The trench digging begins...
The first trenches, very rocky soil, have hit bedrock in places |
Shuttering in the rear trench |
Not the nicest of working conditions! |
Plywood laid to allow wheelbarrows across the mud |
The rear trench viewed from the neighbours drive |
More trenches dug and more shuttering in place |
We now know where the neighbours drain runs :) |
The start of our house, or a recreation of WW2 trenches ? |
Reversing on site didn't work - no room to turn ! |
The first pour starts, sun shining through the cement dust |
Fed up with the builder so we stuck him in the foundations. |
First of six truckloads ! |
The concrete only flows to a certain extent, lots of raking required |
Ruby, the builder's dog, keeping a watchful eye on proceedings |
The end of a long day, 51.2 cubic metres of concrete in position |
Building up to damp proof level |
Floor slab will be level with top of these footings |
Footing courses being laid |
Emma getting stuck in filling cavities with concrete |
Small radon sumps with ventilation pipes |
My first attempt at block laying |
Back by popular demand - more photos of Ruby ! | An air supply for the living room fireplace. Apparently you are supposed to have vents from two different walls, that pass into a mixing chamber, so that's what we have done. A vertical pipe will drop through the floor into the hole. |
A maze of pipework - foul drains, radon vents, and air supplies for the fireplaces. |
Filling up nicely with crushed and compacted hardcore |
...and now we have a floor ! Another 21 cubic metres of concrete... |
The steels for the retaining wall can be clearly seen here. In photos above you may have noticed the concrete slab is deeper at the rear - this is why. |
The first quoins and walling stone are laid using a lime mortar. Mortar is still wet in this photo - will dry to a lighter grey. | And the start of the walling marks the end of the groundworks stage. We are now officially "out of the ground", guess that means I should start another photo page ! |
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