Our Build

Diary

We Have A House

Posted by Ben

Well almost! Such an awesome couple of days as our bedroom pod appeared from nothing, to be an almost complete shell. Thanks to the prefabricated Formance SIP panels we are building with and our awesome builders. This method of building really is awesome and we can already see the benefits of using it, both the short term efficiency as well as the long term thermal efficiency and structural strength.

We couldn’t have been more excited or happier to see it all take shape, even better than we had imagined. And I loved spending a few days on site, lending a hand where I could, while not getting in the way or slowing progress up! It’s a pretty cool experience to help build your own home that’s for sure.

All of the panels lining up along the section, waiting to find their home in our home.

Garrick and Ray finalising the plan of attack for the day.

The panel layout and construction plans from Method Build.

Apprentice builder Rawiri cutting the top plates to size for each panel.

And then it began. Dan easily slides one of the first panels into place, forming the end wall of our bathroom.

Such an efficient system. In under an hour we had a large section of wall up, forming the bathroom and laundry. You can see the beautiful slit windows offering glimpses into the bush.

And before long the guest bedroom’s huge window opening appeared. So cool!

I took a couple of days off to lend the guys a hand. Which I did, while I wasn’t taking photos!

Loving life!

Loved being able to help put together our home. Just wish I could spend the next 2 months on site full time!

Sharing a moment with Garrick!

No explanation.

Taking shape beautifully. It was so awesome to see the pod materialise the way we had envisaged. Tucked perfectly under the bush canopy like it had always been there.

Dan fixing a top plate into place.

With the ceiling panels going in and sealing the building up, it suddenly felt like we had a real home!

The ceiling panels are huge – 315mm thick, 6m long and weigh 150kg. Just looking at them you know our house is going to be a thermally efficient machine!

Dan and Garrick manoeuvring a panel around. Looking through the bathroom window and down to the end of the pod where our master bedroom will be.

Retaining the details

Posted by Ben

Our retaining walls will be one of the first features you notice about our home and one of the first aspects you’ll actually engage with upon arrival, so we want them to be perfect. Basic timber or grey blocks ain’t going to cut the mustard.

Hello Firth’s Architectural Masonry block series – perfectly designed with beautiful detailing!! We’ve chosen these wee puppies cos they just look so good. Especially in the slate colour we’ve chosen with the corresponding dark mortar which’ll create a stunning negative detail around the block work.

But the pièce de résistance is the finish we’ve opted for – honed and then sealed. When ready, the blocks will be ‘sanded’ back to a smooth finish, exposing the fine aggregate details within, then sealed, making the blocks pieces of art in their own rite.

It’s been awesome this week to see these beautiful features of our home beginning to be laid. And to see more progress underway on this troublesome side of the house.

The beautifully designed Firth Architectural Masonry blocks.

One of the block layers in action. These guys were classic, laugh-a-minute Englishmen with non-stop one-liners.

We also chose to go stack bonded vs bricked for a more architectural design.

Love the colour – just can’t wait for it to be finished.

This is what our walls will eventually look like when they are honed and sealed. Mmmm, mmm, mmmmmmm! Although ours will be even spiffier with darker mortar making a beautiful negative detail around the blocks.

Pushing Ahead On The Bedroom Pod

Posted by Ben

The weather delays and hold ups have been pretty frustrating, but luckily we’ve been able to push ahead on the bedroom side of the house as planned while the other side slowly catches up. It’s been awesome to see the progress and our vision for this part of the house come to life. Now we’re eagerly awaiting for our prefabricated Formance SIP panels to go up. Can’t wait!

All the piles in place on the bedroom side.

Garrick and Ray reviewing our plans before cutting the piles to height and shape.

Tools of the trade

Ray marking the correct heights on each pile.

Garrick cutting each pile very delicately with a chainy!

Exciting to see bearers in place!

The steel for our sub floor arriving on site. This one weighed over a tonne – lots of man power was needed to get it into place!

Lowering the large steel beam into place – because the back of the house cantilevers over the stream we have a lot of steel in the floor!

Dan and Garrick fixing another steel bearer into place.

Kylie watching the builders put a steel bearer into place…..

Then realising I was photographing her!

All the bearers and joists in place. Looking mighty fine!

Garrick doing his thing – you can see how the house hovers right over the stream. This is about where our en suite will be. So cool!

I spent a few days on site giving the guys a hand….or at least I did a lot of watching judging by this photo!

I was using this. For real!

The guys fixing down the strand board flooring.

Almost all of the strand board flooring down, awaiting the SIPs walls to go up. Yahoo!!

Checking out our house. In a warehouse!

Posted by Ben

We got an exciting call during the week from the guys at Method Build. Our house had arrived and it was sitting in a warehouse out in East Tamaki. Well our prefabricated Formance SIP panels that make up our house.

We eagerly headed out to see our house in the warehouse. Man it was cool to see and really throws the traditional model of building out the window. Just can’t wait to see them arrive on site and go up uber quickly!

It’s our house. Double O for awesome David!

Our Formance SIP panels stacked to the roof. The long panels in the foreground will make up the ceiling in our living area and at 315mm thick, they will create an extremely efficient home.

Kylie in front of some of our wall panels. Such a different way to build but it really makes so much sense. Faster, stronger and warmer!

Each panel has a code on it, representing it’s place in our house. You can also make out the pre-cut chase holes in the wall panels for our wiring to run through.

Rising out of the mud

Posted by Ben

With the sun finally out, things have been humming along at long last on the living room side as things start to rise out of the mud. Phew!

This week we had the earthwork contractors back on site to clear away the muck and set everything to the right levels. While our builders Garrick and Dan toiled away by hand in mud up to their armpits as they cut all our piles to height then boxed out the area for our retaining wall footings and set it out with reinforcing steel in preparation for the concrete to be poured.

I’ve never felt so useless watching the guys working away. I would’ve loved to have been in amongst it with them, lending a hand and getting stuck in. But reluctantly I still need to spend a lot of time back in the office so I can help pay for this house!