Internally most of the walls are blockwork, but the timber
stud partitions also started going in after the roof went on.
The plumbers and electricians also started first fixing the
services, before walls and ceiling are plasterboarded.
Building the linen cupboard in the bathroom showed us the size of the bathroom and adjacent bedroom. Concealed in the back of the cupd. is also a vertical service duct that allows pipes, cables and ventilation ducts to travel between the different floors. We are also having under floor heating to the first floor, so the pipes are clipped to the floor before being insulated from below and covered in screed.
The engineered floor joists (also by Truss-Tech) make it much easier to run sevices through
the floor, and even the soil pipe runs up inside the building
hidden in our service riser.
It’s out of sight but accessible if necessary.
Hot and cold water pipes are clipped to the blockwork, ready to
be plastered over. We’ve chosen to build most of the walls from
blockwork which will be plastered. Although drylining is quicker
and more popular these days, we wanted the feeling of solid walls
which are easier to fix into. Our Architect also convinced us that
the heavy thermal mass will be better for storing heat, than a wall
with a plasterboard lining with an air gap behind. Lightweight materials tend to
heat up and cool down quicker, where as heavier ones tend to vary less keeping the
interior of a building at a more constant temperature.