We have a Building Warrant!

As of today, 18th June, we have approval to build our house! This means we are now officially able to start building.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been working on a number of tasks.

Demolition! 

With walls this thick, sound insulation shouldn't be a problem!

Once this chamber is demolished, our bedroom window will be on the left. 

Firstly, we had attempted to cut out the openings in the tank walls, but realised that it was too dangerous and tim consuming for us, and so have appointed contractors in to complete the job. They have been using a Husqvarna Cut n Break saw, which is perfect for the job. Unlike a Stihl, this can cut through up to 400mm without having to tackle from both sides. As you can see below - some of our walls are over 400mm thick! There is a chamber at the front of the tank that is being demolished and filled in - the guys are using a 3ton machine with hydraulic breaker to take it down. Big thanks to Euan the guys as Caskie Limited for being very accomodating and flexible in their approach.

Support walls for floor

We've had builders on site to start building the support walls for the flooring. We had much fun getting the materials to the site. And you can see from the pictures, the tank sits nestled into the side of the hill. Whilst it gives us wonderful views, it means that everything has to come up the hill. We carried a lot up by hand, but eventually hired in a tracked dumper, which was great (when it ran). We moved - 6tons of blocks, 2.5tons of sand, 1 ton of bricks and 25 bags of cement!

Services

We have finally been granted wayleaves for the electricity to run through the field next to us, and have also been allowed to dig a track for our water supply. We are hoping to get these connected in the next month.

Discharge of planning conditions

As part of our planning approval, we had two conditions that needed to be discharged before starting work. The first was to present the materials for the exterior to the planning officer for approval, the second was to complete a Desktop Contaminated Land Survey. Initially we were preparing to shell out £600+ for a survey, however the Contaminated Land Officer at North Ayrshire Council was very very helpful and gave us tips if we wished to do it ourselves. As long as it met the criteria and covered certain topics, he was happy for us to document - which we duly did, and the condition has been discharged.

Flooring - round and round we go!

The biggest headache we've had this month has been finalising the design of the flooring. Although our engineer had specified a concrete Beam and Block floor, we realise that this would be a real pain to get on site - 150x200kg concrete beams and 2500 concrete blocks. We decided to move to a 'thermal floor' option which cut out the 2500 blocks for not a huge amount more money. Having gather estimates, and narrowed down to one supplier, as well as providing pointers and chances to up quotes for complexities, they got it wrong and told us they couldn't design our floor. This was pretty frustrating, but to their credit, it was escalated and given a priority and they came up with a solution. Except it was going to cost us another £2000....


We've been exploring hollowcore flooring, which is similar, but would come in only 36 sections and this looks feasible, except it's going to need a mighty big crane to lift the beams in - a 110 ton crane to be exact! We're still working with the company to agree the solution, so watch this space.

Hope you like the pictures below and can get a feel for how it's going to end up!