringing all the broken concrete & bricks etc round the front of the house to allow the grab lorry to uplift. 18t grab was £150 per load. Needed 7 loads to clear down to soil level..



Based on the need to have stairs down into the ground floor extension & the height of the construction of this it meant that 1028mm from existing had to be dug out over the full house area. The soil is very clay like and those that have dug out will know the rate of expansion of this stuff! In excess of 200 Ton to excavate & remove from site.....oh boy this was going to be a long slog with the digger & dumper......and I wasn't far wrong!!! My mate Dave done most of the digging thankfully leaving me to do the dumping!






Cleared the site flat first then commenced digging the foundations. 200mm deep strip founds & 600mm deep,for the pads where the steelwork was proposed.





Once all the founds were dug, a393 mesh top and bottom was added to the steelwork pads & a292 in the strip founds. Then C35 mixed onsite.....buy volumetric mixer thankfully......17m^3 of concrete...that is a lot of wheel barrowing!!

Steelwork - Sep14>Apr15

I had pushed the structural engineer to utilise steelwork instead of wood for the internal support structure. Couple of reasons;
1. We wanted to section sizes as small as possible ensuring maximum height possible in both floors.
2. We wanted a vaulted ceiling within the downstairs lounge area.
3. I'm more familiar with steelwork than wood.
4. Steel is more manly....ha

So firstly after the SE advised beam
section sizes, I proceeded to generate the fabrication drawings in AutoCAD to allow me to manufacture the beams - example:





I then ordered the steelwork...4.5Ton of it!



My best mate(Dave!) & I marked, drilled, tacked & welded up all the connection plates to my drawings. Thankfully my father has a garage with 3phase power where we have our Lincoln welder.



All in all no real issues apart from a miscalculation on 2beam lengths due to architects grid line being 10mm out...so needed to extend 2beams by adding an additional connection plate...



My sister then got roped into painting them to keep them protected until I was ready for them after found pouring...



On the same day my work hired a 50T crane for lifting my fathers turret into his house, I managed to extend the hire to assist with erect at my house - 15miles away.

Crane sat at the front of the house and slewed the steelwork into position and secured temporarily...






My wife and I spent the next weekend, plumbing and levelling the beams with steel shims prior to drilling with 18mm SDS 225mm deep. This allowed for M16 resin stud to be inserted into each of the base plate holes. The following weekend we created temp shuttering to fill under beams base plates with non compressible grout.

Here is some of the photo time lapse from the steel erection day they I made...

http://youtu.be/6OCOal9XQGk

Underbuilding blockwork - May 16

OK... Time to get ready for the brick layers...

As the ground floor slab is going to be concrete the architect specified 150mm well packed type1 for the subbase as follows:



So I arranged for 20T type1 to be delivered loose at the front of the house! Wife drove the bobcat & I was in the hole with the JCB. Managed to get it all moved into the hole in a day & whacked in layers with the big BOMAG whacker..





So...time to call in the **! Arranged a site visit and agreed if I supplied block, sand & cement cost would be £1.50/block laid if he got it completed the following weekend...

As the concrete height had been poured to suit the steelwork this caused me an issue as I wasn't working into a block course; 225, 450, 675 etc

So I agreed to hire a madonary table saw, clipper 501 & cut the bottom course for them.... 8hours cutting 205blocks... Not my most enjoyable day...lesson learned...

I then proceed to haul all the block round the back..boy the 140mm thk, 7N dense block get heavy after a couple of hours!

Anyway, prior to the father & son brick laying team arriving, my wife and I primmed & painted the lower section of the beams with bitumen paint to protect the steel before DPC level.

Full day on Saturday & half day on Sunday and they were up to FFL on the inner skin & 1 course below DPC level on the other as I still have to decide what I want as the lower border around house, have been looking at Forticrete cast stone chamfered block with then white K-Rend commence above this chamfered block....

Underslab plumbing - June 16 >

Looking for a bit of advice...plumbing/ground works

The proposed floor construction as noted in the above post is 150mm type 1, 25mm sand, DPM, 150mm concrete, 150mm Insulation, and 70mm Screed.

I plan to have all the subfloor pipework popups in-situ prior to pouring the concrete slab. Due to the height of the top of the foundation, I will need to run the soil pipes below/within the type 1 layer surrounded with 10mm pea gravel.

Proposing W/C directly into inspection chamber in 110mm. The sink, shower & bath increasing to 110mm at concrete finish level and then communing the three up in 110mm under concrete slab and connecting into the Soil Vent Pipe before discharging into main drain heading towards inspection chamber.

Reading the regulations I am still unsure if I require additional venting of the combined branch or will lengths of pipework & the oversize pipe eliminate the need??

The bathroom is only 2.3mx3.1m.





Any thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks in advance,

No idea, but awesome! Makes mine look like a shoe box build!

Look forward to seeing progress on this one!

Looking good mate!! Looking forward to seeing the rest go up!
Blockwork is tidy,is that a 50mm cavity that's been left?

steviejoiner74 wrote:Looking good mate!! Looking forward to seeing the rest go up!
Blockwork is tidy,is that a 50mm cavity that's been left?

Hi Stevie!
Been slow progress with the digging in our Scottish winter weather! Glad I'm now starting to build up! Architect specified 50mm air cavity. Brickies suggested I go 60mm between blocks as once I add my OSB3 to my inner timer frame wall this will reduce cavity between OSB & outer block leaf to 50mm thus allowing for the 50mm thk fire stops! [emoji108]so good call on their part! I guess with you being a joiner...that is why you were asking?!? No doubt I'll have some more questions for you once I start building the kit! [emoji106]
Cheers

Hi,

WOW; if you're going to tackle a project make it a big un; top job so far and it makes my cladding project look like a weekend job.

I notice my pet cloud Blackie has paid you a visit soaking everything.

Thanks for sharing and what you are doing is an inspiration to us all.

Kind regards, Col.

getthewheelsinline wrote:

steviejoiner74 wrote:Looking good mate!! Looking forward to seeing the rest go up!
Blockwork is tidy,is that a 50mm cavity that's been left?

Hi Stevie!
Been slow progress with the digging in our Scottish winter weather! Glad I'm now starting to build up! Architect specified 50mm air cavity. Brickies suggested I go 60mm between blocks as once I add my OSB3 to my inner timer frame wall this will reduce cavity between OSB & outer block leaf to 50mm thus allowing for the 50mm thk fire stops! [emoji108]so good call on their part! I guess with you being a joiner...that is why you were asking?!? No doubt I'll have some more questions for you once I start building the kit! [emoji106]
Cheers

The brickies were spot on for doing that mate,I'll look forward to watching the kit go up.
The only tip I'd give you before you start the kit is if possible get a trailer or van with roof bars and go and select the kit timber yourself. We are getting stuff delivered to site all to often and 20/30% of it is really twisted and bent. It's worth spending a few hours selecting it yourself.

Ah, that's good that they kept me on the straight & narrow!

Good shout! Timber will no doubt be coming from either MGM or BUILDBASE. As I have trade accounts - I'll make sure I specifically request straight & true! And any dodgy ones that are delivered I will get them to exchange them! Kit external walls are 145x45 C16 & internal walls 95x45 C16 both @ 600mm crs.



I have to pack the columns with wood as above to allow kit to be attached thereafter. Will I just cut up plywood strips of the right thickness for between the wood blocking & web?

What a great project Wheels, I really enjoyed reading through that and looking at the great pictures. I bet you heaved a sigh of relief when the steels all married up when you craned in the roof section I take my hat off to you both for your application and enthusiasm in taking on the task.

Keep posting, it is really interesting and good luck

DWD