Sauna

No, we're not having a sauna installed. The house is being heated up to 50°C - or rather the floor is - to dry the screed. Thermometer shows Fahrenheit and Centigrade for those who are still in the Fahrenheit part of the world.

At least that was the plan last week when the heating was switched on on Thursday last. Friday: no noticeable change in temperature. Phone call to clerk of works: "Don't worry, it takes a couple of days before you notice a rise in temperature". Saturday: error on the heating display panel, which I reported to the c.o.w. by mail. Monday morning 8 o'clock I arrived at the house to find a Hanse Haus van in front of the house and someone inside working on the heating. Now that is a fast response! As it turned out, the guy who turned the heating on forgot to turn on the electric circuit which is solely devoted to the compressor in the heat exchanger... I.e. no heating. The maintenance guy could barely hide his anger and embarassment.

As it stands the heating is most definitely working - airing three times a day in approx. 95% humidity is no fun. Temperature today 35°C, 40°C tomorrow, 45°C on Thursday, 50°C on Friday which is held constant til Monday when the heating is turned down gradually until the floor reaches normal (about 20°C at the moment). The plasterers are due on Monday, so it looks as if they will be working with all the doors and windows open...

The Pink Skirt.

And wearing a nice little pink skirt from Austrotherm... Finally managed to fit the remainder perimeter insulation today at the second attempt. Last week's effort was postponed due to rain and a sore back. Having tried mixing cement to do the job last week, I decided to resort to bitumen for the rest of the job. Much easier. The pink skirt will later disappear under a layer of gravel.

Blower door test

This picture explains in principle what a blower door test is. All the openings in the house (chimney, drains, vents for the heat exchanger etc.) are sealed off with tape. Then the house is pumped up to a certain pressure and the time is measured it takes for the pressure to drop. Then this is done in reverse: the air is sucked out of the bulding. All new houses have to have this done by law to conform to the high energy conservation standards. If leakage is found, then the builders have to put it right. If you want to read more about it in English, just click here. For German hier. Our house passed the test.

Now for the real pictures:
Bladders are inserted in the larger openings and blown up with a pump

Some of the equipment:

 Getting ready to blow:

Fan and sensors:

Exterior complete.

Pictures of the house without the scaffolding.

Underfloor heating

Yesterday was a busy day. The plumbers did the final work on the heat exchanger, set up the solar panels, then left at midday. In the early hours the plasterers arrived and plastered the outside walls  - pictures to follow when the scaffolding comes down. The underfloor heating was laid: three layers of polystyrene insulation, a damp protection material and the plastic piping on top, stapled to this bedding. Six cm of liquid screed is poured in on Monday. A week later the heating is turned on, the house heated to 50°C and aired three times a day for about 10 days. At the moment it looks like this:

Kitchen

Living room

Also living room

Hallway

Guest room

Bedroom

Main bathroom

Doorway/hall

Utility room - We thought 9m² was big, but when you see the size of the heat exchanger...

Richtfest!

Yesterday we celebrated our "Richtfest" - apparently it's called topping-off or topping-out in English, although I must say I'd never heard of it. Normally this is celebrated the moment the last beam goes on the roof, although in the day and age of pre-fabs like ours, this is now held whenever the foreman sees fit and that tends to be when people can enter the house and move around it without any kind of danger to life and limb.. You only get a couple of days warning to organise food, drink, tables and chairs. Invitations go out to family, freinds, new neighbours and the joiners and architect. There were about 30 of us.

One of the roof joiners gets on the scaffolding with the people who are building - the good missus refused to climb onto the scaffolding, so I went up on my own with Florian.
Then two glasses are filled with wine (or schnapps) and the blessing ceremony can begin.

After the blessing the glasses are emptied in one go and thrown to the ground. A half pint of wine in about 5 seconds on an empty stomach is no joke! If they break, it brings good luck to the house, if they don't then...

Well, at least Florian's glass broke, that's the main thing.

Now for some impressions of the party:

Roofing and chimney completed.

Yesterday the roof was tiled and closed, the chimney finished off. They had enough tiles, in spite of the fact that some had been broken when a pallet of tiles fell over. Accidents happen.

Solar panels standing packed on the patio waiting to be mounted. Note pole for satelllite dish above bedroom. It will be a "squinting" satellite: the dish and one LNB aimed at Astra 28.2E for best BBC reception, and the LNBs for Astra 19.2E slightly askew to be able to pick up German TV.

Lars putting the finishing touches to the chimney. Note window and step to allow access for the chimney sweep.