Some painting done in the kitchen

We're still busy putting fibreclass coating on the slabs, so paint will have a better surface (and the paint won't crack if there is movement in the wall). I was a bit sceptical of this as (usually) slabs are plastered and then painted. This option was a lot less expensive (the fibreglass is about €80 for a 1 x .5m roll and the glue is about €20 a bucket) so I was anxious to see how the paint sticks to it. As a comparison I left one wall in the kitchen (the north wall) raw - i.e. no fibreglass. It will be "covered" in kitchen anyway, so it won't really be visible.

The result of the first coat of paint are certainly interesting. First, the paint sticks perfectly to the fibreglass and leaves a decent finish. One coat is not enough - first, I want to paint in latex paint and secondly, I used the green slabs in the kitchen too (because I had enough of them). The green colour is still showing through the first coat of paint, so it's no harm to give them a second coat of latex anyway.

Below are some more photos of the painting. I want to paint the living room soon as well, but there are still some damp spots on the wall (some of the bricks soak up humidity much more than others), so I'll need to heat the place up properly first.

Outside done (bar the "Sockel")

I know I promised an update and forgot about it, so here it is. Behold, the outside is pretty much finished. "Pretty much" because the "Sockel" (that's the stripe at the bottom of the house, underneath the plastered and painted part) still has to be taken care of. My plasterer (Chrisch) already said he'd do it. I'm not sure if it will be done this year, but if not, I don't care. Inside is more important anyway.

Speaking of inside, we did get quite a bit done since the last update. For example, if I recall, the last update was just after we slabbed the kitchen. Well, now the bathroom is not just slabbed, but also tiled (well, the walls are - the floor will be

done in November, after the concrete is heated up and cooled back down). I hadn't expected the bathroom to be finished as one of the first rooms, but as fortune would have it, it looks like it will be done first (or second, depending on when the kitchen and the tile layer arrive). As you can see from the photo, the bathroom is tiled up to about 1.2m - above that we want to paint with a latex paint (i.e. a paint that is suitable for a bathroom). Obviously, where the shower is going, there are tiles up to the ceiling (and yes, underneath the tiles is sealed with Elastogum and a sealing tape). I can now get the bathroom fittings (toilet, sink, shower) put in - but I want to finish the painting first. We won't be painting the slabs directly (though apparently that is done relatively often) - we'll be fixing a fibreglass wallpaper to the slabs with an adhesive. When this dries, it provides a flat, stable surface for painting. The end result is (apparently) as though the wall had been plastered. This fibreglass coating is also suitable for the bedrooms - which have a kind of oil paint finish which will not really be suitable for any kind of plaster.

Oh yes, before I forget, we also put in the balcony. Grasser Metallbau built and installed the metal frame and steps. I had to pour some concrete for them (around the metal legs) last weekend, but other than that they were fast and clean. I did the timber decking (larch, 4cm) with Sven last Saturday. It took us the whole day, but the end result is quite good. We only had to split one larch board over a length of 20m (the last one). Apparently larch is weather-proof, but I think I'll treat it once or twice with fungicide, so it doesn't start to go black on me. There is also a special oil for larch - that might be useful too. I haven't looked into this yet.

The next up on the schedule is to get plasterboard on top of all the chipboard/OSB in the living room area, to finish the kitchen ceiling (insulated and the vapour block is in, but the lats have to go up and the slabbing has to be done), and to get going on the ceilings in the bedrooms. I already started the insulation (18cm - to suit the thickness of the joists 035 rockwool should do the trick).

Below are a couple of recent photos...

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

Quick update (no pictures)

The last time I posted an update here was before we went to Ireland (i.e. before August 13th). That's quite a while ago. Since then, the plastering was finished. We now have two coats of paint on the west side (the gable) and the reveals and between the rafters (the visible ends of them) on the north side has also received two coats. Tomorrow evening we're hoping to get the first coat of paint on the north side.

This weekend is reserved for putting in the insulation for underneath the underfloor heating. I ordered 100 square metres of 4cm insulation boards and 100 square metres of 2cm silencer as well as 100 square metres of 0.2mm plastic sheeting and 100m of 15cm high foam for around the entire perimeter. First, the foam around the perimeter goes in (the idea being that the concrete floor should "swim" and should not be connected anywhere, to anything). Then the 4cm boards are installed. Perpendicular to these (and on top of them), the silencer boards are installed. Then the plastic sheeting gets rolled out. At that stage, I can call in Niedermaier to install and connect the underfloor heating. Once that is done, we should (finally) be able to get the concrete floor done.

First coat of plastering done today

Petermaier's men plastering the south side

Petermaier's men will finish the last wall of the house (the south/yard) today. They already had the east gable and almost half of the south side done when we left for Nuremberg at 13:00. What they have to do is to put a coat of Hasit Armierungsmörtel (the same mortar they were using to stick the insulation boards) directly on top of the styrofoam boards. A plastic mesh is embedded into the wet plaster. I'm not sure if they just embed the mesh or if they put another coat on top of it - whatever it is they do, the end result of this (second last) coat is that the wall finally starts to look like a house wall - i.e. plastered. Once the south side is finished this evening, Petermaier's men will go to another job for the rest of the week and the start of next week. The plaster needs a good eight days to dry properly, so there's no point in them sticking around. When they come back next week, they will put on one final coat - this will be a coat with 3mm stones in it. The final optic will be delivered with a sponge. Two or three days afterwards, the wall will be ready for painting. After that, we can finally get rid of the scaffolding.

The finish on the plaster on the inside

Inside, the plastering that Chrisch did in July has dried to a grey/white colour. I thought it might be possible to leave it that way, but it is too grey for my liking, so we are going to paint it white at some stage. The final effect of the plastering here was achieved with a sponge roller - it looked kind of like what you use for applying paint, but there were circular holes in the roller part. I tried to take a photo of it but the camera had difficult focusing.

I also finished the timber part of the drywalling in the bathroom. You might remember that we needed to case the west side of the bathroom as there were pipes for the sink and the toilet which needed to be under the tiles. It wasn't easy to do (the diagonal beam was not parallel to the existing timber paneling and the toilet was fixed to a plane of boards which was not quite parallel to the OSB and also a good 8cm further in). We need to slab the whole bathroom next (the greenback slabs are in the living room waiting to get put up). First of all, ten days in Ireland...

The north side has the second last coat applied already