External progress - render, chimney and lead

Willie Park the renderer is a genius!

Two corners

Render base coat

First coat of approx 12mm sand cement render has gone on. Amazing how transparent it looks as the blocks suck the moisture out of the render while the joints remain quite wet with the relatively impervious mortar.

Portobello full house (leadwork almost complete)

The lead workers, Graham and Stephen are slow (with lots of dodgy jokes) but very good at working lead. I've been surprised at how good the soft / wobbly look on the dormers has worked out.

Portobello full house (plumbing first fix)

I have 6 sub contractors on site at the moment - 8 if you include my own team. Quite exciting if a bit hectic. Lots of progress photos in the near dark.

Clare and I laying up the aluminium cladding

More and various external works

Glazing mostly in

Large entrance glazing and windows around the corner.

Velux windows

After more travails we get the Velux windows in but I don't like them at all. They look cheap and tacky and not at all worth £1,000 each. Hate the huge profile at the junction and am seriously considering removing them and replacing with frameless glazing (much to Makiko's horror).

My only hope is their impact is much reduced when the slate is installed.

Velux windows are not that good

Comapred to the Velfac windows the Velux windows are rubbish. Cheap lightweight pine timber and overly thin aluminium flashings. Velfac used to be owned by Velux. Also the instructions are very poor and the team spend a frustrating day figuring things out.

House ground floor

It's been so wet in August I'd estimate about 20% of time is spent dealing with the rain or trying to stop the rain coming in. Still the team are doing well and making good progress. Here the Kingspan insulation is in downstairs.

Konishi Gaffney architects

Makiko and I have now officially set up Konishi Gaffney architects.

www.konishigaffney.com

Fixed Overhang

After a few faulse starts Flemings did manage to beat Alan Tough into coming up to fix the overhang. They are really good when they get going but like most builders are useless managers.

Rainfall UK map

met office source

More Velfac windows and the long awaited guttering

Gutters are held together (waterproofed) by silicon sealant which doesn't seem like such a great idea to me...

Lead Rolls

Incredibly heavy but beautiful.
Not as heavy as Gold apparently...


Metal or alloy kg/cu.m
aluminium - melted 2560 - 2640
brass - casting 8400 - 8700
bronze (8-14% Sn) 7400 - 8900
cast iron 6800 - 7800
copper 8930
gold 19320
iron 7850
lead 11340
nickel silver 8400 - 8900
platinum 21400
silver 10490
steel - rolled 7850
steel - stainless 7480 - 8000
tin 7280
titanium 4500
zinc 7135

It's raining in Scotland

Some of the heaviest rain I've ever seen in Scotland - and the building leaked like a sieve, a depressing though mostly harmless amount of water...


The lower picture is a zoom in to the steel beam across the 6m wide opening - inside!


This beautiful Velfac window was installed the day before