Spain House Build - Building Started
- Thread starter Martynt74
- Start date
Cheers but you’re right. That’s around 1hr 40 from us.
I’m half tempted to try and speak to the actual physical builder to see if he’s open to something. Although that could cause problems and I don’t know if it’s him causing the issues or the developer.
Whenever I speak to the developer it seems he’s as frustrated as us which makes me thing the builder he uses just ahas too much work and is priorisiting his own clients.
I’m half tempted to try and speak to the actual physical builder to see if he’s open to something. Although that could cause problems and I don’t know if it’s him causing the issues or the developer.
Whenever I speak to the developer it seems he’s as frustrated as us which makes me thing the builder he uses just ahas too much work and is priorisiting his own clients.
Well we've got the concrete poured for the house too. Funny how it seems to look bigger now that it's the full slab
More bricks. After another delivery of these I was a little confused as we'd always spoken of Ytong blocks for the build. I think initially the garage was to use normal red brick, but then i'm sure there was a much later conversation after we'd signed where he said the garage would be Ytong too. Having checked the planning submission the garage does state thermo clay brick so i think he must've just mispoke in a passing comment. Not really an issue at all for me and was what i'd initially expected anyway.
Frustratingly, there's still no fence, and no fence means no delivery of the Ytong bricks. They're around 5x the price of the thermo clay blocks above and so security is an issue.
In theory end of July is still possible. My wife wwas asking if my plan to ask for financial penalities still happens if they make some progress but the walls aren't complete and i think it will. Too often we've seen something happen, get excited and then nothing happens for ages. I don't want the same stress every month
More bricks. After another delivery of these I was a little confused as we'd always spoken of Ytong blocks for the build. I think initially the garage was to use normal red brick, but then i'm sure there was a much later conversation after we'd signed where he said the garage would be Ytong too. Having checked the planning submission the garage does state thermo clay brick so i think he must've just mispoke in a passing comment. Not really an issue at all for me and was what i'd initially expected anyway.
Frustratingly, there's still no fence, and no fence means no delivery of the Ytong bricks. They're around 5x the price of the thermo clay blocks above and so security is an issue.
In theory end of July is still possible. My wife wwas asking if my plan to ask for financial penalities still happens if they make some progress but the walls aren't complete and i think it will. Too often we've seen something happen, get excited and then nothing happens for ages. I don't want the same stress every month
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Soldato
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OMG look at those clay "bricks" we don't use them in the UK so its 100% going to fall down
OMG look at those clay "bricks" we don't use them in the UK so its 100% going to fall down
I think the UK is catching on and starting to use these style of bricks now aren't they?
I may have missed this earlier in the thread but I think you recently mentioned this was off-grid and were going solar/battery? What's the deal with water and sewage? Will you be connected to a mains supply or is it provided by a well/water storage from somewhere and is it going to be a septic tank type setup for sewage?
Yeah off grid with solar/battery.
Sewage will be via septic tank
Water is an odd one. We have water supplied to the plot, but it is only intended for irrigation and so is untreated. We're exploring various options for water filtration.
Reverse Osmosis is a possibility and in theory would make it drinkable. However my wife has made it clear that no matter how pure the output, she will not drink anything out the tap! The other option is just a 4 stage filtration to clear out any nasties and make it suitable for cooking/cleaning. Reverse Osmosis is very wasteful which isn't very environmentally friendly and given the supply issues in Spain i'm not too keen on that.
Associate
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RO Units are, as you say, very wasteful if you can't put the 'waste' water to good use (i.e. storage/irrigation). I used to keep marine fish and had a 100 gallons per day unit (with a Total Dissolved Solids meter). The filters were replaced annually, usually around £50 for the 4 pot unit I had. I see that there's a company that does Filtration units for Canal water for Canal boats, not sure on costs, that produces drinking quality water from Canal water.
I think it'd depend on the quality of it. I could probably re-route it to irrigation, but that then gets complex. We have 3 separate water inlets due to multiple plots, so my plan is to use one of the other water sources for irrigation to avoid any potential flow pressure issues.
However equally the current discussion is to put the filter before a 2000l underground deposit. We then would have a pump from the deposit to the house. Multiple benefits being we have a supply of clean water in the case of water shutoffs for maintenance either at the grid or with the filter system.
Debate then is what to do about filling up the swimming pool. You want reasonably clean water, but don't need to be using a drinking water grade filtration system to top up 10's thousands of litres.
Soldato
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So how are you planning to shower etc? Use the irrigation water?
Irrigation water yes but through the filters. If it's clean enough to cook with it's gonna be absolutely fine to shower with.
Our first rental over here had a similar system and it was fine. Although i do plan on going more advanced than what they had.
RO water is absolutely fine to drink. It's used to produce drinking water on boats the world over. Some water companies use it on an industrial scale and often have to put minerals back in so the water actually tastes of "water".
The waste from the RO could be stored for showers/washing machines/toilets/topping up swimming pool. I'm assuming that the swimming pool treatment would deal with anything in the RO by product water - consider the amount of bird-poo and other stuff that gets into out door pools and raises zero problems.
The whole clean water/grey water usage schemes is going to have to be taken seriously when we start to run out of drinking water due to droughts etc. Sounds like an ideal time to build in some future-proofing to you new house!
The waste from the RO could be stored for showers/washing machines/toilets/topping up swimming pool. I'm assuming that the swimming pool treatment would deal with anything in the RO by product water - consider the amount of bird-poo and other stuff that gets into out door pools and raises zero problems.
The whole clean water/grey water usage schemes is going to have to be taken seriously when we start to run out of drinking water due to droughts etc. Sounds like an ideal time to build in some future-proofing to you new house!
You could get it tested and show that it's perfectly safe. Having said that, bottled water for drinking in Spain is so much cheaper than the UK.
Honestly i've told her it'd end up being the cleanest purest water she'd ever drink and it doesn't matter
My goal would be to use it for drinking because otherwise you're consuming loads of microplastics and creating huge plastic waste. Especially as i'm lazy and buy the 2L bottles instead of the 8L ones and decant into smaller ones.
Agree 100%. My Spanish sister in law took ages before she was happy to drink UK tap water.
Associate
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Worth noting that RO Units require a fair bit of pressure to work, you'll need a pump.
I'd fill the sump tank with RO water and use the waste to fill/top up the pool. You'll get a fair bit of evaporation if my pond is anything to go by last weeks 'heatwave'.
I'd fill the sump tank with RO water and use the waste to fill/top up the pool. You'll get a fair bit of evaporation if my pond is anything to go by last weeks 'heatwave'.
Yeah, the pool in our rental has lost a heck of a lot recently. My concerns with the waste water for the pool are generally that there has been occasions in the past where the irrigation water has been almost black. I don't really need that being thrown into the pool 10 minutes before the wife goes for a swim 
What i'd really like is to have a really good conversation with a local installer of a variety of systems. That way they have both local knowledge and also system knowledge. Sadly i'm struggling to find them!
What i'd really like is to have a really good conversation with a local installer of a variety of systems. That way they have both local knowledge and also system knowledge. Sadly i'm struggling to find them!
Whoop. The garage has some walls.
What's that lurking in the background? Figured surely no-one has been in grafitiing already! Nope, just the builders marking for the window. Strangely they write "Bentana", presumably it's Valenciano. As in normal Spanish it would be Ventana (but pronounced Bentana)
View from the patio doors of my office
What's that lurking in the background? Figured surely no-one has been in grafitiing already! Nope, just the builders marking for the window. Strangely they write "Bentana", presumably it's Valenciano. As in normal Spanish it would be Ventana (but pronounced Bentana)
View from the patio doors of my office
