Internal fit-out
With the building now completely weathertight, work on the second fix and internal fit-out is marching on. I’m generally on site two or three times a week, and progress is tangible every visit. For instance, the decorators have now mist-coated most of the house in a durable Dulux Trade matt emulsion, which instantly creates a better feeling of light and space than bare plaster. And we’re now getting down to nitty gritty details like installing the pre-primed MDF skirting boards (we’ve gone with Howdens Burford range). Here’s a round-up of some of the major interior elements we’ve been progressing:
Installing the kitchen worktops
I mentioned last month that I picked up a few valuable tips when Tim Rotherham from The Granite House first came on site to (try to) template for the quartz worksurfaces in our Linear kitchen from Howdens. For instance, we had our undermounted sink and three-way Kinetico kitchen tap (which will give us hot, cold and filtered water on demand) available on site. But we hadn’t realised the sink needed to be pre-fitted before measuring up to ensure everything will fit. Thankfully, the worktops aren’t really holding anything else up, so there was room in our schedule to accommodate the slight delay before we could confirm the worktop order.
To get the Howdens sink in, we needed to rout out some of the bracing in the top of the cabinet (not uncommon) and put in some of our own to replace it. Position-wise, we were relieved to find that it sits in just the right place to allow us to align the tap with the central mullion behind. That’s pretty straightforward when you have standard cupboard doors, but we have drawers in most of our units, so need to ensure the large sink doesn’t interfere with the runners. With this and a few other details tidied up, Tim came back on site early the following week armed with his laser to measure everything up. Our main contractors were a little surprised by the level of sophistication involved. The traditional route is to mock worktops up on site in plastic, MDF or a similar material to create a physical cutting template. But The Granite House uses computer-controlled machinery, so they just need accurate dimensions to feed into the equipment.
The Granite House crew recently returned to site to fit the worktops. They use a two-part silicone adhesive to bond everything together, with sash cramps and mitre clamps holding everything in position while it sets. There are four joins in our worksurfaces: two in the dark grey quartz, and two for the mitres in the central island), which are almost invisible thanks to a special jointing compound.
I figured the trickiest bit to get right would be the island unit, with its waterfall sides that don’t quite reach to the floor and the 300mm overhang for the breakfast bar. But it was plain sailing: apparently the guys have been involved with much more complicated installs before! The whole job was probably about half a day’s work.
Now the worktops are in, the kitchen is totally transformed. It’s a bit like that moment when the windows are installed or the first section of cladding is completed. Suddenly, you’re not just imaging a space or looking at 3D mockups; this is a nearfinished room you can see yourself living in and enjoying.
One of the details I’m particularly looking forward to seeing finished is the LED lighting that we’re installing beneath the grey quartz worktop, which will go into a small groove The Granite House has carved out to the right size. It should add that extra touch of wow factor.
Kitting out the wet zones
Getting bathrooms, ensuites and the like right is one of those classic head scratchers. If you had an interior designer on board, maybe you could plan it down to a T right from the off. But few of us can make our cash stretch that far.
I imagine our plans evolved much like most self builders’: you decide how many wet rooms you need (in our case, one family bathroom, one ensuite and one ground floor WC), take your architect’s advice on how big they need to be and
allocate a loose budget. After that, the decision-making tends to go on the backburner until the structural shell is sorted. That said, we did make a bit of a tweak once the stud walls went up and we realised the front bedroom was a tad mean, but the family bathroom rather generous. Pinching a few inches of space back has made all the difference.
Another thing we did fairly early on was identify a supplier: Alchester Tiles & Bathrooms is based locally in Bicester. We were attracted to them because they stock leading brands such as Roca, which we’re using in the WC. But they also supply products from less well-known manufacturers, and we found these could deliver the quality and style we were after without the price tags associated with the bigger names.
Alchester is a bit of a one-stop-shop, too, and will be supplying all of the floor and wall tiles for the wet zones (with the exception of the WC, which features the same Hard Rock porcelain tiles used throughout the rest of the ground floor). As I write, our tiler is on site and has just finished the floor in the main bathroom (above our Nu-heat underfloor heating). In this space and the ensuite, we’re tiling right into the window opening reveals – while in the WC, we’re using some of the Hard Rock porcelain as a splashback for the basin.
The wall tiles will mostly be applied directly to the tacked and skimmed surfaces. But for the ensuite zone, we’ve switched to special Hardiebacker cement boards, which are super strong and offer built-in mould resistance.
Fitting the gas stove
To bring a little character and cosiness to the living room, we’re installing a contemporary GF 370 gas stove from Jotul. This will offer excellent control over the output, so we can enjoy the hypnotic effect of real flames without overheating our highly-insulated house. The GF 370 offers a three-sided view of the fire (set up on a pedestal). So it will add a welcome touch of charm from pretty much every angle. Jotul can supply it in a black-painted, cast iron-style finish. But, ever keen to make a statement, we’ve gone with the white enamel version. We’re twinning this with a black flue, giving a monochrome effect that will echo the decor in the kitchen.
Back in June, Mark Ryan (head of Jotul UK) visited site with installer Szab Kata of Iron and Wood (based in nearby Banbury). We were still in the throes of first fix at that stage, so it was a great opportunity to run through the technical detail ahead of time. The main focus was on exactly where to position the stove. We want to maximise the amount of space in our living room – and the three-sided view of the flames means we can push the appliance back quite far while still getting a dramatic result. We just need to ensure the stove’s rear is far enough away from the external wall to achieve the 76mm clearance required by Building Regulations.
The gas supply has to run into the house above-ground (through the external wall). But we agreed it would then duck down into the beam and block floor structure. From here it runs through the floor cavity in 15mm-diameter copper conduit, before turning to pop up into the living room in 8mm pipework. Will, Drewett & Hunt’s plumber, fed this in for us so that it would emerge directly beneath the centre of the stove.
The vent is a balanced flue system, which means that the stove is completely sealed from the room. The air needed for combustion is instead taken from outside via the flue (which also provides the path for exhaust gases to escape). With no additional ventilation required, we can therefore make the installation airtight, unlike with a traditional chimney – crucial if you want a stove to run in tandem with MVHR.
Mark confirmed that our chosen position means the flue pipe can terminate through the external wall in the living room. So there’s just a short vertical run before the flue turns through 90 degrees and exits the building. Szab drilled us an 8mm pilot hole for this. So when we got the core drilling team in to make the holes for Total Home’s MVHR exhaust ducts, they also knew exactly where to put the 200mm-diameter hole for the flue (it needs to be bigger than the pipe for fire safety reasons). The resulting gap around the flue is packed with Rockwool insulation, which is non-combustible and tolerates temperatures up to 1,000°C.
It was a couple of months before first and second fix were progressed enough to install the stove – which took less than a day. The only hitch at the moment is that we’re still waiting for the gas distributor to move our supply. So Szab will have to come back to make the final connection and once that’s been done. Apparently he’s used to this on new build projects!