Groundworks - The Home Straight

My apologies for the lack of blogging over the last few days. Things have been progressing well, but it was a hectic week and I didn't get around to writing anything.

As shown in the first of the below photographs, the retaining walls were completed by Wednesday, including the single row at the front of the site, to contain the floor-slab. The picture shows the gaps for the patio doors. We have part guessed and part worked out the sizes for these gaps, with reference to a quote we have for windows and doors (only one quote so far) and Jan making contact with a local stone mullion manufacturer.

The base of the site has been levelled and covered in a layer of stone chippings in readiness for the pouring of the slab. The white coiled pipe is the end of the land drain :

Since Wednesday a layer of sand has been spread over the site, now covered with polythene sheeting (temporary I think - to keep out the weather) and the drainage installed. These are collection points for the downpipes from the gutters, and the land drain, which are carried away to a soakaway that has been dug a couple of metres down slope.

As you can see from this picture from today, it looks like a proper building site now :

When I spoke to the contractor last week they were expecting to install the steel mesh for the floor slab today, with concrete to be poured tomorrow. I think there has probably been a change of plan though, as the steelwork has not arrived. In fact all that has happened today is that the mini-digger has disappeared - hopefully for use on another job, not stolen !

The plan is to part fill the retaining wall and do the floor slab in one operation using a concrete pump. The rest of the retaining wall will be done by barrow later. It can't be done all in one go as the weight of concrete would blow the wall apart at it's base. Also, the stepped construction of the wall to the left of the picture makes it difficult.

Once the concrete in the retaining walls has gone off, the gap between the wall and the excavated ground can be back-filled and then the groundworks is more or less complete. Mid to end of next week I reckon, depending on the weather, and pressure of other jobs.