Livingston Park, housebuilding in Edinburgh

LIVINGSTON PARK LTD is a small housebuilding company working in Edinburgh and the councils around it. The office is at Blackrock House, 2-8 Millar Crescent, in Morningside, and the registered office is that same address. We build new domestic houses and substantial extensions to existing ones. Each job is taken from the warrant drawings through groundworks, structure and fit-out to completion, with one team running it from the setting out to the handover.

Enquiries reach the office at works@livingstonpark.live. The site number is handed to the client and to every trade at the pre-start meeting.

What arrives from the design team

A building warrant is granted before work begins, and the drawings issued with it govern everything that follows. We read them against the plot itself: levels, boundaries, existing drainage, and the position of the house on the site. Structural calculations, the energy assessment and the written specification are checked at the same time, because they carry details the plans do not show.

Where the drawing and the ground disagree, the question goes back to the designer before a spade goes in. Changes are handled as warrant amendments and not as site decisions. That is why a drawing register is opened on the first day and kept current, with superseded sheets pulled out of the site file as soon as a revision lands.

Pegs, profiles and the first line on the ground

Setting out starts from two things we can trust: the boundary and the site datum. A temporary bench mark is fixed on something that will not move, usually a manhole cover or a kerb, and every level on the job is then taken from it. Profiles go up well clear of the dig, ranging lines are strung between them, and the corners are squared by diagonal measurement. We re-check the setting out after tracked plant has been on the ground, because plant moves pegs. Nothing is poured until the offsets read the same twice.

Excavation, formation and foundations

Topsoil comes off first and is stacked on its own, since it cannot go back under a slab. Excavation follows the trench lines down to the depth the ground gives us, which is not always the depth drawn. Soft spots, made ground, old field drains and tree roots all change it, and building standards see the trench open before any concrete is placed.

Foundations are poured against firm, undisturbed formation. As soon as the concrete has gone off, substructure blockwork rises to damp-proof course level and the cavity below ground is filled as specified. The oversite build-up then goes in layer by layer, each one levelled from the datum and each one checked before the next covers it.

Runs, falls and the connection

Foul and surface water stay separate from the first length of pipe to the last. Runs are set out backwards from the connection, so the invert at the house follows from the fall we actually have on site. Pipes are bedded and surrounded in granular material, and a trench is not backfilled until the run it holds has been tested. Inspection chambers go in at every junction and change of direction, so the system can be rodded later. Soakaways are sized and sited to the ground found in the trial hole, and their position is recorded for the completion file.

Blockwork, joists and the roof carcass

Above damp-proof course the shell rises in the order the loads travel. External walls are built in blockwork with the cavity kept clean and the insulation held tight against the inner leaf. Wall ties, cavity trays, closers and lintels are set as the courses go up, because none of them can be threaded in afterwards.

Floor joists are hung, strutted and decked, and the deck is protected as soon as it is down. The roof is cut on site or craned in as trusses, then braced, felted, battened and covered. Scaffold lifts are raised as the walls gain height, and no course is laid off a lift that has not been checked.

Wind-and-watertight, and what it settles

Wind-and-watertight is a milestone on the programme, and it is a narrow one. It means the roof covering is on, the windows and external doors are fitted, and the building is closed to the weather. It does not describe a finished shell: verges, rainwater goods, harling and external works can all still be outstanding on that day.

Internal trades cannot make a proper start until the building is dry, so this is the date the rest of the programme hangs on. As soon as it is reached the structure begins drying out, first fix can run alongside that, and the sequence indoors becomes ours to control instead of the weather's.

Levels from the datum

Every level on a domestic job is a subtraction from the datum. We work down from the finished floor level through each layer of the oversite build-up until we reach formation, and the difference between those two figures is the depth of the dig. The working below does that subtraction and shows each line of it. Change any thickness and the levels beneath it move.

First fix, and the walls closing over it

First fix is everything that has to be buried before the walls close over it. Notches and holes through joists are cut where they are permitted and nowhere else, and the runs are agreed between trades before drilling starts. Soil stacks, hot and cold services, heating pipework and the electrical carcass all go in against the drawing.

Insulation is fitted between and over, then the vapour control layer is lapped and taped where it has to stay continuous. Plasterboard follows, then the skim. Not until the plaster has dried out do we run the heating up to temperature, because forcing it early opens cracks that then have to be made good twice.

Second fix, and the last coat

Second fix begins on dry, sound walls. Doors are hung, skirtings and facings are fitted and scribed, and sanitaryware, radiators and the consumer unit are connected and tested. The kitchen goes in as a set piece, with worktops templated only after the units are level and fixed down.

Decoration follows the joiner through the house, and the last coat waits until every trade that could mark it has finished and left. Floor coverings are laid last of all. Outside, harling, paths and the driveway are taken forward while the inside is being decorated, so the two runs of work do not queue behind each other.

Inspections, snagging and the handover

Building standards inspections run right through the job and not only at the end, and the completion certificate depends on each one being made at the proper stage. The final inspection is booked once drainage tests, electrical certification and the commissioning paperwork are in hand.

Snagging is walked with the client, written into one list, and then worked through in a single pass by the trades concerned. Keys, warranties, the operating and maintenance information and the as-built drawings are handed over together. Anything that appears afterwards is dealt with under the defects arrangement set out in the contract.

Getting in touch

Write to works@livingstonpark.live. That address is read at the office, where the drawings, the programme and the paperwork are kept, and it is the right way in for a plot, a granted warrant, or an extension still being thought about.

The site number is answered from the site by the person running the work, so it is worth using once a job is live and there is something on the ground to discuss. Use the office for anything on paper and the site for anything happening today. The office is at Blackrock House, 2-8 Millar Crescent, Edinburgh EH10 5HW.