Getting ready for plastering and tiling

The slabbed wall in the kitchen

This week there was quite a lot of progress in the kitchen and in the bathroom. Both of these rooms have drywall walls and outside walls which need to be plastered. We knew that Biller would be sending somebody to do the final measuring before the kitchen is sent to production, so we needed to do something about the kitchen walls - all of them except the exterior wall, which Chrisch plastered a while ago. One issue was the supporting beam which was to be cased in by the drywall. The beam and the triangular drywall component that was installed by Stuckenberger's team while the roof was off are not in line - they couldn't be (the beam is skewed, off plumb and not at 90° to the exterior house wall). After messing about all last Saturday trying to get the wall some way straight (using long timber wedges to locally support the plaster slabs) we decided that we would put up lats on the whole wall and be done with it. It took about 4cm off the length of the kitchen, but at least it meant we had a straight wall and the Biller chap could properly measure the kitchen. The other wall in the kitchen (the north wall, the back of which is the corridor between the kitchen and the bathroom) was much easier as it was straight and plumb already. All we had to do there was screw the boards on, without even needing to cut them (the room is 250cm high - exactly the length of the boards). We had to cut out the holes for the wall sockets, but that wasn't too bad.

The bathroom is slabbed - almost...

The bathroom also needed a lot of work. The next big steps in the bathroom will be to get it tiled - that needs to be done before bathroom "appliances" can be installed. Before tiling, the walls needed to be slabbed and walls which won't be getting slabs (the north exterior wall and the ytong walls) need to be plastered with Hasit 650 (lime/cement plaster - you can't use normal chalk plaster in a room with high humidity). Sven and I did the slabs in the bathroom relatively quickly - even the view block in front of the toilet was relatively easy to do (investing more work in straightening the OSB below paid off). The ceiling was a bit more of an issue, though, and it isn't finished yet. What we decided on was putting 20cm of rockwool insulation in between the joists, cover the lot with a diffusion layer (a bit like baking paper - it allows air through, but not water) and seal all the joints and around the edge with an incredibly sticky tape (SIGA). The idea is that the whole ceiling should be hermetically sealed against water vapour, but it should be able to breath.

On Saturday I have Chrisch coming to plaster the bathroom (not the slabs - they will be tiled up to 120cm and will be painted above that - though a fibreglass sheet comes directly onto the slabs first, so that movement in the slabs won't cause cracks in the paint). In the meantime, I'll hopefully be able to slab the ceiling with Sven. Once the bathroom is done, the tiler will be able to tile the walls. He can't do the floor until the underfloor heating is properly tested and the concrete is slowly heated and cooled. Apropos the heating, Strohmaier's team are coming tomorrow to installed the water meter - which means I'll be ready to fill the system when Niedermaier's team are ready to carry out the underfloor heating test.

Some before and after photos

Today two major things happened - the concrete floor went in and the scaffolding was taken away. Once the scaffolding was gone, I figured that it was time for a "before/after" photo because (for the first time in months) it was possible to see the house properly.

Fussbodenheizung / Underfloor Heating

Finally, there is more visible progress. Today, Niedermaier's men installed most of the underfloor heating pipes. They did the living room, the kitchen and half of the corridor. They probably would have finished the bathroom as well, but there is an issue with the shower drain - they didn't know what final height the floor will be, so they needed to wait until Christian Schöpfberger (the guy who will be pouring the concrete) determined the height with a laser level.

In order for Niedermaier's men to have been able to install the underfloor heating pipes today, we had to do a lot of work last weekend. I put in two 18 hour days on Saturday and Sunday and Sandra put in much the same. Even Eileen was busy sweeping and hoovering. What needed to be done was to get from a position where we had a OSB floor in all rooms, to where we had 4cm of insulation plus 2cm of a kind of aeroboard with very big beads - the idea is to act as a silencer. What had to be done first was to roll a foam band around the bottom of the wall. This will act as a barrier between the concrete floor and the wall so that no sound will transmit from the floor to the wall.

About 23:00 on Sunday, the boards are installed

Then, the 4cm aeroboard insulation was installed. That took quite a while because of all the cutting we needed to do - not just around the edges and the beams but also because of all the water pipes and network cables that crossed the floor.Once that was finished, we hoovered once more and then installed the silencer boards on top. Not quite as much cutting was needed (because the pipes on the floor were already taken care of by the thicker 4cm boards) and it was also easier to cut as the boards were only half as thick. We also had a hot wire cutter, which meant that we were only producing dangerous toxic fumes rather than a mess (try cutting aeroboard with a knife or saw). Once the 2cm boards were in, a 0.2mm plastic sheet was draped over the whole floor and up the wall so it overlapped the foam band by a little bit. Niedermaier's men laid out cardboard (probably plastic actually) on top of that - the underfloor heating pipes were stapled to that sheet to keep them in place.

As well as the work inside, our painter Sven and I are making considerable progress with the painting of the outside. The west gable is completely finished (2 coats of paint). The north (street) side has one coat of paint generally and two on the reveals. The east side has one coat of paint generally and two on the reveals. The south (yard) side also has one coat and two on almost all reveals. With a bit of luck we should be finished this weekend and can get rid of the scaffolding. When the scaffolding is gone, we can have the balcony and stairs put in (it should be ready by then). Hopefully,on Monday, we'll be able to have the concrete put in for the floor.

The towel drier/heater runs on the same heating as the underfloor heating (<30°)

The pipes from the different zones arriving into the central controller

The pipes are one a revolving stand and can be pulled off as they are needed

The kitchen is finished. Only one pipe is next to the wall (for condensation water avoidance) as the kitchen presses don't need to be heated from underneath

The plastic/cardboard boards which the underfloor heating pipes are fixed to with big staples

Cutting the plastic sheeting