The last 3 days went really well and we managed to achieve what we set out to. Having had a site visit from our civil engineer Mike last night, we are on track for the delivery of the metal work and concrete for the foundation to be built within the next couple of weeks.(M&BContractors)
The weather changed yesterday and became cooler and we had some rain.
Today we need to contact the architect for the finished height of the building to know how far out of the ground we need to come with the raft.
I have been reading through several excellent books on house building and I am working through my 'to do' lists so as we have an easier time. I will add some photographs later.
Well, up again early today. JCB driver here before 8am which got us all moving.
The hole in the garden grew huge within hours and I contactede the building inspector to check that we had dug down to the required depth.
Building inspector arrived early enough for us to manage to get hardcore to then fill the hole back up.
We hired a roller to compact the hardcore and fletten the surface.
It took 4 x 18 tonne lorry loads to fill the base to the required height before the stone arrives.
We also got the Inspector to check the treatment plant percolation holes and test results which are well within limits.
The site has to be secured every night which takes a while to do
Before
It's been a long time since we first looked at the plans but we have been making slow progress behind the scenes. We have visited the Grand Designs show and two of the House Building and renovation shows.
We live in what was a coal mining area so we needed a site investigation doing (this involves a very large peice of machinery drilling down into the earth to reveal the make up of the ground. This was carried out by NKCgeotech last April (2010) ( a good website to look at if you are interested in geology/ history and lots of great photos)
What was revealed was that there were horizontal tunnels running deep down within the ground below our plot. These were then grouted via the drill holes which were lined with a pipe then
4 ready mix concrete lorries later filled with a 4 2 1 mix to the void.
As the site Investigation had found the tunnels below the plot, as well as grouting we also need the house to have a reinforced steel and concrete by concrete. (a raft foundation) To have one of these requires a structural engineer to design a suitable framework, drawings and a bar schedule for the ground construction engineers to work to.
The time between then and now was spent investigating the possible use of an eco raft. This would have used alot less concrete. It took alot of time and we eventually chose to go with the traditional raft to be able to get on and build this house before the planning permission expires!!
Next we sent out our drawings for the raft foundation to get 3 quotes for the work.
Now it is the 28th March and we have picked a sunny day to begin.
The builder's fencing has been errected and it is a hard hat zone!! The weather is excellent for the time of year. Please let this weather continue.The ground has alot of fill to the top few feet.
The first job is to dig down until we reach clay. Once that level is reached the Building Inspector can come and do a site visit. Hopefully that will be acheived tomorrow.
