Where we are now
We have not had anyone on site the last few days however bricklayers are due to start later this week . I ordered blocks, sand and cement last week and took delivery today – just hope they turn up!
I have a chap from Architectural Bronze Casements coming to see us on Friday, I have been looking at Oak framed windows with Oak sashes but last week we were invited to view Oak frame house that has not long been completed and they had Bronze casements fitted into Oak frames and they looked fantastic. Not only do the bronze casements look great but they are going to need a lot less maintenance than the Oak sashes but they have all the benefits of high end double glazing but, unfortunately at a cost!
Welsh Oak are still planning on a 24th March delivery for the frame, however I still have not had confirmation from the council that the my brick choice has been approved – so 21 day and counting, I hope they get their fingers out.
In the meantime I am getting quotes for the heating, I was going to go real green and have a ground source heat pump but whilst there are some running cost savings the initial outlay is just so high. Still not something I have to worry about right now but I will have to make a decision soon.
Concreted footings today
3 day’s in and things have gone well.
We hit chalk at around 800 mm in the majority of the excavation except on the chimney side where we went down 1 meter and left it for the DS and NHBC inspection.
The District Surveyor was OK with everything but requested another .5 of a meter in the chimney end and then signed off for concreting. The NHBC Surveyor however required has to go a meter all round and agreed with the DS on the chimney end, as it was still early in the afternoon there was plenty of time to get the required work done.
So first thing this morning the first of 7 mixers arrived, they could not get them right up close so had to user a dumper to run a pour. Never the less pouring was completed by a liitle past 5 pm.
The bricklayers are coming out tomorrow to make sure the footing are OK and to firm up the price and we should be good to go getting up to DPC after the weekend.
Ground works start today.
Got started today. The ground workers delivered their plant on Saturday and I met them first thing this morning to assist with the marking the site out. We soon realised I had cocked up and one of the sheds was just to close to the site so it had to come down before we could mark the site out proper.
Chris then spent the rest of the day scraping off the top spoil and making a start on the actual footings.
We expect to get the footings completed by late tomorrow and I have today arranged a site visit by both NHBC and building control and as we have hit chalk at just over 800 mm we should be able to get the concrete delivered on Wednesday.
Looks like a building site…….
Well nearly!
Temporary Gates
Looks like we are set to start excavating the footing on on Monday week.
Spent a few hours yesterday taking a couple of panels out of the fence to make an easier access for the lorries as the existing drive is to tight.
Replaced them with some site security fencing, probably wont stop much but it is better than an open driveway.
At this rate I should be able to post daily in a week or so!
