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Ground floor framing installed

This week the ground floor frames went up.

On Monday the pre-fabricated frames were delivered to site, just 3 days after the slab had been poured.  On the Tuesday they all went up!  They’re not yet fixed to the slab, that will happen once the slab has had more time to cure.

We got to have a walk through on the weekend to get an initial idea of the room and window sizes and to see the orientation to the early afternoon sun.  There’s a lot of glazing down the north side of the house on the ground floor and we can see how much light is flooding through into the family/dining, living and downstairs bedroom.

We’re using larger 140x45mm exterior frames to allows us to use deeper insulation for extra warmth and deeper window sills. Interior frames will be the standard 90x45mm.

  • Looking from back corner behind garage
  • Looking from back corner behind Bed 1
  • Looking out the garage
  • Dining/family room – and all the glazing which is beyond the entry
  • Living room looking back at the kitchen/living/dining
  • Looking down the hallway from Entry
  • Looking down the driveway from the street
  • Kitchen looking through dining area to the living room
    Kitchen outside pantry looking through dining area to the living room
  • North facing side of the house as you aprach the house from the street
  • Looking out the corner pillarless family room doors to allow the corner to open up to the garden
  • Ava has a really big fort to play in!

 

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Slab is down!

Been a busy week onsite – a major milestone has been reached.

We made a visit to site on Thursday to meet Ben The Builder and could see that the Maxraft foundation work had been done.  You get a better idea of the the insulation coverage that Maxraft provides, particularly around the edges.

Also on the day, the pipework for the underfloor heating was being laid.  You can see from the photo’s that the floor plan has been spray painted onto the foundation work.  This is done so they can see where the walls are and where to avoid laying any pipework so it doesn’t get damaged when the framing is secured to the slab.

After the slab is poured and cured and the boxing is removed, the exterior perimeter of the Maxraft polystyrene gets a layer of fibre reinforced plaster to protect it from water, vermin and UV.

The foundation was due to be poured on Friday and sure enough, our visit to site on Saturday, was greeted with a completed foundation.  The water sprinkler is there to keep the concrete from drying too quickly and cracking. Also noticeable is the lower height of the ground floor shower base, as this is a walk-in tiled shower.

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Steel and Polystyrene

It’s been a couple of weeks.  We now have steel reinforcing supplies and the all important Maxraft EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) panels on site.

One of the choices we’ve made to achieve a comfortable energy efficient home, is to go with a Maxraft slab. Maxraft, is New Zealand’s only (at the time of writing) fully insulated slab. Unlike traditional waffle slabs, the Maxraft slab has a continuous layer of insulation between the ground and concrete as well around the perimeter.  Because of this, heat loss through the slab is dramatically reduced and as a result underfloor heating systems are more effective.