Another good day on the blockwork, but at least another 4-5 days to go before it is all up to the level of the new concrete slab. I reck0n it will be next week before we are in a position to pour the concrete slab.
Nice weather today. Hence the shorts. Rain tomorrow.
We have put quite a bit of manpower onto building up the blockwork – 2 brickies, one apprentice and a labourer (in addition we have had 3 underfloor heating engineers and a carpenter on site). So today has been busy.
The cement mixer has been going all day trying to keep up with the blockwork. Even so, it is going to take at least a week before we are ready to lay the concrete base.
The mass of blocks is starting to diminish as the walls for the base are built up.
We have made some good progress on the block work today. With have had 2 brickies, one apprentice and a labourer working on this all day (in between the rain showers). You can see the block work for the porch has been completed in the background (including the drain for the downstairs cloakroom).
The pipework has been installed in the underfloor plates that were installed. It seems strange to think that this is going to heat the upstairs of the house. It hardly seems enough, but when you think about it, these plates are really just a massive radiator – albeit installed under the carpet.
The first floor bedrooms will have carpet and it is possible to install “low tog” underlay and carpet that will help transmit the heat through the floor. Often underfloor heating is associated with solid floors, however, I am assured that it works well with both timber and carpet. We will just have to see how it works.
All of the pipework for the underfloor heating upstairs has now been installed. Tomorrow our attention will turn to the underfloor heating downstairs.
This has been installed on a temporary piece of plywood since the cupboard that will hold this manifold still has to be built.
If you think this looks like a lot of pipe, it is just for the downstairs (the upstairs is already installed) and in only half of the property.
With the footings sorted out at the weekend, we can now move on to starting on the blockwork.
It took most of the day to do the marking out and check all of the levels. The blockwork will be brought up to the specified height. The outside of the trench will then be back filled with subsoil. The inside will be levelled, stone added and then steel mesh will be installed before the concrete base of the building is then laid. The level of the floor is level with the top of the block work. I reckon we will be in a position to lay the floor in the next 10-14 days. There is quite a bit of work here (as you can see from the amount of concrete blocks) plus there are quite a few changes in floor level.
It took most of the day just to mark out where all the walls are going to go, but by the end of the day a row of blocks has gone up along the line of the new kitchen.
All of these blcoks will be used to build up to the floor level of the new extension.
We made a start today on installing the underfloor heating. We are installing this throughout the building – both upstairs and downstairs.
The upstairs heating works via a system of metal plates that are fixed to the underside of the floorboards and heated by a set of water pipes. We left a 25mm gap between the large oak beams and the floor joists to make installing the plates a little easier. We have also cut out notches in the joists before the floors went down to make it easier to run the pipework.
All in all, it only took a day to install all of the underfloor metal plates.
This shows the ceiling from below and shows the metal plates that have been fixed to the underside of the floorboards. The flow and return pipes will be installed later.
This shows the metal plate screwed to the underneath of the floorboards. The flow and return pipes get clipped into each side later. After the first fix electrics and plumbing have been installed, insulation will be put between the joists and the ceiling will then be plasterboarded. You can see the 25mm gap we left over the top of the big oak beams to allow the plates to be installed.
A big day today – the footings have gone in for the extension and the porch. Around 20 cubic metres of concrete in 3 separate loads.
The steel mesh has been put into the bottom of the trenches to to reinforce the concrete. It is held up off the bottom by putting half bricks under the mesh.
Ensuring that the steel mesh is not pushed to the bottom when the concrete is poured in.
The concreate is added to highest point of the footings and then pushed around by using a spade (ensuring that the concrete doesn’t go over the top of your wellies!).
A full mixer holds around 8.5 cubic meters of concrete. This weighs in at around 30 tonnes.
It is going to take three loads to fill the footings.
Although the concrete flows downhill, it does need a bit of encouragement!
We couldn’t dig the footings for the porch until the first two loads of concrete had been delivered. Otherwise, the cement mixer would have fallen in the hole. So the porch footings have to be dug in an hour (as this is how long it takes the mixer to re-load).
Matt in action pouring the footings for the porch
Part of the dry stone wall adjoining the newly rebuilt extension had to be dismantled while it was being rebuilt. However, now the building work is complete we can repair the wall. It also makes the site a little more secure since it was relatively easy to get through the wall from the road side.
I have run a piece of damp course down the wall where the dry stone wall meets the building. I have only run this above the level of the damp course in the building. This should help prevent any damp transferring from the dry stone wall to the building above the internal damp course level.
I have tried to use black faced stones wherever I can so that the repair matches the rest of the wall. We have been largely successful at achieving this except for some of the coping stones. If I find some black faced coping stones, I might swap these for the ones we installed today. Since the coping stones are the top course, this is easily done. For now, the job is complete.
Part of the dry stone wall adjoining the rebuilt extension had to be taken down while it was being rebuilt. Now this corner has been repointed the wall can be rebuilt. First job is to clear the weeds and remove the loose stone.
Having cleared the weeds low down, the wall is rebuilt. Avoiding taking too much of it apart. I tend to just dismantle the wall until we reach something solid (and flat).
Almost up to the top course and ready for the coping stones. To reach the top course from this side, it is handy to stand on the back of the pickup.
Now with the coping stones. It only took a couple of hours to complete.
Although all the windows are now in, we need to sort out the finishing on the inside of the windows. These are a bit of mess – they have been altered a number of times over the years and much of the material has either fallen away or never been in place in the first place.
We have decided to box in the windows on the inside, but to used splayed panels just as they would have done originally. This ensures that the maximum amount of light comes in. However, since each of the windows is subtly different, each will have to be built by hand. Before we progress with all the windows we thought we should get one window completed as a sort of prototype. This would also help us to establish exactly how long it takes to do this job.
The original windows had a splayed finish inside. This ensures that as much light as possible comes in through the windows. We have decided to reinstate this finsih as best we can. Window board has been installed, together with the top and the angled sides. All in waterproof MDF.
The first “prototype” internal window finish complete. We have had to take into account that the walls are going to be insulated and plastered. This why the internal finish seems to stand out from the wall at the moment.
Now with “panelling” to the splayed sides and mullion covers. The waterproof MDF is a strange sort of green colour that bizarrely matches the window colour. We aren’t sure of the finished colour on the inside of the windows.
We have cleared the land and dug the footings and foundations for the new extension. The intention is that these will be concreted on Saturday morning.
There is a lot of work that has gone into this and the spoil heap is looking quite impressive. Fortunately, we are going to spread this onto the back field to bring the soil level up. This will help with the ground loops for the ground source heat pump as the ground loops need to be 1m under the surface. In some places, we might have struggled to reach this depth. Increasing the ground level is only going to help.
Foundations and footings now dug. We have accumulated a lot of subsoil and topsoil in the process.
Everyday this area looks different. I daresay that it will look different again once the concrete has been laid. This is due to happen on Saturday.
The footings are going to be concreted on Saturday morning. Tomorrow we need to cut the steel mesh that goes into the base of the trenches to reinforce the concrete.
It looks very different once the footings are dug. The deep trenches mark on where the internal walls will go.
While we have reinstalled the first floor, we don’t have a staircase yet. So getting upstairs is via a set of ladders. Not great, particularly when you are carrying tools/materials.
So we decided to install some temporary stairs. Since they are going to be there a while, it is probably worth the £150-170 that it would cost. But we would luck and one of the local joiners workshop had some stairs that had been produced for another customer (Joey) and he no longer wanted them.
And all for £50! A bargain.
Two steps too long, but Joey’s loss is our gain. These will make a fine temporary staircase and all for £50! It does look like we should be driving around Heathrow airport helping passengers to board a plane.
It didn’t take long to cut off a couple of treads and fit the temporary staircase. Thank you Joey!
A view down the new stairs. It almost feels like a house!
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