Pricing the roof

Well when it came to this aspect of the build i left the carpenter calculate up a cutting list for timber required for the roof and sent out the list for pricing to 8 local suppliers. Prices returned varied from €8,750 to €10,800 as per the pricing list on the Google pages link in the tool bar items 14 and 15. I spoke to the local hardware who i have been using all along they were second cheapest and the hardware at home had asked to price it they came back the cheapest i negotiated with both of them and the hardware at home were very keen to win it, and so they did. The timber was delivered on Friday along with all the nails and felt. I have also been negotiating prices with slate suppliers and i priced the thrutone with the hardwares for the roof. None of them could match Capco roofing though and i am buying a natural Brazilian slate Novo Black with a 25 year guarantee for €1.53 per slate excl vat.

Progress

Well myself and my father were working on site Thursday and Friday and completed the block work to the house, got the girders in the sitting room up too. The tracks machine was on Site thursday and Friday and we opened the proper site entrance moved the security cabin also stoned the new driveway put in the duct for esb services filled the base to the garage and poured the concrete in the floors. Got the delivery of the timber for the roof Friday morning

Blockwork to house practically complete

Further to my last post, when i was working the 15th and 16th, the lads came back block laying 1 block layer 1 laborer for the 18,19 & 20th and myself and my father worked there on the 21 & 22nd all the external walls are now complete we have a few internal walls left to do so i am taking tomorrow and Friday off work and myself and my father will hopefully finish it! I have the tracks machine booked for tomorrow also and we will fill the garage base with stone, radon and insulation, we must also move the storage container and open up the permanent site entrance. We are running to a tight schedule in order to have the blocks complete for Monday morning when the carpenters arrive.

Weekend Work

Well the jollylady was away for the weekend so i decided to dust down my trowel and lay a few blocks went out Saturday morning and the day turned out to be miserable ended up laying about 40 blocks and abandoning ship at half 2, went home to watch the rugby soaked to the skin laying blocks and then a bad loss to England not a good day!
Went out again on Sunday morning and it was a much clearer day; was laying the internal walls so finished the master bedroom the dining room and the kitchen! (Not bad going working by-youself drawing blocks and putting up scaffold) Its a great feeling to be able to do a bit of work on your own house ended up there until half 7 Sunday evening!
Went out yesterday and gave the place a good clean up swept the floors removed the broken blocks gathered up the bits of insulation/plastic prevent stuff blowing cross the country!

Plumbing costs/ Getting a plumber on board

Plumbing is something i know very little about, im Hoping to learn more in the coming months :)
Once we had decided on the method of heating the house, i contacted a few local plumbers one of which was highly recommended i sent him off the drawings and told him in a cover letter that it was going to be oil heating, underfloor to three rooms main bathroom ensuite and kitchen we like the feeling of a hot tile floor!!! What can i say!!! Pressurised system, super condensing boiler located in the garage and 6m2 of solar panels the radiators positioning and quantity were at his discretion with heated towel rails in bathrooms!

He sent me back a detailed quote on the spec and sizes and quantity of all associated plumbing works, i also went to a second plumber recommended by one ofthe other Quantity Surveyors at work he specd the whole set up also and quoted me

The prices returned were:-

Local Guy €21,500
Work Guy €27,500

I decided to go with the work guy as he seemed to spec it better and was supplying everthing with the exception of the sanitary ware he is also experienced at converting to metric for clients who buy there sanitary ware abroad!

Getting a carpenter on board

Right, as im not local to the area i did not know any local trades, we had to track down some carpenters. Got a few names from locals met the carpenters and gave them the drawings to quote us for first and second fix of the house.
The three prices returned were:-
1. €24,500
2. €25,000
3. €28,500

One of these carpenters was in school with my girlfriend we were hoping he would do us a favour, the prices seemed very expensive to me, i realise it is a big house but at the same time €30k labour only seems very rich! We had another guy called to site last week looking for work and he quoted me €17,500 first fix only

The rough split on costs was €18k roof of house
€3k roof of Garage
€5k second fix

The solution i had to this was to speak to some carpenter's in my hometown; Bruff in Limerick.
I decided to deal with one of the lads who does a lot of work for my father and to pay him on a daily rate 2 carpenters @ €60/hour all in.

I reckon that they will have a lot of it done in 4 weeks at:-
8hrs/Day = €480/Day
5Days/Week = €2,400/Week
4Weeks = €9,600

Even if it runs on by two weeks ill still be making a considerable saving, and i also know the quality and workmanship im getting.

Progress in Pictures 2

Progress of works/ Next items on the go

The weather has been miserable all week, the lads were on site from Wednesday and the progress is coming along well. Another week will finish the house it will only be my father and Harry on site next week so we will be down a blocklayer. The builders holidays are kicking in monday week and we have paddy's day and good Friday this wek coming also, so its a three day week for the lads next week and hopefully this will complete the blocks that need to be done on the house! It is mostly internal walls at this stage so they wont be long going up, i was out there today laying a few but unfortunately i had to give into the rain! Ill try again tomorrow if the weather is any better!
The plan from then is (subject to completing blockwork by next thursay) to get the blocklaying gang 2 blockies 1 labourer and the chippies 2 of them on site for the 31st of march. This will have given the block work the week to settle and the carpenters can start straight at the roof, one of the blocklayers is a chippie by trade so what im doing is putting three carpenters on the roof work and my dad and harry will be pouring the floors to the garage and starting on the block work for it also! They can also be laying the window cills in the house. The place should start to take real shape after that then!

The view on a clear day last Saturday

Mortgage 2nd Cheque

Have requested the second mortgage cheque yesterday, contacted my engineer told him how much i need. He sent the cert of to my solicitor and mortgage company. The solicitor sends the mortgage company a letter on my behalf requesting the amount recommended by the engineer and the cheque gets approved and posted to my solicitor! Where hopefully i will collect and lodge it next Wednesday and get a few more people paid!

Back to work

Yesterday was a washout again, they are back on site this morning and are only going three to four blocks high due to the power of the winds that are there! I have been just speaking with them on the phone and apparently the other pier of the front door is after being damaged also after the wind and with the structure already after being badly hit last Saturday there was very little support there!

Progress/Mishaps

Well i have updated the slide show things are going along nicely, today i have had to cancel the block layers the weather is miserable, and the forecast is not great for tomorrow either. I had stuff ordered from the hardware on Friday and they said they would deliver on Monday unfortunately they came on the Saturday and knocked the wall at the front door when he was reversing out!(pictures in the slideshow) I met the boss man of the hardware on site yesterday and told him it will cost in the region of €2,000 to fix, although id prefer not to have to fix it! Will have to take the lintels down and demolish and build back up so there is materials the days labour in reinstating it and the original dayswork for putting it up, as well as the time lost!
We were hoping to have the blocks to the house complete by this Friday but the weather may have shoved that back a bit!

On going works steel prices

The 8 girders can be viewed in the slide-show now €1400 delivered by heiton steel! I was working on the site last weekend my father had asked me to clean it up, its one heck of a big house when you have to sweep the whole lot of it god help the jollylady!!!! :)
I must organize more stone and a tracks machine and try to get the garage floor poured and commence the blockwork on that!

Accident/Minor incident on site

On Monday evening this week with the wind and the rain/sleet/snow coming down the lads had decided to call it a day and while packing up there stuff heard a loud bang, the internal corridor wall up six fresh courses and lintels came crashing down and took the previous four rows with it; along with a section of the opposite corridor wall! 300 blocks in total pictures in the slide show!!
It was an unfortunate incident but at least no one was hurt they cleaned it up yesterday and there was no major delay with it, it should be completed again by today. They are laying an average of 520 blocks a day (2 block layers one lad tending) and hopefully will be finished the house this Thursday/Friday!
I ordered 12" blocks to close the cavity at wall plate level, 6" blocks to make up levels at window cills (block on flat wall) 6" soaps for all other window cills!

On going Progress

A few issues that have cropped up in the last week, once we decided to go with the window supplier, my brother (architect) blog now added to the tool bar, I'm starting to set a trend!!!http://domusarchitectus.blogspot.com/ decided that to get the best results and for architecture purposes to make the windows multiples of .675mm this was fine on the windows that had not yet been found laid out by the blocklayer/my father; on the ones he had laid out it took a bit of persuading to talk him around into altering the block work but hopefully this will have a positive effect in the long run!