The builders are here - who's counting the days?

Prologue

OK - so read this with care and then make sure you read the footnote and above all come away with the impression that the builder is good and that The Geezer What Drew The Plans isn't.




A few quick snaps to keep you abreast of the exciting developments - there's more too - but on grimey days its hard to get out with the camera - so you'll have to wait until (a few days after) its been sunny.

The build is going well. The build is going well. The build is going well.

Convinced?

I'll try again.

The build is going well. The build is going well. The build is going well.

The build is going well, despite the architectural drawings. We had a lot of problems with the drawings when we were trying to get quotes for the work - a lot of trades complained that the drawings were too complicated, and crowded. But we've found a builder who is happy to work with them, or in spite of them perhaps. And he's doing a fantastic job. We like our builder! He thinks about the plans, he sees inside the plans, anticipates issues and discusses them with us. He is a good builder.

"See that wall there" says Big Chief Builder as he spreads his plans over our morning coffee. "Well it's not there. Don't know what the architect was doing putting it there. Anyway because that wall isn't there and we've put this wall there there is no wall there where it should be really, but not according to the plans. That means that this wall doesn't support the roof so we've had to re-inforce a couple of floor joists."

"ah" we say.

A few days later, having looked at this and that wall on our own we wonder if holding roofs up on floor joists is a good plan, and we remember that building control insisted on an engineers report and that the engineer insisted on a new wall - at precisely the place that the architect (and the man really deserves inverted commas) hadn't drawn it and the builders, naturally enough, hadn't built it. So we worry. We call the builder.

"Are you sure its ok?"

"Oech Aye!"

"Will we get the building warrant signed off? Should we get another engineers report?"

"Good idea".

So there you have it. Another best part of £1000 to go to an engineer who has to drive up from Inverness and, god willing oh allah be praised hey Buddh!, write out a piece of paper that says that even though there's a wall there that was meant its not doing the job it was meant cos it was never really meant to be there. It's safe. Sleep well. Tis fine.

...and all because we used a cheap non-architect because really it's not a difficult build is it?

The build is going well. The build is going well. The build is going well.

Footnote - the saga of the wall

With great gusto and much aplomb the builders tore into the job. They turned up, they cleared out the downstairs, they dug out the floor, relaid it with insulation and then put in the internal walls, two of which were, according to the plans, supporting walls. They put the wall which is the subject of this post where the plans said it should be.

Then they set about upstairs, they got the frames for the roof made according to the specs on the plans, they took delivery and they fitted them. But the Geezer What Drew The Plans hadn't measured upstairs properly. What appears in the plans upstairs is a good metre out of synch with what appears on the plans downstairs, so the wall in question is no longer a supporting wall cos it's no where near under the load of the roof. So the builders have had to try to make this work - and they have kept us informed about their attempts, and they are fully supportive of the need to bring in an engineer for advice, and hopefully sign off the builders attempts to make good a mess made by the Geezer What Drew The Plans.