Coming out of the ground one layer at a time

It's been a nice few days progress, since laying the first block, and we can now see some rooms forming.

On top of the base concrete foundation, we now have the beginnings of the exterior and interior blockwork skins, which will make up the 'slab'. This is basically the first structural element of the house itself, up to the DPC (Damp Proof Course) level. This is typically two blocks in height - onto which will be a plastic waterproof layer, to pevent damp from rising.

So in the photos, you can see the interior boundaries of the rear rooms (3 bedrooms and main bathroom) are being outlined. And around the outside, there are the exterior wall blocks. There is a 100mm gap (Cavity) between, which will be half filled with foam insulation sheets.

Within the 'rooms', a layer of ballast has been spread and compacted - on top of which will sit other layers and elements such as the main drainage pipes for the bathrooms and kitchen. You can see the brown PVC pipes ready to go.

The end wall of the living room has also been started and it's quite exciting being able to 'walk' around the house. There have been numerous times when we've been able to get a feel for the size of the rooms, as the house has been built, but this feels more real, as the blockwork is actually heading skyward.

Most of the blocks seen at this stage however, wont generally be seen at all - as they'll either be below ground (on the exterior) or submerged in more concrete and screed (on the interior) to form the Finished Floor Level (FFL).

Be warned, from this point on in the blog... there will be plenty more TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) to get to grips with!