292 - Concrete and Breaking Through!

Euan getting the last of the steel rod beams in place and the concrete truck is on its way.

All ready and waiting.

Done.

Breaking through the wall.

I went on-site a couple of days ago and Euan was finishing off the steel rod beams as the concrete truck was literally minutes away. I went back this morning and all the concrete has been done. All the holes and ditches are filled and now we wait for the block layer to start the block work. Until then, Euan has broken through the exterior wall (eek!) to start fixing some of the existing lower cladding. Hopefully we can start seeing some framing going up next week. Fingers crossed.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

292 - Footings for Foundation

Messy site - ditches and holes eveywhere.

New drain.

Steel rod beams in place for more strength and structure.

Note the water at the front of the photo - coming from the springs underneath.

It is looking pretty messy at 292 right now...

While digging the holes for the new footings, it was noted the ground at the front of the section is rather soft. So on-site quickly came the Engineer, Architect Dad, Builder and Digger all at one time to sort the problem out.

You can see the start of the solution with the steel rod beams put into place to give more structure when the concrete is poured into the ground. These will be attached to vertical steel rods that go down the deep holes.

And just to make it harder - while digging down the 1800mm holes, it is filling with water due to the springs below, so the collection of wet silt at the bottom has to be dug out so that the concrete can go all the way down and stay solid for the years to come. Euan has his work cut out for him right now. Oh dear.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.