the reveals of windows are an airtighness weak spot so extra care must be taken
So, we come to week 8 and there is still so much to do, but we are certainly coming towards the final stretch. While much of the week has been finishing the air tightness layer in the living room, the new media wall and then plasterboard this area in order to make sure we are able to get the plasterer going up stairs.
Carefully following under the valley, we used Spacetherm to insulate the underside of the steel before continuing the airtightness layer into the dining room
There have been some moment of inspiration, and a few scratching heads moments – such as how do we keep the airtightness layer continuous behind the lights in the kitchen which are recessed into celotex, especially as these low energy lights have arms that extend to hold them above the plasterboard? Well, the solution devised by Nick (genius!) was to use 10″ paint kettles, with Intello taped securely to these plastic kettle and then “putty pads” which is an Intumescent Fire & Acoustic Internal Socket Box Insert – but can be formed to create a seal around the cable.
keeping the integrity of the airtightness layer expecially around lights required some ingenuity
All this beavering away upstairs has been replicated downstairs – as the bathrooms are being formed, the plastering completed in the hallway and staircase, the final layers of plaster on the walls – all in all it has been an incredibly frenetic week (and Alex has had a couple of hissy fits) – but the team are pulling together and things have progressed immensely
So – this weeks post is a short one as Alex has to be on site first thing (Saturday) and then off to London. But perhpas I’ll get a bit more time on Monday for a further update.So instead here are a few more photos:
Simon threatening Alex with a caulk gun!
the first of the finishing touches
modernising the stairway was one of the money saving features we decided on at the start of the project
tiling the bathroom really means we are getting there!!