This weeks work

Ok things are really kicking ahead at the moment, rang my plumber yesterday asked him to pay a visit see what he thinks and when he wants to start.
Im trying to get an electrican on board too and again there seems to be very few locals in the trade, i have one local pricing it, and a guy from home who works with the lads all the time, so we will see how that all goes!
Spoke to plasterers also the weekend one lad that i worked with during summers at school and college and he will come down from home, we are also thinking of bringing on a second plasterer that works with the lads, both are excellent platerers and i will probably pay them a day rate with my father and harry on site tending them they should finish it in about four weeks.
I must scud the house next weekend a messy job will take the two days to complete the outside of it!
The three lads are on site this week they are forming the chimney cap today to pour that, completing blockwork and internal studs and laying window cills so i can get these measured and on order.
Im hoping to get them started at the garage blockwork towards the end of the week, and once i have the house scudded hopefully the three lads will fall back on scratch coating the house we will pay the plasters to do the finish work then, so will save a bit of money there!

Progress of the build

Between work and the site now things are very busy, not able to keep this as updated as i have been keeping it, another week down and the roof is lathed and felted, velux windows and lead are on site, awaiting a delivery of Slates on Thursday these have caused a slight delay, so order early if you need; i ordered them a week in advance wanted them Last Friday or this Monday, but the ship is only arriving Thursday!
The carpenters are off site this week so i have my father and harry at completing block work, and laying all the window cills, and the other lad is erecting and laying out all the timber studs upstairs things are really flying at the moment, the carpenters are back on site next Monday to start the slating, i will hire a teleporter for the day to load out the roof will save on the labour associated with it €170 a day for the teleporter, we will put a few pallets up on the scaffold too.
I was there at the weekend and my Mammy Sister younger brother and my other brothers girlfriend came to site, myself and my brother filled the chimney with a lime cement and sand mix, and the three girls cleaned up and gathered all the bits of timber thrown around the site, all it cost me was a free dinner to all :)

Scaffold to the build

We were using the lads scaffold all along bandstands and a few 9 foot towers that we brought down from Limerick. We decided in order to make things safe speed up work and allow the lads continue there work on site to hire a scaffold contractor to supply and erect scaffold to the entire perimeter of the building, this will allow the lads easy acces for latting felting and slating make things safer and speed up the operation it's €2,500 for a month and €200 a a month for any extra hire after that! For the time we will save with the lads working on blocks and roofing instead of erecting scaffold and transporting it all down form cork i reckon the extra costs associated with it s quite small.

Roof Pictures added to slideshow

Have added the first weeks work pictures to the slideshow are worth a look.

Roof End of Week 1

We were working out at the site on saturday myself dad, and my brother finished blockwork to the sunroom and progressed works to the internal gable looking out to the sitting room floor. I decided to buy a 9 x 9 pine beam to use as the lintel here and make a feature out of it. My father started blocklaying the external gable yesterday, and the carpenters were at the stud walls and cutting out the opes for the velux windows. They asked me to buy some OSB board for the backing of the studs to provide sound and noise insulation and also offers better integrity, i got a further 60 sheets to put on the plywood deck to cut out noise transference and foot traffic to downstairs. Pictures below represent one weeks work for the carpenters.

Roof Works Continue

The roof shape is now complete and all rafters are up, the two carpenters are flying out there. My dad has the conservatory nearly complete. I have only two recent pics i did not want to be disturbing the carpenters so here are two of me doing a bit of block work yesterday!!!! Im just in from there now was cleaning got 5 rooms done, it was well overdue a clean out! Have updated the photos in the slideshow; in the toolbar, and ill get a good few pics the weekend of the roof.

Roof Progress

The place is really starting to take shape now Monday and Tuesday was taken up doing the wall plate joists and plywood to the deck along with the noggins for joist support. They also made up a temporary stairs which makes things very easy for access would highly recommend this! Yesterday Wednesday they started to erect the ridge and the common rafters so we now have the complete shape of the roof valleys and ridges and internal walls inside. Photos to follow on, i called in last night on the way home and got nabbed by my dad before he left to start building the gable wall so we can get in the steel girders for purlins today/tomorrow. Built them up to the height needed last night. (Amazed at how many cars slowed to a crawl when passing last night i think people are only starting to realise the size of it now because it has always been hidden behind the mud heaps!)

The two carpenters are on the hourly rate and i am also putting them up in the local hotel so they start in the morning at half 7 and finish at 8 in the evening they are getting great work done and im still saving a fortune in comparison to local quotes. My father has been blocklaying the conservatory and that is starting to take good shape now too. He is going to concentrate on the gable wall now today, we got the two RSJ's on that welded together to give it extra strength and the blocks will be starting this morning there is probably three days blockwork to complete the house yet and the carpenters have really steamed ahead now so the blockwork is falling behind.

Roof Work Commenced

The carpenters and my father and crew started on site yesterday, the father and one of the lads were supposed to start laying blocks on the garage but all five of them fell in doing the joist work some pretty long and hefty timbers there, they wall-plated and joist the entire house yesterday will plywood the deck now today and start setting up some of the common rafters and ridge.