Back to Haunt Us

Following on from yesterday, the discussion between the Groundworks contractor and the Building Inspector took another twist today. Subject of the discussion was repositioning of the land-drain which is a departure from the specification provided by the structural engineer. Yesterday, the two of them agreed that the nature of the terrain lent itself to doing this differently from the way specified. The Contractor today made a call to the Structural Engineer to discuss this. Unfortunately he was not available, but he called Jan back later this afternoon. He explained to Jan, that because we had disputed his fees back in March (see my March 16th blog entry) he was now not in a position to enter into any further discussions about this project unless we paid him ! We just knew that disputing that bill would come back to haunt us. !

Fortunately a discussion between Jan and the Groundworks contractor established that this was really only a courtesy "notification" call, so nothing more is needed. However, I can see that if we need any serious further input from the Structural Engineers, we will pay through the nose for it.

Todays activity has concluded the digging out of the two gaps for building the underpinning piers. A jack hammer and air compressor was needed to remove real rock, much to Jan's disgust who thought that to leave the rock in place and use less concrete was the "sensible" way forward. Unfortunately building regs dictate that it cannot be done this way. It makes you think that the old way, where common sense prevailed, was in some ways much better.

Once the gaps were open, damp proof membrane, steel grid, and concrete was laid as the basis for the pillers. They hope to get them built tomorrow, so that they can set over the weekend.