Slight Correction From Yesterday

By the time I got home yesterday it was dark, so please forgive me for the misleading information in yesterdays blog entry. The base for the back retaining wall had not been cast. In fact what I could see, and is shown in yesterdays photo, was the prepared, levelled and compacted ground which is then covered in a layer of gravel.

As you can see from this pair of todays photographs, a bewildering array of metal work was then installed on top, connected into the rocky back-wall of the site, and also carried through into last weeks pile beams :

Once again the vertical bars are "starter bars" designed to connect into the retaining wall. They are at 100mm centres, which the contractors were surprised at - more normal is 200mm. They reiterated what the pilers said before Christmas - these foundations would be suitable for a multi-storey car park ! We have no worries about them being up to the job.

Later in the afternoon (following an assumed visit by the buildings inspector, who likes to see the steelwork) it was all buried under concrete. They used manpower instead of a pump - 3 in the hole with shovels, one using a wheebarrow and one filling the digger bucket. Rather a nifty improvised slide too :

We received one complaint from neighbours about the fact that the road was blocked. Apparently some people coming up the lane from the church had to reverse back down and go a different way. They must have had one of those cars without a reverse gear I suppose ! To keep the peace we have asked the contractors to post a "Road Closed" sign at the bottom of the hill next time.

One last thing that came out of today. The groundworks contractor reminded me about a comment I made right at the beginning of the project, that the builder was proposing to use a different wall construction from that specified in the design. Apparently, as designed, it is a painful construction which can be eased by making some adjustments to the widths of the various bits. I will cover this in more detail some other day, but suffice to say the groundworks contractor wanted some information as it impacts the positioning of the retaining wall. The retaining wall is a double skin, with the gap between filled with concrete. The crucial bit is that the inside of the inner retaining wall forms the outside edge of the cavity, which, of course, must be continuous and vertical throughout the full height of the building. I spoke to the builder and obtained the necessary information, but there are still a couple of questions, so he is coming on site to discuss it on Friday.

I have said it before in this blog, and will say again how impressed we are with this groundworks team. The fact that they remembered this small point from the very beginning of the job, and then realised that it was important. I'm sure many others would simply have built to the plans using the "not my problem mate" logic.