Building your first home is one of the most rewarding things you can do. But since it’s your first time building, there are some important things to consider and precautions to take.

Planing The Build

It goes without saying but planning what you are going to do ahead of time is a necessity. However, not every eventuality can be planned for because unfortunately, most of us don’t have the ability to tell the future. Even so you’d be surprised how many things will come to mind when you sit down with a pen and a pad of paper and consider all the things that you will need to do and not do when constructing your home.

Investing In Storage

Don’t forget to consider where you will store things in your new home. Closet organising systems are worth every penny. But make sure you have enough of them to store everything.

Most builders know that a drill is a staple piece of equipment. Used on construction sites the world over, a drill makes many jobs a great deal easier than if they were tackled without one. But they can be easier still, using a cordless drill over a wired or manual one.

Cordless drills can be used freely, at any angle, and they are powered internally. These features combined make this a highly adaptable and convenient tool.

It goes without saying that being electric powered makes the drill a breeze to use. Not having to manually use a screwdriver or hand drill saves your arm from a lot of strain that it would have to go through otherwise.

Many electric drills also make use of a hammer function. This allows the drill to rapidly thrust, which can pulverise brittle materials and provide quicker drilling with less effort. A useful feature to have when working with brick walls.

Beams are structural elements designed to withstand loads by being resistant to bending. For centuries oak has been the preferred raw material for making beams. The reason being that oak does not get damaged easily. Additionally, oak is aesthetically pleasing and is almost impervious to fire. This is in addition to oak being readily available in the UK. Today, property owners have a decent selection of oak beams to select from, the two most popular being green oak and air dried oak. Both green and air dried oaks are sourced from the same oak variant but undergo different drying processes.

By definition, green oak is unseasoned oak, while air dried oak is as the name suggests dry oak. Air dried oak undergoes three to six months of air drying. As such, air dried oak takes longer to prepare and is considerably pricier than green oak. Another significant difference between green and air dried oak is that green oak has higher water content. Since green oak does not undergo any drying process, it contains more water than air dried. This means green oak is more flexible than air dried oak. However, due to its water content, green oak is not as hard as air dried oak. Continue reading Difference between green and dried oak beams →

Building a basic wall is one of the first things construction workers learn. While it is not a difficult job, it does require patience and planning in order to get right the first time.

The first thing to consider when building a wall is the foundation. The minimum thickness of a foundation used anywhere on, in or around a property is 150mm (6 inches). This thickness, providing the wall is not loadbearing, will be enough to ensure your foundation will not crack.

A foundation trench is needed to lay the initial bricks in. Its important that the trench is dug with a flat smooth bottom and the thickness of the concrete is the same throughout the length of the foundation.

Mortar is then needed to set the bricks in place. Place a layer, of mortar on the concrete foundation. Then build the wall up, using a spirit level to keep it straight.