Spain House Build - Building Started

I assume it's insulated. Although i don't have specs at this time.

The 70mm would be the other side of the mineral wool insulation, effectively creating the internal wall

Like this
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That makes more sense. I don't know which is going to be best really. I'd just say plasterboard is not 63cm thick so I assume it has a layer of PIR bonded to it as well. Looks like inner brick gives you a lot of thermal mass inside, that should mean it takes longer to heat/cool but retains it for longer but apart from that I'd just be guessing at which is best.
 
200sols said:
That makes more sense. I don't know which is going to be best really. I'd just say plasterboard is not 63cm thick so I assume it has a layer of PIR bonded to it as well. Looks like inner brick gives you a lot of thermal mass inside, that should mean it takes longer to heat/cool but retains it for longer but apart from that I'd just be guessing at which is best.
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Cheers, yeah they stated 48 + 15mm plasterboard. I'm guessing it's something like this?

www.insulationshop.co

63mm British Gypsum Gyproc Thermaline PIR Insulated Plasterboard - (50.5mm PIR and 12.5mm Gyproc WallBoard)

63mm Gyproc Thermaline PIR Insulated Plasterboard consists of a 12.5mm Gyproc WallBoard factory bonded to a 50.5mm rigid polyisocyanurate foam (PIR) with a multi-layer Kraft/aluminium facer on both sides of the insulation board and conforms to BS EN 13950. Gyproc ThermaLine
www.insulationshop.co www.insulationshop.co


Similar to you i'd be guessing. In my head brick is always better, i wonder if the more varied materials would be a case of higher than the sum of their parts kind of thing. I know the insulation is considerably more expensive as a product at the reduction of labour costs. Seems like the overall cost is much of a muchness. The developer and architect are advising the plasterboard is the best option but i'm getting sceptical

I've asked for the updated calculations for both heat and sound of each option (and also what it would've been had it been built using the 2x 19cm blocks with cavity as i'd initially understood to be the case.
 
As a different update. We at least have a shell finished.

Steel pillars are concrete supports for the terraced roof.

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Mortar applied internally. Probably to hide the amount of gaps within the bricks!
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Fiver for whoever has the best guess for a screwdriver wedged into a brick?
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dirtychinchilla said:
Are they just rushing it now so it'll be too late for you to get them to fix things??
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I think there are just now workers who actually turn up and do a full day. The actual builders are working to the plans from the architect and i think this is just ended as a battle we're not going to win.
 
Hi, i'm at airport but just picked up block v stud cavity wall debate. Either works but in spain i would go block/brick internal leaf for thermal mass. Will take longer to build than stud + plasterboard btw. Architect should be able to improve on your original U values for thermal block spec? ... it all comes down to how wide the strip footings are, and how much tolerance he has to play with.
God, buildings are complicated ;-)
 
Martynt74 said:
As a different update. We at least have a shell finished.

Steel pillars are concrete supports for the terraced roof.

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Mortar applied internally. Probably to hide the amount of gaps within the bricks!
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Fiver for whoever has the best guess for a screwdriver wedged into a brick?
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The builder missed the architects head?
 
turbot1984 said:
Hi, i'm at airport but just picked up block v stud cavity wall debate. Either works but in spain i would go block/brick internal leaf for thermal mass. Will take longer to build than stud + plasterboard btw. Architect should be able to improve on your original U values for thermal block spec? ... it all comes down to how wide the strip footings are, and how much tolerance he has to play with.
God, buildings are complicated ;-)
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Cheers. Will see what calculations we get back from the architect.

Footings were ~60cm wide so should certainly be sufficient for block internal leaf. Presumably something like this would be used

Completely agree that it would take longer to build. However should only be ~1 week i'd imagine. I guess the question is how it would be fixed to the existing wall?

Have asked for architects calculations so will look to make a decision from that.
 
turbot1984 said:
Maybe, maybe not. Might only be 'centre' 350mm zone of strips which engineer will have calced for wall loadings. I would ask the question....
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Cheers, although i think either way it should be ok. Whichever method is used the total wall thickness is going to be ~35cm (190+100+70 for brick or 190+100+63 for plasterboard)
 
Honestly getting really optimistic by the people organising the actual building work which is really reassuring. I had a variety of messages with them on Friday to confirm various things and then this morning we met at the plot to plot out the location of the electric gate and the small room by the pool for the outdoor toilet/pool pump.

They're not doing much special, but just confirming things at every step and asking questions to make sure everything is positioned just right. To the point of bringing some steel poles to adjust the angle of the pool room to make sure we were exactly happy with the orientation before they marked it.

Feel in good hands with them and it's great to be involved and have things questioned rather than things just being down without us knowing that then become a problem.

Architect came back with R/U ratings for the various options. He's calculated the brick as slightly less thermally efficient vs the plasterboard, but it's negligible and having brick allows me to fix shelves etc a lot easier so have given the confirmation to go with that. Only real downside is that the end finish might not be as good as with plasterboard but hoping it's not a huge deal.
 
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Martynt74 said:
Feel in good hands with them and it's great to be involved and have things questioned rather than things just being down without us knowing that then become a problem.
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This seems to be a huge issue in general with the trades in this country. One of the subreddits I'm on is constantly full of people saying "the builder just did this and it looks crap, I didn't ask for this". Then a bunch of people saying "well, you should have talked to them about this". No, they are the professional, they know about these things. The average person doesn't know the finer points of plumbing or how decisions at various points can effect the outcome or other changes that are being made. Thats what you pay people for.

Had this with our solicitors when we were buying our current house. She would just forward us everything from the other side. Give us some ******* context woman! Thats what we are paying you for. Explain this to us. We don't speak legal and you do. What are they saying here.

It reassures people when you discuss things with them. Just doing things and then saying later "well, you didn't say that you cared whether it looked visually **** when we mounted this radiator 6 inches away from where we put up the pipes so instead of taking 5 minutes to talk to you we just did it".
 
Yeah, i'm on similar groups for house building on Facebook and the amount of posts as you describe are insane. Then you typically get replies from morons saying the poster is stupid because they didn't think to discuss the grout thickness 6 months before a floor is laid.

It's great having this open dialogue and believing they'll remember things. One of our biggest worries is that because the original builders didn't level the build area very well, there's now big height differences on the surrounding ground around the house. We've been adament from day 1 that we want it all on a consistent level for at least 10-15m from the house in all directions before any drop offs. I mentioned it to them last week, and whilst on site today i brought it up and they replied reassuringly that it would be delivered as planned.
 
Martynt74 said:
Yeah, i'm on similar groups for house building on Facebook and the amount of posts as you describe are insane. Then you typically get replies from morons saying the poster is stupid because they didn't think to discuss the grout thickness 6 months before a floor is laid.
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Theres always a huge number of people who hang around those groups to feel superior to others. They want people to know less than them and then berate them when they don't know everything around a subject.
 
Tried to nosey at the progress last night, but builders were still there and it feels awkward turning up when they're there. Almost like we're checking in on them. Not helped by the language barrier. There was a crane there though lifting the concrete beams for the roof.

I went this morning on my bike to keep building my catalogue of images (although looks like some above have been ruined by Imgbb and turned to dud links. Images below are pretty junk as lighting was poor.

Looks like there's a decent chance of having the roof done by the end of November

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I also couldn't sleep and jumped on my bike in the dark. Got there a bit early so was trying to grab the sunrise. Unfortunately the sun itself comes up just behind the hill on the right, so not quite as impressive as our current rental.

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Getting dark in here now :cool:

Not entirely sure what goes on top. Unsure if it's a pour of concrete. Although should find out soon.

They've also dug the footings for where the gate will go (at long last) and are starting to do the fence soon.

They also ripped out the Pine tree which was to the side of the house which is awesome.

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