Still no Concrete

Preparatory work has continued today - cutting off the pile caps to the right level, and building the steel reinforcement inside the trenches. Progress seems slow, but it appears that no concrete pump is available until Friday, so they have time on their hands. So long as I don't end up paying for it, I don't mind !

The steelwork inside the main beam is complete, as shown in this picture :

The "Starter bars" that I spoke of yesterday are still to do, but they have all day tomorrow so it should not be a problem. My guess is that they are on a pre-Christmas wind down and don't want to be sent off for a day on another job. One of them actually mentioned that he didn't fancy spending a "day down the yard" - they would probably be asked to do some clearing up or something !

The structural engineer paid us a visit, and asked for extra horizontal steels to be inserted to join one of the beams into the slab under the existing wall underpinning. The groundworks contractor will return tomorrow to do this.

The buildings inspector is due up tomorrow morning, to check over the shuttering and steelwork prior to the concrete pour on Friday. I will be away over Christmas, so will not be witness to this major milestone. Next blog entry will probably be Boxing Day, and will hopefully feature pictures of the finished product.