I’m sorry I’ve not updated the blog for a while. Actually, a lot has been going on with Dianthus never mind homeschooling and juggling work at the same time.
We’ve been fortunate with the weather in the last couple of weeks albeit, we had a spell early in February when the temperature dropped to below zero. We then had a mixture of snow and sunshine.
Nevertheless, Bentley and their sub contractors have been extremely busy. In the time since my last update, we are weather tight, the bauder roof to support our green roof has been installed on the Pavilion, Roof tiles have been installed on the north facing pitched roof including the roof lights on that side as you can see in the photo below.
The south facing roof has had the required roof slates installed ready for the installation of the GB Sol PV Roof Slates that started today.
I didn’t get a chance to go on site today so I’ll add photos tomorrow showing the installation of the PV slates. If you look at the photo below, you can see that the non PV Slates are in place ready for the PV ones to sit alongside them. You will also notice the flashing for the big rooflight from Cantifix overlooking our staircase and atrium.
We’re going to be able to generate approximately 7.5KW at peak day generation from the south facing pitched roof. Our total energy need per day is approximately 9KW per day. Once we’ve built the Field Shelter at the rear, we’ll be putting in additional solar panels/whatever works at that stage to cover our energy need and export whatever excess we have left into the grid. We will have two Tesla 2 Power-Walls to store any excess generation for selling to the grid when it makes sense to do so or we will draw from them as needed.
In the meantime, we’ve been busy with a lot of other areas. Kitchen, Utility Room and appliances signed off, M&E design is more or less complete and the mechanical folks ready to hit the ground to install the pipes for the underfloor heating, the manifolds and screed. The mechanical folks on Ground Source and MVHR are lining up behind that. We’re also working with the Bentley team on getting bathroom design and M&E closed off this week. These includes signing off the Tesla Power Wall 2 specification, ConnectedKerb Gecko and Limpet Chargers for the parking area in front and the field shelter respectively.
Basically, we’re into the thick of first fix and second fix activities. besides the above, we’ve taken delivery of all the Ideal Combi and Rooflight windows bar the two big sliding doors at the rear from Cantifix and the Roofglaze which is the rooflight for David’s room in the basement.
Actually on the basement, we’re bone dry there given how high the water table is and the weather out there. So that’s looking good so far. Now that we’re weather tight, we’re waiting for Sika to come in again this week to sign it off as done. So we can start putting up the insulation, stud wall, underfloor heating pipes and screed.
Here is a photo of the basement as it looks currently.
The most exciting bit that we’re looking forward to over the next few weeks is thickening the hedgerow in the meadow and around the perimeter of the property. We’ve already planted some bulbs around the ash tree, blackberries and bulbs along the track.
However, we need a lot more to restore the meadow and also attract a diverse wildlife population. I’ll do a separate blog post on the planting to do this justice. To give you an idea, we’re planting approximately 2460 plants in the hedges including Dog Rose, Hawthorn, Hazel, Beech, Bird Cherry and some climbers such as Roses, Clematis and Hedera Helix.
We do have some alterations to the landscape design which we will need to resubmit to planning. We’ve consulted with the Parish Council and have their blessing for the alterations. Mostly to protect the Ash Tree. Fingers crossed with planning.
The rest of the photos from the last few weeks below including some renders of the rear as it will look from the latest landscape design. You will also notice that they’re installing the insulation within the building as well as external. They also started installing the flint to the Pavilion.
Dianthus 