Painting: Ceilings and Electrics - 2nd Fix: part 1

Although we had planned to do all the taping and jointing of the ceilings ourselves, contracting a specialist to do the work had turned out to be the right move. The build had progressed much more quickly and seeing all the ceilings smooth and ready for painting also helped revive our flagging motivation after a long winter of non-stop boarding.

We were working to a tight deadline; we had an engineer booked to commission the heating system, but he needed the electrics completed first and the electricians in turn, wanted the ceilings finished in order to fit the downlights. In amongst all that, we also needed to get Western Power to come and hook up the permanent power supply to our new house before the electrics could be certified... 

Before painting the first coat of paint, we inspected each ceiling in fine detail and corrected any minor imperfections. We wanted the ceilings to be as good as possible so sanded down any paint runs or roller marks from the plasterboard sealer and filled any small pockmarks, especially in corners.     

The dark patches are small areas of filler. Luckily the ceilings didn't require much treatment so were soon ready for their first coat of paint.

No matter how good the taping and jointing (and we were pretty pleased with ours), certain light conditions can make the joint lines slightly visible. In order to combat this, we chose an extremely flat matt paint (Dulux Ultra Matt). Although a little costly, this paint has an 'ultra' low sheen level and is designed to conceal even the smallest imperfections, especially under difficult lighting conditions.  

Armed with a set of good quality rollers and brushes, we were finally ready to paint the first coat. Alan did the cutting in around the edges with brushes, while I followed closely behind with rollers.  

With two of us painting in tandem, it was much easier to maintain a 'wet edge' and therefore avoid any flashing or roller marks. 

We worked quickly as the painting needed to be completed before the electricians returned the following week to do the 2nd fix. A lot of the rooms will be having downlighters installed into the ceilings, so painting everything in advance is much easier and neater, than trying to paint around dozens of fittings once they are in place.

The kitchen/diner looked a bit patchy after the first coat of Ultra Matt... 

... but the second coat really went on well and gave us a smooth, unblemished finish with no sign of any joints. 

Second coat going on in the lounge. 

Second coat completed.

One of the reasons we chose the Dulux Ultra Matt was that it comes in a standard white rather than the 'brilliant white' used by other manufacturers of flat matt paints. Our windows are a softer shade of white, so brilliant white, which uses a hint of blue to look brighter, might have looked too stark alongside them. We also felt a standard white would go better with the paint shades we will later be using for the walls. 

Bedroom 3 ceiling after its second coat.

As part of the 2nd fix, the electricians would also be installing all the switches and sockets. Since we hadn't completed the finish for the walls yet, Alan added a layer of Fine Surface Treatment (Fermacell's finishing compound) just to the areas around the back boxes.





The Fermacell board is slightly rough-textured, so the Fine Surface Treatment is used to get smooth walls without skimming (see close up pic below to see the contrast).

Doing the areas around the back boxes, should mean that we won't have to completely remove any sockets and switches when it comes to finishing the rest of the walls. A lot of the sockets will have multiple wires and connectors squashed in a small place, so dismantling them all after they have been properly fitted and signed off by the electricians would not be ideal.  





The following week, our electricians Aaron and Arron (yes, it causes much confusion) returned to do the 2nd fix. Their first job was to install all the downlights which meant drilling lots of holes into our lovely smooth ceilings (gulp!).

They had drawn a detailed plan of where all the lights would be installed during the 1st fix (and we had our own measurements too, just in case). Once the locations were established on the ceiling, the circumference of the holes to be drilled was marked out and a sharp bradawl pushed into the plasterboard around the circle, just to make certain that there wasn't anything behind there that shouldn't be. All being well, they would drill into the plasterboard, avoid hitting any cables, pipes or joists and find a wiring tail coiled in place ready to be hooked up...





So far, so good, The lounge wires were exactly where they should be. We were quite careful to leave the cables in an accessible space when boarding and insulating the ceilings.

Quick test of the lighting circuit. All the downlights in the house are LED and we used dimmable ones in the lounge.





Holes drilled in the kitchen and all cables pulled down in preparation for wiring the downlights.

The downlights in the kitchen are aligned directly above where the kitchen countertops and island will be located. 

Building regulations also require a heat detector in the kitchen (covered in the picture with a blue plastic cover to prevent dust getting into it during building works) along with hard-wired smoke detectors in the hall and landing. 

These LED downlights made by JCC are extremely efficient on power; they only use 6w and are guaranteed to last 10 years. The manufacturers claim they should last over 75,000 hours, which at 6 hours use per day would equate to 34 years! 

Never having to change any lightbulbs comes at a price of course... but as a new build, the regulations demand we fit 75% low energy lighting so using LED makes sense. As ever, we also managed to thrash out a good deal for the lights by pitching several electrical suppliers against each other.  

Most LED lights are available in different colour temperatures. We used 'warm white' for a softer feel in the living areas, but opted to go for the starker, fresher effect of 'cool white' in the bathrooms.

Upstairs, the electricians recommended that the extra-dense insulation below the attic room be cut away slightly to ensure good air circulation around the downlights. We hadn't screwed down the attic floor yet so it wasn't too hard for us to make the necessary changes from the loft.  

Bedroom 3 downlights installed. We positioned them quite close to the ceiling edge so that they wash an arc of light down the walls. The two banks of lights on either side of the room can also be controlled separately for extra flexibility.

Exactly the same layout mirrored in bedroom 2.

Once the downlights were installed, the electricians concentrated on getting all the switches and sockets wired up. We will be having a number of wall lights installed too, but we hadn't chosen those yet, so the electricians will return at a later date to finish.

We chose stainless steel flat plate sockets and switches. They can be pricey but our electrical supplier, (in a rare moment of generosity/insanity) decided to match the cheapest internet price we could find, so once again we were able to make some serious savings. 

We told the Aarons not to bother straightening or tightening up any of the sockets because we would be removing them (but not disconnecting them) in order to finish and paint the walls. 

Sockets and switches fitted in the lounge. All electrical work in a new build has to be certified by an electrician, but AV cabling for TVs and computers does not, so to save money we did that ourselves.

Alan fitted the sockets for all the AV cabling. During the 1st fix, we had installed cables for TV aerial sockets to most rooms and the lounge had additional audio wiring for surround sound speakers.

We had also sent CAT5e cable to most rooms and this can be used for computer networks &/or telephone. Although much can be done wirelessly nowadays, having a hard-wired network is still useful, especially since we plan to centralise all our computer storage at a later date. 

Although you can buy specialist modules for connecting almost anything, not all the sockets we wanted were available in the flat plate range we chose, so Alan made up some of his own. 

He marked up the centre of plain plastic blanking module...

... drilled a hole and fitted the required socket (in this case a phono plug)...

... then clipped the module neatly into one of the blank faceplates.

Drilling and fitting all these connectors into one main surround sound backplate would not be so straightforward, so this would have to wait until later. 

We positioned the sockets for the surround sound speakers directly above the electrical sockets; note the Indiana Jones-type ethereal glow from the window marking the central speaker location.

In the (long) period between the 1st and 2nd fix electrics, we installed extra cabling for some boost switches to the central extraction unit up in the loft. Luckily the electricians were happy to sign off our work. The boost switch is in the centre of this pic... 

      

... and you have to look closely to notice the subtle difference. As a modular system, it's possible to replace the plain switch with a range of pre-printed ones.    

The electricians also fitted the digital thermostats for the underfloor heating system. These touchscreen controls are fitted all over the house and allow you to precisely control the temperature required in each room. 

Wireless thermostats are available, but these eat batteries and can also be unreliable, so we were glad we went for hard-wired stats instead. Arron connected up all the cabling for the thermostats to a control box next to the underfloor heating manifold.   

The electricians also installed the manifold actuators; these are the 'switches' connected to the control box that adjust the flow of hot water around the separate underfloor heating loops according to the thermostat settings.  

The first floor manifold up in the landing cupboard has more loops than the ground floor one but is otherwise identical. 

The heating engineer was scheduled to return to commission the heat pump the following week, so all the electrical work for the heating system needed to be completed before then, including an isolator switch for the heat pump.

In the study, fitting the consumer unit (or fuse box, as it used to be called) meant the huge tangle of cabling could finally be sorted out.

The electricians did some very neat wiring inside the consumer unit (the thick black armoured cable that powers the shed was moved, as this does not connect directly to the consumer unit).

While the electricians worked inside, we got everything ready for the permanent power connection. During their initial visit in the early stages of the build, Western Power had re-routed the overhead power line to a temporary outside box; now finally it was time to install a permanent power connection to the new house.

Western Power had left enough cable coiled next to the temporary box to reach the new meter location; all we needed to do was dig a short trench for it. 

With only a couple of days before the heating was due to be commissioned, we were relieved that Western Power arrived on schedule.

We still needed an electricity supply to the old house; this meant having two properties powered by one meter which was causing a few headaches and potentially some extra costs. Luckily Western Power (after some gentle bribery with tea and biscuits) were happy to sort it out for us.

After years of hanging an extension lead through the window, the new house finally has its own power supply. 

The last job was to reconnect power to the old house. We cobbled together a temporary solution using the old site box and the Aarons hooked it all up.