This was the week that we had been awaiting for some time: the arrival of the windows!
On Monday and Tuesday, Mark and Chris of Phillips Traditional Metal Roofing completed the SSAB Greencoat steel roof accompanied by light winds, a nice change after the strong winds of the previous week. Mark had a personal deadline: his partner was due to be induced on Thursday so there was no time for any overrun! The Basalt Grey roof (RAL 7012) is looking fantastic although much of it will be covered with PV panels shortly.
In the meantime, Sam and Aidan of Insul Hub tackled the soffits around the roof. We are using Siberian Larch half lap, machined by Harlow Timber of Loughborough, which will be painted with Treatex Champagne exterior oil. The oil is produced by a local company in Thame and is formulated from natural oils providing good long term weather and UV protection for the timber; it will not fade to grey as is normally the case. We almost managed to complete this before the 3rd lift of scaffolding at the front of the house had to be taken down on Tuesday afternoon in preparation for the windows but will need to finish it off later.
We also had a visit on Tuesday from our building control surveyor, Rigel from Approved Consultants Services, who was very happy with the standard of the build to date. Everything was signed-off for the next stage. Incidentally, we procured the surveyors through Build Store at NSBRC; the advantage of using this team is that they provide both the building control and the building warranty using one team of surveyors. Having heard many stories of people who have had arguments between building control and building warranty surveyors, we were keen to avoid this by integrating the products.
On Wednesday. the Ideal Combi fitting team of 3 arrived on site closely followed by a crane from AJR Hiab Hire with an incredible reach of 32m. The crane arrived folded up and uncurled itself like a massive insect to reach its full extension. The heaviest window was 260kg but this crane managed to pick it up and lift it right over the building in order to drop it down on the far side. Other windows were dropped on the top floor and moved through the building to the rear, By the end of the day, all of the Ideal Combi windows were in their end location ready for fitting. Ideal Combi windows come from Denmark and ours are triple-glazed with u-values ranging between 0.78 and 0.95 with the majority around 0.85 W/m2K. Some are alu-clad (aluminium on the outside and timber on the inside) and some are just aluminium. All of the frames are painted in Basalt Grey to match the roof. Over the course of Thursday and Friday morning, all of the windows were installed, levelled and finished.
On Thursday, the IQ Glass team of 6 fitters arrived to start on the frame for the very large landscape window on the front which is 8500mm wide by 2600mm high. We had to source a different supplier for these windows as the height of 2600mm had width restrictions with most suppliers which would have needed 6 or 8 window panes instead of the 4 that we can get away with this supplier. The window we are using is a Sieger slim profile sliding window which, despite the name, is actually made in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Again, these are triple-glazed windows with a u value of around 0.85 W/m2K, which have been treated to reduce light emissions by 30%. On Friday, the 4 panes of glass arrived, each weighing 277kgs. This entailed a crane from Earp Lifting using a specialist cantilever lifting beam supplied by GGR Group. The beam was needed to manoeuvre the windows under the 1800mm overhang at the front of the building and get them into the window tracks. Thankfully, the wind remained light and the team managed to position the windows during the morning. The installation was all complete by 1530 hrs.
The shell has been transformed by the windows and is now starting to look like a house.
It was a good week!