February 2010 - Underfloor Heating, oh and a year since we bought the plot ......

The weather has been pretty grim these last few days. It starting raining last Thursday pm and didn't stop raining until Saturday pm so the ground is like a swamp. Living in a caravan in this weather and having 7 soggy dogs to deal with is pretty grim I can tell you!

Work started a couple of weeks ago on the underfloor heating and below are some photos of the work completed. Firstly the entire ground floor had to be cleared and hoovered, and then Celotex insulation boards have been laid throughout the ground floor. Then a damp proof membrane was laid on top, and the underfloor heating pipes laid as per the heating company's detailed drawings. Doesn't sound a lot but it was quite time consuming work with just me doing it.

I finally finished the inside last Friday and today, after the rain finally stopped I completed the heating for the eventual breakfast room that is outside currently. It wasn't worth trying to lay the heating for this room later on when we do the breakfast room so this has been done now.

I've just started checking that there are no leaks in the system! In theory there should not be as none of the pipework has been damaged to my knowledge but sod's law there will be something wrong if it's left to chance.

Below are some photos of the different stages.

Kitchen / Family Room

Celotex Insulation

Damp Proof Membrane and Underfloor Heating Pipes laid

Manifolds in what will be the cupboard under the stairs

Tomorrow the ground floor screeding will be done, and then hopefully we can start fitting out the downstairs. The final delivery (stairs, internal doors, skirting etc.) from Scotframe is due on Friday and the tilers are due to start the follow Monday so hopefully things will start to pick up now. I'm hoping the get the ground floor in a habitable state in the next 4 weeks. Maybe we'll be in for Easter! :-)

I will try to get the downstairs painted before the tilers arrive but this can be done afterwards if necessary. In view of the need to get this house finished we have decided just to paint everything magnolia for the time being and colours can then be changed later if we feel like it.

The kitchen is on order and we expect that around 18th March. As soon as the tiling is complete that will be good to start. We haven't ordered the main kitchen worktops yet as we want granite and so have decided to wait until the units have been fitted so they can be made to measure.

We already have most of the sanitary wear for the bathrooms but we need to order the shower doors and trays for upstairs, a bath for the main bathroom, 4 of the showers, and all of the taps.