Self Build Blog1st Fix Plumbing and Electrics
The plumbers are back and the electrician is here now too.
Things are full steam ahead this week, as the plumbers are back on site, as well as the electrician for the first time. There hasn't been too much tripping over each other yet, but I'm sure that will come. There certainly are plenty of tools and materials laying around all over the place, that there are bound to be some incidents along the way.
There should have been some action over the Christmas period, in order for things to be ready for the builders to start getting the plaster board onto the walls and ceiling. The usual lack on communication amongst the trades, meant that they turned up on Monday morning and nothing had been done, so they couldn't start work. After much cursing and a phone call, they're going to be coming back next week. This gives the plumber and electrician time to get the 1st Fix work done.
This part of the process is quite exciting, now that the main structure of the house is finished, it's great to have the working elements of a home being installed - all the things that will make the house live and breathe. Having spent months (years?) looking at the whole design on paper and trying to image everything in our minds, having the electric cables and water pipes being positioned where the taps, sockets and lights will go, is a big deal.
It's surprising how quickly the electrician is getting all cabling in place, although it's very rough at this stage. They're just drilling holes in the rood trusses and feeding the cables from the hall cupboard consumer unit to the sockets and light fittings.
I'm not 100% happy with the PVC piping being used for the water, but I know it's quicker and cheaper than using copper pipes. The PVC pipes can be cut and joined very quickly using snap-fit components and they can be easily bent around corners and awkward positions in the roof.
The downside, is that if they're not properly fixed, they can move around and makes noses behind the walls, when the taps are turned on and off, because of the water pressure. Hopefully these will be okay - I'll be checking them before they put the plasterboard over everything.
