Northfield House Renovation

Bricklayer was on site today so we managed to get the lintels fitted in the garage. Photo 1 Photo 2 After the bricklayer finished for the day, work continued with fire boarding of steels. Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Previous Next

Started to fire board the steels today. Fortunately, the merchants are still open but only with click and collect orders. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Previous Next

Electrician has been busy wiring the attic floor. Its really difficult to know where to place sockets. Photo 1 Photo 2 Our bricklayer was also on site and today we managed to block the chimney that was removed when we took out the walls from the corner of the house. Photo 3 Photo 4 The brickie requested we use some 'L' brackets [1] to hold the blockwork to the bricks. Photo 5 Photo 6 [1] Sabrefix Safe End Frame Tie 10 Pack from Screwfix. (91531) Previous Next

Firstly I had to arrange for another bricklayer as our initial brickie hasn't been coming for a while and now with this coronavirus pandemic, he doesn't expect to work until its passed. Having been quoted 6-8 weeks back in November, all the brickwork should have been completed months ago, and he has cost us far too much time, not to mention cost in rent alone. So we finally had to part ways. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 The new bricklayer built the pier for the garage, so we're ready to install the lintel above. Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 The steels have also been webbed, ready for fire boarding. Photo 9 Photo 10 Electrical cables are starting to be fitted. Previous Next

Today was spent fitting insulation between the rafters. This took a lot longer than expected, firstly as the gaps between the rafters are not consistent, so each board had to be measured and then trimmed as the distance between the top and bottom also differs. Secondly, the boards were too big to carry into the attic rooms which meant measuring, then down a flight of steps to cut, then carry the board back up to fit. Photo 1   Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Previous Next

We are planning to lower the ceiling to hide some of the steels, but prior to that the steels need to be fire boarded. The first step was to prime them with red-oxide paint which should've been done a while back when they were fitted. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Previous Next

Carpenter was onsite early morning and it didn't take very long to get the framing for the second floor bathroom up. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Quite a transformation. The bathroom space is about 2m wide and 2.7m long. Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 The stud frame for the utility room was also built. We decided to have the corner on a 45 degrees angle so as to give more clearance between the kitchen island and the wall. Previous Next

With the new plans for the bathroom, the existing partition wall was quickly removed. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Removing the wall, really opened up the space and drew in a nice amount of natural light into the otherwise dark landing. Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 The soil pipe for the main bathroom was installed today. It goes out from the bathroom (photo 6) and into the roof space of the extension (photo 4). It then runs along the rafter and out through the soffit board (photo 5). Its not the the ideal place to have the pipe coming out of but this part is behind the garage and will hardly be visible so it was an optimal solution. Photo 7 Photo 8 There was further progress on the garage wall. Not long left before the roof can be fitted. Photo 9 Carpenter is due tomorrow to start on the stud framing so fortunately we managed to order the timber in the morning and have it delivered the same afternoon. Previous Next

First floor pipes have been laid to required locations, so the plumber spent today on the second floor. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 In addition, we've had a change of plan for the bathroom on the second floor. Creating the bathroom within the store room space always felt a little squashed as there wasn't much head room. Now that we had removed the fitted wardrobe from bedroom 5, there was additional space which could be made better use of. Photo 4 By moving the bedroom door to the right, we could add another door in the hallway and create the bathroom by partitioning the bedroom. The only concern was how to route the soil pipe. Photo 5 Finally, there were still a couple of cables that were proving difficult to remove and it wasn't until we lifted the floorboard on the staircase landing that we discovered the contents on photo 5 which were duly removed. Previous Next