Week 16: Foundation is fast and furious here/ thriller in the price

The Me-Perustukset team have tried to install the frames for pouring concrete last week Friday. Firstly, they had to wait a day as there was a problem with the steel delivery. Then, our foreman decided to go and visit the site and inspect the foundation to make sure that there is enough steel placed in the frames before pouring concrete.

Unfortunately he came all the way from Lohja in vain as the steel was not yet placed in the frames due to the delays of the steel delivery. He could have called Me-perustukset first and ask if the site is ready for inspection instead of coming and wasting his time...better communication would be nice! Especially as we're paying for foreman's' visits :).

Anyway by Tuesday the frames for the plinth beams (sokkeli) were ready for inspection.The foreman did notice one error as the middle floor frame was misplaced (in mirror image instead) and then the foundation crew made the necessary changes in time.

Inspecting the premises :)

steel reinforcements before concrete was poured

terrace

ventilation hole

the entrance terrace

And after a while at 8 pm same day, the trucks with concrete arrived and concrete started pouring...

 

 Then the concrete was left to dry for one day and on Thursday the frames were removed and the prefabricated floor beams were brought in onto 40-tonnes truck. This was the one we were afraid of... Will the road last or not the heavy weight...

And on Thursday, the super heavy truck came, road was ready and wide enough...but the truck driver was probably not very experienced as he took a too narrow turn from main road to our land and this is what happened...

A super heavy assistance truck was called in to pull the truck with concrete beams out of the ditch.

3 hours were lost but in the end the rescue was successful and the team installed the floor beams and look what became of it...

our house's got FOUNDATION :)

The crawl in space under the foundation

Then the day continued with the last act taking place...
The empty truck was not able to reverse up the hill to the main road...and then another  assistance truck was called to help in... (excuse the video quality)

What a thriller Thursday it's been!  But in the end the foundation crew was able to finish and leave at about 4 pm, I guess ready to celebrate something. Easter?

See also our other post on foundation:
http://project-eco-house-finland.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-question-of-foundation.html

Pictures and comments of the wall structure and insulation

At the Omakotitalo fair we met with Lapponia house representatives at their stand. We got free entrance tickets and "coffee and buns" coupons from them. That was nice, but we're a nice customer too :). I hope they still can make some profit on our house :).

They had on display the wall structure of our future house. Basically they call it "thermo log" because (as I understand it) from the outside and inside of the house it looks like a laminated log but inside the wall structure there is VITAL wooden-fibre insulation and not solid wood. The VITAL wooden-fibre has certain advantages compared to solid wood:
- it insulates about 2 times better (250 mm wooden fiber versus 250mm tick log)
-  one cubic metre of wood makes 10 cubic metres of VITAL insulation
- will not create a so-called "bottle phenomenon," but the structures are breathing

More information can be found from: http://www.vitalfinland.fi/english/pages/why_vital_insulation_/ and from

http://www.lapponiahouse.fi/international/en/company/woodhouse/

This VITAL insulation is being produced from fresh wood or from recycled card-board. Our house package insulation will be made of fresh wooden fibre.

Thermo log wall structure with VITAL insulation.

The view of the wall from the outside. The white insulation is made from fresh wood fibres.

The wooden-fibre wall structure from Lapponia House has received recently the qualification of being "suitable"/ friendly for people suffering from allergies, which is almost 1 in 2 people in Finland.

That sounds good for us as myself and my youngest daughter have some allergies.

Appliances deal made with Gigantti

We were at the fair last weekend and bought 4 appliances from Gigantti. They had offered a lot better deal compared to Expert who made us an offer for AEG stuff. And also had better sales person. Of course at the fair you have to kind of decide more or less on the spot so I was wondering if we got a correct deal or not, but after getting home and checking the prices on the Internet it was indeed a good deal. Anyway at the fair I asked the sales person "So I can call you on Monday if it seems that the special prices you offered us are not that special? Yes sure", he replied.

Cheapest prices on the Internet for the stuff we got are: 
EUF29420X - Electrolux freezer metalic- 1036 euro 
ERE38520x - Electrolux fridge metalic - 1026 euro 
D5257S -  Asko dishwahser metalic - 916 euro 
EDD2400RH - Electrolux drying cupboard - 484 euro 
Total 3462 euro on the Internet

We got offered 2550 euro for the whole package so not too bad thinking that the appliances have on them "made in Sweden" :). They will deliver the appliances when we need them somewhere in September/ October.

Freezer

 

Freezer

Fridge

Fridge

Dishwasher

Drying cupboard

 

 

week 14: Choosing parquet, fireplace and some of the kitchen appliances

We have been changing our mind on what kind of floor we wnat in the living room/ kitchen. Initially we were thinking that tiles go better with underfloor heating but in the end we still like better the feel of wooden floor. So we now decided to use parquet (or so called engineered wooden floor).

We checked various floor options from Parador, Upofloor, Karelia and Kährs. We wanted a floor that is sort of whitish but not look too "made" white. Ash tree (saarni/ frasin) has quite white wood but we did not like much the options found for ash parquet. We found and interesting parquet for oak from Kärhs, model Oak/ Tammi Dew (Harmony collection).

Kährs Oak Dew (promo picture from their website)

photo taken with my phone-  it's surface fees relatively rough as it's been brushed deeply and oiled. It also feels solid compared to other parquets and Kährs gives 30 year guarantee. But it does come at a price, about 40 euro/ sqm.

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Also we have decided on the fireplace, it will be from Vuoleri. We have some criterias based on which we have chosen the fireplace:
- we like the classical looking fireplaces with tiles
- we would like to have also baking oven
- price was also a contraint - our initial budget was 6000 euro including chimney
- it should not be very wide and very deep (max 90cm X 70 cm)
- it should less than 2000 kg and chimney less than 1500 kg (foundation constraints)
Vuoleri fireplaces are made with real stone inside compared to the fireplaces Kermasavi from Tulikivi thus with a smaller fireplace one can get more heat as stone retains the heat better (at least in theory :)). Also Vuoleri were flexible to make us a customized version of the fireplace. We wanted to have a small fireplace with baking oven model like Aino below but then higher by 30 cm and looking tiled like Päivänsäde below. Päivänsäde would have been too heavy for us.

Aino and Päivänsäde next to each other

The baking oven in Aino is closed, not connected to the fireplace underneath thus it keeps clean (no smoke inside). The temparture in the baking oven can get up to 250 C.

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The appliances story to follow...

week 13: House steel pillars were installed

17 pillars in total.

Not that much happened in week 13 except that in one day the pillars for the house were installed.

I drew the imaginary line of the house. The pillars will support the plinth beams (sokkelit). On these beams the floor beams and the house walls will be standing. There is an additional plinth beam on the middle of the house floor. Also on the side you can see the place where terraces/ porches will approximately be.

 Also we have added to thew blog the original Lapponia House package plans which we have modified quite a bit to get to our own model. There are modifications both on the inside (mostly) and outside. See:
http://project-eco-house-finland.blogspot.com/p/house-package.html