To get a smooth look to the tiled walls in the bathrooms we have used the Hans Grohe “I Box” system to enable the mixer units to be fitted and serviced from the front because rear access to the stud walls would have been difficult to organise.

 The Hans Grohe system enables the “I box” to be plumbed up and pressure tested using the pressure test plate on the front (the white bit) before you fit the thermostatic mixer (for the shower) or mixer diverter (for the shower and bath). So all this can be done before the plywood wall is fixed into place and then tiled. You can see a helpful video on You Tube at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EiW3NhMCd8Y 

Another advantage of a self build construction is that you can make things exactly how you want them. Of course you need to be careful because this can make costs spiral! We already knew we had a problem with our high spin speed Siemens washing machine, which we have had to move from our existing small log house to the shed which has a concrete floor.

 The washing machine will sit in this corner where we have already made a big concrete base for it which will have sufficient mass to damp out the vibration it would otherwise transmit if it sat on floor joists like the rest of the house. To separate this bit of tiling from the rest of the floor an expansion strip of aluminium is set in and a clean break made between the tiling under the washing machine and the tiling of the main floor of the utility room. You can have the strip made from aluminium or brass, so as most of our door handles, electrical switches etc will be chrome or stainless, aluminium was the most appropriate colour for us.

When you are starting a self build you often see things you like during the preparation for the build. If they are on special offer, particularly clearance stocks, it’s a good idea to buy them. We got these Octagon and dot tiles from Porcelanosa for just £10 per square metre which is about a third of their normal price, because they were being discontinued. They have been waiting in our shed for over a year, but we are very pleased with them and it was an easy choice to buy them as we both agreed they looked good! With the tiling being done we are beginning to see the end in site.

 You can lay this style of tile either square to the walls or on the diagonal as we have done here. We layed a number of tiles out in each orientation first to decide which way we preferred. The diagonal way is more work for the tiler as there is more cutting to do, so takes more time and costs a bit more.

The latest building regulations require all new houses have to have a certain amount of the lighting installed as low energy, with low energy light fittings so that conventional bulbs cannot be fitted later.

 In order to establish what lighting option we wanted in the bathrooms, our freindly electrician rigged up a board with three low energy and one led type of light suitable for using in damp environments.

  This was very helpful as it avoided that popular mistake of buying by appearance. We were able to put the test board up in a bathroom in the dark, and then select each light individually to see how much light it gave. There was a clear winner and we will put some information about this on the blog soon.

 Where we are tiling floors we have put down 18mm thick ply sheeting across the joists and then we put down Schuluter Ditra matting. We used Balls F44 glue with their P131 primer for porous surfaces such as wood. You also need to use a special trowel with serated edges to spread the glue.

 This needs a day to go off and we are ready for tiling. More to come soon!

We have recently discovered that it is very important to make sure that we know where the underfloor heating pipes cut across joists. We will be fitting solid oak floors in most rooms and these will be secret nailed into the joists. So there is the risk that an underfloor pipe could get nailed if we don’t know exactly where these cut outs are.

 Sometimes it is not possible to see where the cut out’s in the joists are once the latex has been applied. So using the wall faces as a datum, we now make a drawing of the pipe cut out’s prior to latexing and then mark the positions with a permanent marker on the latex once it has dried. We also took the precaution of recording all the pipe layouts on camera before we put the pug screed in so this is helpful too for the first floors where we forgot to make a drawing in this way.

 We have constructed a brick and block pier either side of the entrance door to the log house, and now we have time to get round to making the deck that will go here. Some treated 8 x 2 timbers are used to make a base frame. These sit on a plastic waterproof membrane to avoid dampness from the brickwork feeding into the timbers.

We then fit the deck planks, remembering to create a removable cut out round the base of the big post, as this has an adjuster at the bottom that will need access from time to time as the house settles.

 To protect the decking material we put some plywood over it until all the work is finished.

The last window installation is completed with the headers and architrave fitted. With our recent experience of leaks on the logs and with this window facing the south west winds we have been very carefull to make sure it is well sealed.

 While the lightening Conductors have been fitted to the roof and the copper conductor put in place down the side of the house, they have not been connected to any earth rods. How many rods you need depends on the resitivity of the ground, which depends on whether it is sandy, clay or whatever. Our friendly Lightening Conductor designer suggested for our soil type we should have 3 earth rods on each side, 2 metres deep and connected across the top with a strip to which the copper conductor is connected with a soldered tag. Fortunately this summer has been miserable and incapable of getting things hot enough to create any thunder and lightening.

 The rods are reasonably easy to knock into the ground as around the house much of it has been disturbed to do the foundations so has not fully compacted yet since the backfill.

On the south side of the house we had put teram and pea shingle down where the decking will go so the conductor assembly will sit nicely under the deck

 A week or so later and all the siding in the house is fitted. You can see the difference at the far end of this room, compared with the original shot before fitting shown below.