We’ve started

Well that didn’t take long. Day one and the garage block and greenhouse are now a pile of rubble. It’s great progress although I know the replacement extension will take much longer.

Apart from making cups of tea (no sugar de-bunking that stereotype) I concentrated on progressing the elements of the build I’m responsible for. The floor and sliding doors at the moment to be followed by the back door and windows, kitchen, utility room, cloakroom and ensuite bathroom.

Our first hurdle is getting the floor and sliding doors to line up with the rest of the build. The track for sliding doors needs to go in before the floor but can’t be measured until the walls and roof are done. As we’re having polished concrete this could damage the track when they bring in their big polishing machine. The solution is some protective plywood and a finishing strip to match the door frame to bridge the slight gap between the track and the concrete. The doors themselves will then go in after the floor is done so we’ll have to live with some temporary boarding for a while. It shouldn’t be a problem as we won’t knock through into the main house until the extension is secure.

A more serious challenge is the deflection tolerance of the supporting beam above the doors. I had no idea what this was until last Thursday when we visited the door manufacturers to learn more about how the track and the doors work. The track can cope with a 5mm deflection before the doors stop moving because the pressure on them is too great. From our structural calculations it looks like the steel beam above, which is over 7 metres long, has a maximum deflection of nearly 20mm. I’ve gone back to our structural engineer for advice on the solution. We don’t want doors we can’t open!

It’s been invaluable visiting our suppliers to talk to them about how their product works and get the benefit of their experience and knowledge to help us with our build. All of this before we’ve even placed an order. I’ve also put our builder in direct contact with them so that he is 100% clear about all the technical aspects which may get lost in translation by me as a non-expert. We only have one go at this and we want to make sure it lives up to our dream.

Other than that all is progressing well albeit it is only one day. I feel sorry for our builders who have done a great job in the heat and blazing sun. Hopefully they’ll be back tomorrow!