051. Assembling the house. Part IV.

Figure 47. The topping-off tree (Richtbäumli) was put up last week!

By tradition, when the roof is finished, a little spruce decorated with ribbons is put up to mark this occasion. The roofing work is the most dangerous and trying part of the construction, so the completion of this is a significant achievement.

Figure 48. The weatherproofing continues.

Majcoat[1] by Siga is a "driving rain-proof and diffusion-open breathable membrane" that creates a windtight envelope.

Figure 49. Close-up of the seams between sheets. The indentation on the left side is for one of the rain gutters.

Wigluv[2] also by Siga is used to seal the overlap areas between the sheets.

Figure 50. I can't resist showing how neatly all the tools and materials were put away for the long (Easter) weekend. This is a corner of one of the bathrooms.

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[1] Link to the page about Majcoat.

[2] Link to the page about Wigluv.

050. Assembling the house. Part III.

Figure 45. Some of the windows waiting to be installed. Figure 46. Storms were expected over the weekend so the house was wrapped up tightly.

049. Assembling the house. Part II.

Figure 43. A peek into the installation, upper floor before they started to put the roof on. View towards the east. Figure 44. One of the roof elements being placed.

048. Assembling the house. Part I.

Figure 42. A peek into the installation, upper floor. View towards the east.

The first batch of wood elements were trucked to our site yesterday and the woodworkers started their work. This photo is from the end of the working day today, after the upper floor was mostly put together. This stage should be completed by Thursday.

047. Nice weather on the horizon

Preparations were made last week to be ready to install the house elements this coming week. So far, the weather forecast is promising...

046. Ready for the wood envelope

Since my last update, the scaffolding has been installed in preparation for the wood envelope. The wall elements will be moved into place with the crane and the installers will have the scaffolding to walk around on to access the exterior of the thing. Now we're just waiting for a few clear days.

Figure 39. The concrete shell has been treated against water penetration and extruded polystyrene insulation panels have been mounted. In the foreground is the roof of the technical room, soon to become the floor of the garage. Figure 40. View from the other side. Figure 41. Closer look at the ducts for the ventilation system.

045. Concrete foundation

The concrete foundation and retaining walls were completed before the winter holidays. Here are a couple of photos showing them at different parts of the process.

Figure 37. Concrete foundation/shell. The black stuff is a bituminous paint. Figure 38. Most of the backfilling had been done by the time I took this photo. In the foreground the top of the rainwater reservoir tank can be seen. A little patio will be built on top of the area.

044. Wood wall elements at Hecht Holzbau

No, I haven't abandoned this blog project despite the evidence so far. When I started the blog I wasn't working and I had lots of time to spend on the write-ups. But now that I'm gainfully employed, I can't seem to be able to find a decent chunk of time to work on this anymore. I'm going to try harder: let's see how it goes. So, here's a little report from our trip to Hecht in Sursee to check out the wall construction process.

Figure 34. The upstairs west wall can be seen in the back. The opening is where the door to the patio will be installed. The piece in the foreground is the downstairs south wall. More photos of it below. Figure 35. One part of the downstairs south wall being loaded onto the trailer. At the bottom left of the photo you can see a wall element edge-on with one layer of insulation. Figure 36. The same wall, seen from the other side. The rectangular openings are for the ventilation system, as are the round holes. When the thing is assembled, the round holes will be inside the floor and the vents for fresh air will be connected to them.