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The connections for sanitary appliances must be catered for early in the construction sequence. Here we see the soil pipe for a WC passing through the ground floor and external wall below ground level. The connections to the pipe will be made later. The black box-shaped object behind the soil pipe is a vent for the under floor void. This allows moisture vapour to escape, thus preventing the occurrence of odours. In areas where there is likely to be a problem with radon gas building up within the floor void, special requirements for ventilation must be achieved.
After the foundations have been placed the next stage of the building process is to construct the external walls up to dpc level. Once this is completed the ground floor can be formed before building the external walls.
As the formation of the external walls proceeds it becomes necessary to ensure that access can be gained to the upper sections of the building. This is effected by the use of scaffolding. Here we see construction at the ‘first lift’ stage. The erection of scaffolding proceeds in lifts as the building is constructed.
Below we see the construction at the stage of building the upper wall sections. Note that there are now two levels of working platform visible on the scaffolding. These are the first and second lift stages. Openings for windows and doors are formed as work proceeds by building around the frames themselves or by using opening formers that will be removed later. You may be able to see the insulation that is being installed into the cavity of the wall – it is pale pink in colour. At this stage it is possible that the upper floor structure has been installed; this provides a working platform within the building.
The upper wall areas are nearing completion. The windows and doors are visible in the external envelope with the steel lintels clearly seen above the first floor openings. Note that the gable wall is being constructed using a single roof truss as a template. The remaining trusses will be placed after the walls have been completed. Note also that some parts of the external walls are formed in concrete block instead of brick. This is because they are intended to receive a coating of weatherproof render.
The exterior elements of the building are nearing completion. The roof has been covered with interlocking tiles and the verge has been sealed with dry closing system. The internal elements will now be completed, including partitions, services installations, finishes and decoration.
