Nothing much has happened on site for a number of reasons, but it allows me a chance to catch up with the pace. Who would have thought there would be so much detail in a fireplace? And how does one address skirting around it? Garage doors–they need to know the size of the frame now so they can build the brickwork around it. There’s enough going on in life outside the build what with the family business busier than ever, me starting in it (again!), the usual end of school shenanigans, Pokemon Go taking over the world and Britain voting out of it, horrible weather, and keeping up with invoices, that actually this hiatus might be a godsend. Hopefully we’ll see more activity next week.
In the mean time, I’ve been playing around with a new app.
Enough of that silliness.
Ben brought his drone around in the afternoon to take a few snaps.
Tuesday
How did we get to week 15??
It’s been raining and the brick gang have been doing other things elsewhere. The dummy window frames have arrived along with some concrete lintels and a load more insulation. Nic will measure all the frames to make sure they match the windows exactly. The bricks will be laid around them.
The foundations for the front porch were poured yesterday. These are only 1.5 metres deep, and that’s it for concrete foundations! Whoop whoop!
artsy lintelswindow frames to measure and matchmore and more and more and more rain
It’s great to see the window frames evident in the interior blockwork. Hopefully we’ll get up to first floor this week?? Maybe next week in reality….
Team meeting at the contractors’ this morning, so not much occurring on site. A few deliveries and some tidying in the afternoon between raindrops. Looking forward to the brick layers arriving on Monday at long last!
electrical ducts, water input, soil pipe, garage slab and dpc18 square metres of concrete?!loads of well-organised stuff
Thursday
The heavens opened today.
And closer to home…
garage slab and swimming poolpipes on one end…… and their other endmonster double-whammy pump
I can’t believe our gorgeous lovely neighbour was flooded out of her house around the back of ours. She called the fire department early in the morning, but they said that they couldn’t help unless the water was in the house. It rose and rose all morning until Nic and the gang arrived at 7:30 and they were horrified. At 9:00, we called again to say the water was up to our ankles. We tried to save ornaments and curtains, but walking around the house was like walking on a waterbed with a rising lake under the carpets which are now ruined. Hopefully, with Nic, Lee and the guys moving countless numbers of our bricks to jack up her furniture, she might have salvaged some of it. The guys were incredible and we’re very grateful to them for stepping up and giving her a hand.
By evening the waters had diminished a little, but the pumps will be on, through the site, for some time. You can hear them in the background. There were three crews of firemen working on this and the other neighbour’s house.
Wednesday
Lots of stone rubble delivered and breaking up of the shuttering around the garage.
Thanks for moving the kitchen soil pipe, guys! Changing our minds yet again on the design…
Tuesday
Monday
All the sub contractors need to have the site prepared adequately before they work. Brick layers need to have a flat place to stand when they lay the bricks. So today was about site prep. We also had the massive pour for the garage just after break, and the finishing pour late in the day. It’s soggy work.
Soak-away is under the bricks. It’s a little damp around the edges. The guys have split the bricks front and back and have forklifted the back ones around the lane.
After hours, there are loads of animals that visit the site.
Thursday
One soak-away dug and dusted…
Wednesday
The bricks arrived!
The weather hasn’t been great. But Lee is a pro scout so at least he and the team are working in the mostly dry.
Wandering back from the house over the train bridge, Gareth spotted a lock on the railing. It’s just as atmospheric as the Pont des Arts…. apart from the dog poo.
will this be the first of many?from the back door through to the lamp-postGame of Stones
The guys are finishing off the edges which requires a lot of cutting and mucking in. They’ll be doing this into next week too. Then the edges will be filled in with some of the earth that’s piled up in the back by the current garage. Apparently the brick layers will like their work areas level with no big dips to fall into or step over, and they arrive next week. The bricks are delivered Wednesday, and that will be a big day logistically for a few reasons. We’ve decided to dig the soak-away in the back garden rather than plumb it through the house. This is for the rainwater runoff from the back of the house and the original plan–it’s not going to be too big, only 3m cubed, but it’s landlocked on the other other side of the house. The alternative was to run it under the house and into the ditch, but we’d need a permit and some other permissions for that option as well as an £87 fee to the Council for the change. To get that all dug and sorted in the same week that the bricks arrive is a good puzzle for Nic. He’s thinking about forklift to ferry the bricks around the neighbours to the back of the garden. It’s going to be fiddly!
The garage is a total rock solid bomb shelter. It’s got an unbelievable amount of concrete in there, all because of next door’s conifers. An engineering marvel! The contractor has recommended a concrete floor rather than a thin screed to avoid cracks. I’m not sure when the pour is scheduled, but there is a LOT of steel in there and it’s all ready to go.
Apparently all clients at this stage worry that their house is too small. Lee reckons that sticking a sofa on the blocks will show how big it is and will alleviate all concerns. It’s jolly big enough–we have to remember that our main constraint is budget, so we were never going to go all gargantuan, and it’s about the same size as the previous house. The flip side of a normal, non-huge house is that the garden remains an ok size.
We’re about to choose the hanging tiles. And of course we’re still dithering on the mortar colour.
hanging tile shortlist
Thursday
Crane Day!
morningearly afternoon
Wednesday
tomorrow’s project arrived
Tuesday
The walk over was very murky tonight. Thunder booming softly from far away.
looking north, up the line
Today ten tons of hardcore arrived and it was spread out around the garage. More will be dropped on the earth before the beams go down. Lee and the guys added more concrete and reinforcements to the garage and set up the foul drains.
behold the kitchen drainWC drain
The test panel is drying out. Now we get to choose tiles! Which is your favourite?
which goes best?
Looking forward to concrete beams for the ground floor arriving tomorrow with any luck, and crane to lay it all on Thursday.
Monday
Week double-digits. Coming out of the ground bit by bit.
taken from the fireplace in the living roomtaken from the south west corner of the houselooking all across the back of the house
This test panel of bricks is a complicated affair:
the dry mortar is bucket handle joint with a normal mix of lime, cement and sand as per the specification
two courses above that is the West O sand mix with a slight recessed or raked mortar joint
the top three courses above that is the Betchworth sand mix with a 5- 6 mm recessed joint.
As the top courses dry, they’ll end up lighter than the bottom half of the panel. You may remember that last week, we were concerned it was too dark so we got in a couple of different sands. One of them has more aggregate in as well. We like the deeper recess, but we’ll have to wait until the panel dries to make a decision on the mortar.
test panel Mark II
We’re also now reconsidering the brick. I know this is extremely poor timing, but it’s such an enormous part of the project we want to be sure to get it right. So off I went taking Toothless for a massive journey into deepest Sussex to check out the bricks below. Ours is the furthest to the right. We quite like the Tumbled Multi, but at some point we’ve got to adhere to the conservative system that is what we like vs what we have to spend! A project for the weekend is to reassure ourselves that this is the right brick for the right price.
Thursday
Wednesday
the theme for the day
The brick layers have been in and have laid up to the reds in the living room. They put lintels across gaps where the pipework will exit the building. Check out the red laser sight on the tripod in the middle of the room.
Lee and his crew will dig the last trench tomorrow; 8+ square metres of concrete arrives around 2:00 pm. Next week it’s laying the ground floor and pouring the garage floor. The crane is scheduled to spend the day with us on Tuesday, and Nic will have to post around a note to the 11 neighbours saying that the lane will be blocked for most of the morning. That is,…. if the brick layers have a dry enough time of it to lay on the foundations. The crane will lift the huge T sections onto the reds, then the blocks will fit in between. The final bit for Lee is to set these blocks into a loose concrete muck which is poured on top. I don’t know if he’s responsible for the DPC membrane, or if it’s another crowd.
taken at the end of the daywhere did the foundations go? Ahh.. under all that mudexternal (left) and internal (right with reds) wallsolde worlde kit
Apparently one of the bricklayers kept hitting this exact spot and getting all religious about it. At volume. It’s pretty deep!
Midway between ankle and knee deepsinking Dizzythere must be a witty caption about this but I’m strugglingartsy muddy wheelsome of the drivers need to watch the bend at the top of the lane
One of those nice shots of the lane; this one with the new blossom getting shot off the tree by torrential rain onto the tarmac.
And on the way back, randomly in front of the temporary digs….
bye
In the meantime, we’re looking at the oak subframe in detail.
rear gablefront gable
Check out the meerkat next door (1:28)….
Tuesday
Lovely day if you’re a duck. Here’s driving to the site….
Monday
It’s a lovely bank holiday today with stormy winds out of the East and torrential rain forecast for tomorrow morning:
Thankfully, we spent some of the weekend making a nice little shelter for the camera. So fingers crossed, there won’t be any more water accumulating in the housing and creating a foggy picture, and we’ll have lovely clear timelapses going forward.
Lots of other bits of the weekend were spent reading contracts, checking out local completed house projects like ours and investigating Arts and Crafts style points (including the bio of local architect transplanted from Scotland, George Blair Imrie who designed the Wisley labs–a long favourite of ours).
It’s meant to be a busy day onsite tomorrow with the brickies arriving first thing. Hope they bring their flippers and snorkels.
The Leatherhead Cemex plant is back up and running
Concrete has been a real headache. Lee was anxious to get back on site today and make some real progress to finish the job. So close!…only one more trench to dig out. Having a silo onsite would have been the alternative, but the guys thought that since the concrete depot is only a couple miles down the road that it would be easy to have pours on a as-needed basis. But with the extra depth of trenches that the warranty company wanted alongside the vagaries of supply and plant operation, it’s been a hassle. As lovely and accommodating as Lee and his crew have been, Nic will be glad to see the us out of the ground.
They’ll leave the garage trenches for access until the brick layers are almost finished.
tight squeeze backing up down the lanethe lift works on a remote
There are two types of bricks in the groundworks: the concrete blocks and the reds. The blocks are laid first, then the reds are used to achieve the right levels. The level of the ground floor is the same as the street although it looks deceivingly high at the moment. The reds are used instead of the blocks because they’re easier to cut and don’t fall to bits. There is a pile of sand behind the bricks too.
stylish boots worn for the first time#DAB?!
Thursday
They found a second well! It’s about 2.5 metres deep and full of water! Can’t believe it. We’d never known of it until they were mucking away the big pile of earth and the digger took a huge chunk out of it. It must have been under the grass…. Bonkers!!
the second well!…. near the hut alongside the boundary fenceold house v new house:no second well
The concrete deliveries have dried up today, so Lee and his gang can go home and sit in the sun. This is not a good thing, and even Lee didn’t want to leave. But the deliveries are few and far between despite having been booked for weeks. Apparently the Leatherhead Cemex site is shut, and the last few loads have come from Crawley. We’re a relatively small job, so if every builder in the area needing concrete is using the Crawley depot, they’ll decide to deliver to the big jobs first, and we’re just tiny fish in this pond.
There are only a couple more deep trenches out the front to go.
quiet afternoon on sitefamily roomcouldn’t resistBen and Nic discussing the finer detail of concrete deliveries–or lack of themthe mortar has dried out and changed colour
The test panel is looking better in colour. It’s incredible how much the mortar colour has changed and lightened up. We’ve decided not to go with the current bucket handle joint profile and have recessed or raked instead. Not enormously interesting as a detail, but it will make the bricks stand out more which is nice because in using engineered bricks rather than reclaimed, we’re losing the variation.
testing sand colours
These two are West Ho and Bletchworth (I think!). We’re seeing if the mortar could be lighter (do we need to?), and if it could contain more aggregate. Here, it’s drying out in a high tech test environment so we can look at the colour properly.
Watch for an overambitious concrete delivery at about 0:23 below. The shuttering gave way and the guys had a heart attack. They managed to cut the pour and save the day before the whole thing went south. We’ve got a REALLY stable footing at the side of the family room!
Wednesday
Tuesday
Still digging.
deep trenches take a while
Sometimes when I come round the corner and see how lovely the lane is, or see the neighbour taking a picture of a bird’s nest in some random place, I’m reminded that we’re so incredibly lucky to be building this house in this spot. This morning it was simply the steam coming off the road in the early morning sun that caught my eye. Mind you, the guys had been there long enough to be eating their toast before kicking off at 8:00 on the dot, that they could have appreciated it too, but they’re focussed on getting the job done and getting on outta here rather than waxing lyrical about steamy roads.
finally.. although Nic’s hut is very nice and they’ve done wonderful things with the garage/canteen
The percolation test is carrying on: 1 hr 55 minutes to drop sufficiently. That’s a blindingly fast rate of 1mm every 50 seconds or so. The average speed of a snail (Cornu aspersum) is 1.3 mm/s, and this is 0.2, or 6.5 times slower. The literature suggests a time of 24 seconds. Ha! Looks like we gotta kick the bejeezus out of Option B.
fun with percolationOK, that’s probably enough of the percolation test
The guys have dug out masses from the deep trenches and have built up quite a Col de St Anne’s in the front. Rain is forecast, but I hope it’s not massively wet when the muckaway truck comes on Monday or they’ll need a few more trips to get rid of it. Not much more digging to go; just a couple of the garage walls.
deep footings around family room and back of garage
The timelapse camera got some water in, so I’m missing a few days. I’ve got footage, but they’re not worth posting. The videos start off ok first thing, but as the unit heats up in the day, the water steams up, it stays in the housing and obscures the lens with fog. Not the best, but going forward we’ll squish one of those little silica packs in between the camera and the housing and we’ll see if that de-mists the whole contraption.
Thursday
A two-droppper is NOT good when digging three metre deep foundations, and it really slung it last night. In fact, the guys dug out a deep section and shuttered it all up yesterday–all tickety-boo. But when they lifted the shuttering this morning to drop in the steels and pour concrete, the whole thing folded. Nic was unimpressed, and I can’t imagine Lee and his team were thrilled. After checking with Justin, the plan became digging at 45 degrees, shuttering, then backfilling.
a 45 degree trench before dropping the shuttering in
It’s a real juggling act of mucking away the spoil in time for the concrete lorry to arrive and wedge itself in close to the trench. Nic has had one muckaway truck come when the concrete guys were pouring, and the driver was not happy because he had to wait around. But apart from that one time, Nic’s got it dialled and the system runs like clockwork.
The other fun bit today was thinking about the soakaway. All the rainwater is to run to a central pit filled with rocks under the middle of the garden. Sometimes these are called French drains. It’s a very simple and effective way of getting water into the ground. But you might ask: how big should it be? Well, there is a calculation for that which takes the predicted rainfall over a given area (roof) multiplied by some constants which gives a rough idea of the soakaway’s required volume. A more advanced way of calculating the volume is to check the draining capacity of the soil. To do this test they dig a small pit, fill it with water, and time the fall millimetre by millimetre. This is a percolation test, and that’s what Nic and Justin are comparing notes about.
percolation test
If the percolation test warrants an unfeasibly large soakaway, we’ll consider running the rainwater out into the ditch. Next door does it, so it should be fine. But these decisions need to be made before the blockwork goes up which will limit access for diggers and machinery to the rear drive.
Sunday is supposed to be a big day for rain, but next week looks dry. The brickies arrive on Wednesday, so we’ll finally be going upwards!
The last thing to show you is the test panel of bricks.
Ben and bricksbrick closeup
We think we can improve the colour and texture of the mortar. It looks a little too dark and a little too smooth. This might be just a drying thing as it changes colour a lot as it sets. We’ll try the last 20 bricks next week with a mix of lighter sand and a little aggregate. I stole one of my bricks (how does THAT work?) and a chunk of mortar that Justin prized off the back of the panel, and I’ll have a wander to a couple of similar builds to compare the bricks and pointing. I hope I don’t get arrested wandering around Oxshott with a brick in my hand. One vaguely interesting thing is that we’re using engineered bricks, and the original specification was for reclaimed London Stock. These are about a pound a brick with about 30% wastage. No, thank you! And they’re olde worlde imperial measurements which don’t jive with our modern metric drawings. But a comparison would set my mind at ease to make sure we’re on the right track from a design point of view.
Things like contracts, structural oak design, roof design, procurement and budget calculations are all happening in the background, but I won’t go into detail here. This project is a Big Deal, but not a Grand Design in the Kevin McCloud sense–we’re into low drama and minimised risk…and sleeping at night!
Wednesday
Tuesday
More digging, more mucking away, more concrete. That’s about it. Nic has been sending photos during the day which is excellent — thanks Nic! These are the small footings; the garage footings on the east side are deeper because of next door’s conifers and also because the floor is cantilevered off the back foundations. The idea is that although these will take a while to dig and fill, the first blockwork course before the DPC can start on the west side sections.
much drier today. can’t even see the water tablea tiny little bit of water two metres down. incredible how variable it is around the sitecan’t count how many cement deliveriesnice shiny concrete footings laid around the front gable
At least it’s warmer now, and the guys can dig longer trenches without concern that they’ll cave in while they’re waiting for the cement to arrive.
One interesting thing is that the test bricks have arrived. These will be made into a panel for inspection. We’ll be checking that they look right, the pointing is good, and the mortar mix matches everything.
new “old” bricks
The old post that used to stand on top of the turret roof on the tower is now propped up against the loo. It’s made of wood with a lead sheath round it. I’ll ask them to keep it and we can put it in the garden somewhere.
post, loo, and barrow
Wednesday
Tuesday
Oh my word, did it sling it this morning or what? It’s been summer showers off and on all day. And I mean ON or nothing. So the place is looking more Somme-like this week. I’ll bet the pump has been in action. Tony the structural engineer and Tom of building control have both been down to site, and everything is going to plan.
Big events include filling the well with a “lean mix”, quotes are for us newbies: this is a mix of less concrete and more sand so it can be chipped out if needs be at any future point. But our paddling pool days are well and truly over; we now have no more well. I don’t feel extremely good about this–the well was one of the quirky features of the house that we made the best of and enjoyed. By getting rid of things like this, are we making this place more generic? I hope we are improving the site and keeping somewhat true to Alice Grey’s original plan by keeping the design functional and honest and by not going all KT22-glam. I can’t see that we’ll be housing the poor of Lambeth any time soon, but the house will at least keep the heat in. Maybe losing the well isn’t that big a compromise for a little modernity and thermal efficiency.
that there is a lot of concretebye bye well
The guys have dug, shuttered, braced and filled the rear bay too.
lining up the concreteis this as exciting for you as it is to me?Rear bay foundations. This will be an oak frame with a bunch of expensive windows in a few monthsthe tidy site and onlookerbits of well, and well, other bitsmurky evening walk backgetting to like this ritual
Monday
A little more shuttering and a little more concrete by the weekend.
Today has been about waiting for the building control inspection and the concrete, and fingers were crossed for most of the day that they would arrive in that order.
The sides of the trenches were temporarily shuttered with big sheets of ply. The first steel reinforcements went in just fine: Jamie dropped them in using the digger and Lee coordinated. The grids have little plastic feet on them so they sit nicely in the trench.
the first steel footing
The footings will be about 800 mm of concrete then a couple or so courses of blocks, then bricks. The guys talk about concrete arriving in cubic metre loads.
I met Poppy the security system too.
Thursday
We had a peep down the well today, and the guys are amazed at how clear the water is. Back in the day, we used to fill the paddling pool up with the well-water using Chas’ irrigation pump. All the neighbourhood kids would come round and it’s a drag that we are no longer off metering. Apparently all new houses require a water meter. But the swimming pool was awesome, if cold!
down the well
The well water wasn’t the only thing filled with water though….
where’s that pump?
The water table is pretty high where we are! Luckily, Nic has a pump just like ours and he’s drying it out before the building control guys come round to have a look. It needs inspecting before concrete is poured.
steel footings being discussed by Jamie and Leethe “kitchen” in our bike store
Ben brought his drone down and he got a lovely shot.
Ben and his DJIthat’s a whole lot of nuthinnerd and Nic
Tuesday
Macrame with steels
The steel reinforcements arrived onsite. They’re single lengths and need to be formed into the shape of the foundation channels. The guys have had a little bonfire today while waiting for the steel, and they intend to start digging tomorrow.
A two-droppper is NOT good when digging three metre deep foundations, and it really slung it last night. In fact, the guys dug out a deep section and shuttered it all up yesterday–all tickety-boo. But when they lifted the shuttering this morning to drop in the steels and pour concrete, the whole thing folded. Nic was unimpressed, and I can’t imagine Lee and his team were thrilled. After checking with Justin, the plan became digging at 45 degrees, shuttering, then backfilling.
