2016 – Building a House in Germany Blog

The Roof is Finished, Structural Build is Complete

Not only was our roof-tiling finished yesterday, but the solar panels have been installed as well! According to the plan, they were going to be installed around the middle of January, so it’s a new record for something happening early!

Unfortunately they are not connected to anything yet, so we still only have electricity coming from the orange box outside.

So now we will have to wait a really long time before anything else will happen. Maybe we’ll use the time in between to start thinking about the driveway and garden…

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Roof Tiles – Part 2

This morning we had our weekly meeting with our Construction Manager. We didn’t really have much to discuss with him, but we clarified a few details for the first weeks in the new year.

Work was well underway on the roof- the tiles were already off their pallet and laid out in small stacks ready for installation, and our Velux window had been fitted (it’s on the other side, so you can’t see it in the photo!)

We also noticed while taking this photo, that we can now see the south side of the house better. The skips are gone and the silo is gone. Only a few leftover bricks and the Viebrockhaus ashtray are still there (and, of course, the scaffolding!)

We’re not sure if the roof will be completely finished today, but if not, it will be tomorrow. Hopefully, another photo will follow tomorrow evening.

After that, it is the Christmas holidays, so no further work is planned until Tuesday 10th January 2017.

Roof Tiles – Part 1

Early this morning, we had a delivery – six pallets of roof tiles. They were more or less lifted directly from the lorry trailer onto to the roof by what might be our last big drive-in crane.

Our neighbours also had their roof-tiles delivered at the same time, and by early afternoon, one side of their roof had been tiled, but ours haven’t been started yet.

Tomorrow we have our weekly meeting with our construction manager, so we might be able to get some more photos. Hopefully by then it will be started.

Doors and Windows

Early on Wednesday morning, I arrived at the site at around the same time as the windows and doors.

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Since we had been told that they would be installed either on Wednesday or Thursday, we were pleasantly surprised when we quickly drove past on the way home from work on Wednesday to see that they had already been installed. Fortunately, we’d already got the keys to go inside, as the construction manager gave them to us when we met him on Tuesday.

We also got some daylight photos on Thursday, and are happy with the way the house looks.

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There’s only a very tiny bit of bricklaying left to do around the windows and right at the top of one of the gable ends, and the roof tiles should arrive next week.

Over Half Way with the Bricks

Since it has been warmer in the last couple of days, the bricklayers have made a huge amount of progress, and are on target to be finished by Wednesday.

The windows and doors should then be, as planned, installed in the second half of the week.

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Another Brick in the Wall

Since I was out early for a 7am haircut, I dropped by the site at around 7.30am.

It was still dark, and the builders were still sitting outside in their vans. It was the first time I have arrived before they had started work! They had however switched on the lights and radio, so I was able to go in and have a look upstairs.

There is not much place to walk about, as they have stocked up with building supplies before they put the roof on (while they could still use a crane to do save all the lifting and carrying!)

Finally today it was a little warmer, and they have been able to continue with the bricklaying.

One of the long sides of the house is now bricked up to the top of the ground floor level, the other long side is about half-way up, and the ends are not started. Hopefully, it will stay warmer for a few days to let them get that finished by the middle of next week. After that, the weather will be a much less important factor.

We’ve got a Roof

Due to needing to be at the office early, we were not able to visit the site this morning, but our new neighbours were there and were very kind and sent some photos to us 🙂

The roof had already been unloaded from the truck and was being lifted into place.

By lunch time, almost all of the rafters were in place and covered, so the house is now waterproof from above. Yesterday the stairs led to nowhere, but today we can say that we (almost) have a first floor!

Later in the afternoon, the builders had already made a lot of progress with the blocks for the gable ends.
p1040544 Today, we also received an e-mail with a detailed plan of what will be done each week until the house is finished.

The next major milestone should be reached next week – when the doors and windows are scheduled to arrive.

Stairway to Nowhere

So far this week, its been somewhat too cold for bricklaying, therefore no real change to the appearance of the house since the photos at the weekend.

Hopefully, it is going to warm up again by the end of the week, and they can continue with the bricks.

The builders, however, have kept busy – the interior walls in the cellar are now finished, and they have tidied up (not that it was particularly untidy even before they did!) both inside and out.

We also now have wooden staircases going both up to the first floor and down to the cellar.

We went up the stairs to have a look, but of course, the first floor is not there yet. Just a concrete floor, but no walls!

We had a quick talk with the builders, who were also having their lunch break, and they confirmed that the roof is coming tomorrow.

I had thought that they needed to build the walls up further before that, but no, the wooden joists sit on top of the ground floor, and the gaps get filled in afterwards.

Hopefully, we will have some pictures tomorrow.

A Tour of the Ground Floor

Today we were able to visit the site in daylight again and had time to spend a little more time walking around.

Yesterday the ground floor ceiling was completed – the concrete slabs with concrete poured on top. Once that has set, they will be able to continue building upwards, but meanwhile, they have started the external brickwork.

The bricklaying team were still working when we first arrived so we came back after they had left at 2pm.

To give an impression how the ground floor is looking (and so we can compare with the end-result) here is a 1-minute video…

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Bricklaying Day 2

As I drove into work this morning, I dropped in at the site to deliver some chocolate bars for the builders.

Not much work had started up to then, but a delivery of scaffolding had arrived, as well as a large team of people from the scaffolding company. I had to get to the office, so didn’t have time to hang around and watch them offloading and building it.

By 2pm (when a relative went to take some photos for us), the ground floor interior walls were well underway (we don’t have many due to the large open plan lounge / dining room / kitchen.

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The scaffolding was also up and allowed for some bird’s-eye view photos.

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We stopped in again ourselves at around 5pm and the builders were just leaving. The ground walls (interior and exterior) are essentially finished and they should start with the bricks tomorrow.

Here is the view from the front door.

Of course, we took the opportunity to walk through the front door have a look around, but since it was dark didn’t stay long.

We are going back on Saturday with a tape measure and laser distance meter and check the walls are where we expect them to be.

It certainly looks right – even the internal door which was wrong on the plans for several weeks!