Skip to the rise
Section through the ground under a floor: sub-base, blinding, insulation, slab, screed and finish standing on the formation line, each boundary marked in millimetres from the datum. datum 0 Finish Screed Slab Insulation Blinding Sub-base 150 135 70 −80 −180 −205 −355
Drawn to the figures in the levels panel below. Change a thickness there and this is redrawn.

Domestic housebuilding · Edinburgh

Livingston Park raises houses in Edinburgh, formation to keys

New-build houses and substantial extensions. One team runs a plot from the first peg to the day the keys change hands, and this page is laid out in that order.

The office is at Blackrock House in Morningside. Write to works@livingstonpark.live; the site number goes to the client and every trade at the pre-start meeting.

  1. New-build housesDetached and semi-detached, on single plots, warrant to completion certificate.
  2. Substantial extensionsNew foundations, structural openings, drainage altered to suit.
  3. Groundworks and drainageSetting out, excavation, foundations, oversite, and the runs to the connection.

The company, in the registry

Company number
SC733091
D‑U‑N‑S number
228955194
Incorporated
20 May 2022, Scotland
Registered activity
SIC 41202, construction of domestic buildings
Registered office
Blackrock House, 2-8 Millar Crescent, Edinburgh EH10 5HW
The office
works@livingstonpark.live

Livingston Park, and how this page climbs

LIVINGSTON PARK LTD raises new domestic houses, and extensions that need a warrant of their own, in Edinburgh and the councils around it.

Everything below is one house going up, in the order it happens: down to formation, up through structure, then indoors. Enquiries reach the office at works@livingstonpark.live.

What has to be in place before the dig

A warrant is granted before work begins, and the drawings issued with it govern everything after. We read them against the plot: levels, boundaries, existing drainage, where the house sits. Where drawing and ground disagree the question goes back to the designer, as a warrant amendment, before a spade goes in.

  1. The approved plansSite plan, floor plans, elevations and sections, each stamped and carrying a revision letter.
  2. Structural calculationsFoundation sizes, lintels, joist spans and the roof design, read alongside the drawings.
  3. The written specificationMaterials, build-ups and workmanship clauses — details no plan can show.
  4. The energy assessmentInsulation values and airtightness, built into the fabric as it goes up.

What a Scottish warrant settles is on the warrant page.

The first line on the ground

Setting out starts from the boundary and the site datum. A temporary bench mark goes on something that will not move, and every level is taken from it. Profiles stand clear of the dig, ranging lines run between them, corners squared by diagonal.

Plant moves pegs, so the setting out is re-checked once tracked machines have been on the ground. Nothing is poured until the offsets read the same twice.

Plan of a plot with the house footprint set out inside it: profile boards clear of each corner, ranging lines between them, offsets from the boundary to the wall face. offset offset house footprint ranging line boundary profile
Corner pegs shown filled. The ranging lines run between the profile boards, not between the pegs.

Down to formation: what the ground gives

Topsoil comes off and is stacked on its own. Excavation follows the trench lines to the depth the ground gives, which is not always the depth drawn, and building standards see the trench open before concrete is placed.

What the dig turns up, and where the answer comes from.
Found in the trenchWhat it changesWho settles it
A soft spotThe dig carries on past the drawn depth until firm formation is reached under it.The engineer, on site
Made groundThe foundation is re-designed for what is there, not deepened on the day.The engineer, by amendment
An old field drainThe run is re-routed or picked up, and its position goes in the completion file.Us, with building standards told
Tree rootsThe foundation moves away from the tree, or goes deeper to the engineer's detail.The engineer, on site
RockA shallower dig, different plant, a formation cleaned off rather than trimmed.Us, on the day

Foundations are poured against firm, undisturbed formation; blockwork then rises to damp-proof course. More on trial holes is on the ground page.

Everything that must pass under the slab

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 the fall we actually have.

Pipes are bedded in granular material and no trench is backfilled until its run has been tested. Chambers go in at every junction and change of direction, so the system can be rodded later.

A foul run falling from the house to the connection, with chambers at the house, at a change of direction, and at the boundary. house CH1 CH2 CH3 connection the run is set out backwards, from the connection to the house
The invert steps down left to right because the fall is taken from the connection back towards the building.

Up from the damp-proof course

Above damp-proof course the shell rises in the order the loads travel. Ties, cavity trays, closers and lintels are set as the courses go up, because none can be threaded in afterwards. Joists are hung, strutted and decked; the roof is then braced, felted, battened and covered.

Section through a cavity wall, outside in: outer leaf, clear cavity, insulation against the inner leaf, inner leaf. Ties cross the cavity, a lintel spans the opening, a joist bears on the inner leaf, and the damp-proof course runs under all of it. outer leaf clear cavity insulation, tight to the leaf inner leaf lintel over the opening ties joist damp-proof course
The cavity is drawn clear because keeping it clear is the work.

The day the weather stops mattering

Wind-and-watertight is a narrow milestone, and the programme hangs on it: once the building is closed the structure starts drying, and the sequence indoors becomes ours to control.

What the milestone covers, and what is still live that day.
Closed to the weatherRoof covering on, windows and external doors fitted, the building shut.
Still outstandingVerges, rainwater goods, harling and external works, each with its own run after the date.
What it releasesInternal trades start, and first fix runs alongside the drying out.

Every level is a subtraction from the datum

We work down from finished floor level through each layer to formation; the difference is the depth of the dig. Change a thickness and the levels beneath it move, here and in the section at the head of the page.

Datum level, in millimetres above or below the site datum

Layer thicknesses beneath it, in millimetres

Floor finish
150 mm, the finished floor level itself
Screed
150 − 15 = 135 mm
Slab
135 − 65 = 70 mm
Insulation
70 − 150 = −80 mm
Sand blinding
−80 − 100 = −180 mm
Sub-base
−180 − 25 = −205 mm
Formation level
−205 − 150 = −355 mm
Depth below finished floor
150 − (−355) = 505 mm
The build-up laid flat, sub-base left to finish right, each segment as wide as its share of the depth. 150 100 150 65 Sub-base Insulation Slab Screed formation on the left, finished floor on the right
A layer with no room for its name is left unlabelled rather than crowded.

The figures are the ones you typed, subtracted in order. The depth actually dug is settled by the trial hole and the engineer's foundation detail.

The order the rise runs in

A house is built in one order, and most of its joints are not negotiable. Pick a stage and the list marks what finishes first, what runs alongside, and what waits. No duration is attached: that belongs to one plot.

  1. 01Setting out and profilesBoundary and datum fixed before any peg goes in.
  2. 02Excavation to formationNot until the setting out is re-checked after tracked plant.
  3. 03Foundations pouredNot until building standards have seen the trench open.
  4. 04Substructure to damp-proof courseAs soon as the concrete has gone off and the trench is signed away.
  5. 05Drainage runs and the connectionSet out backwards from the connection, and tested before backfill.
  6. 06Oversite build-up and slabNot until everything under the slab is in and tested.
  7. 07External walls and floor joistsAs soon as the damp-proof course is in and the oversite closed.
  8. 08Roof carcass and coveringNot until the walls are up and the scaffold lift checked.
  9. 09Windows and external doorsAs soon as the openings are formed and the lintels bedded.
  10. 10First fix and plasterNot until the building is wind-and-watertight and the deck dry.
  11. 11Second fix and decorationNot until the plaster has dried in its own time.
  12. 12Snagging and handoverAs soon as inspections, drainage tests and certification are in hand.

Stage 07, external walls and floor joists. Six before it, none alongside, five after.

The two overlaps that really happen

Drainage goes in while substructure blockwork rises — both are below ground and the same dig serves them. Windows go in while the roof is covered, because the openings are formed and the scaffold is up.

On a live plot the order is settled by the warrant conditions, the ground, and the trades free that week. The same run is in prose on the order of work page.

Buried, closed over, then finished

Indoors the work splits in two around the plaster. First fix is everything buried before the walls close over it; second fix begins once those walls are dry. Forcing the heating before the plaster has dried opens cracks that are then made good twice, so it waits.

The two runs of work indoors.
First fixSecond fix
Goes inSoil stacks, services, heating pipework and the electrical carcass, against the drawing.Doors hung, skirtings scribed, sanitaryware, radiators and the consumer unit tested.
Agreed firstNotches and holes through joists, cut where permitted and nowhere else.Worktops templated once the units are level and fixed down.
Closes itInsulation between and over, vapour layer lapped and taped, plasterboard, then skim.Decoration follows the joiner; the last coat waits for every trade that could mark it.
Runs outsideScaffold struck once the work above it is done.Harling, paths and driveway, while the inside is decorated.

Inspections, and what each one releases

Building standards inspections run right through a job, and the completion certificate depends on each being made at the proper stage.

Each visit releases the next piece of work.
Trench openReleases the foundation pour.
Drainage testedReleases backfill, and then the oversite over it.
Final inspectionBooked once drainage tests, certification and commissioning are in hand.
HandoverKeys, warranties, the operating and maintenance information and as-built drawings, together.

Snagging is walked with the client, written into one list, and worked through in a single pass. Anything appearing later falls under the defects arrangement in the contract.

Getting in touch

Write to works@livingstonpark.live — read at the office, where the drawings and the paperwork are kept, and the way in for a plot, a granted warrant, or an extension still being thought about. Use the office for anything on paper and the site number for anything happening today.