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Concrete floor for the outbuilding

September 25, 2014 / stephen

We laid the new concrete floor in the outbuilding yesterday. The concrete (around 2.5 tonnes) was due to arrive at 3pm, but eventually got here at 5:30pm (shortly after we had packed up our tools and decided to go down the pub!). Once it arrived, we had little choice but to lay the floor. In the end, it only took about an hour, but it was at the end of the day and it felt like a very long hour.

Earlier in the day, I had laid some rubble at the far end of the floor in an attempt to level it up a bit. We want the finished floor level to be higher than the drive outside (so water doesn’t run in) and sloping slightly to the front (so if water does get it, it will flow out). I use the rubble to level up the worst of the floor and then put some crushed stone on top (about 1 tonne). This was then compacted with a Wacker plate rented from a local hire shop. Then we put down some Visqueen damproof membrane and then a couple of tonnes of concrete on top. The concrete came from Hi Spec concrete in Huddersfield. The machine mixes the concrete on site and we were fortunate to be able to shoot it straight into the outbuilding. There was still a lot of shovelling to do to get it into all the right places, but shooting the concrete right in makes life a lot easier.

The finish is pretty good and at the end of the day, it is a shed! However, pride kicks in and you want to make it look the best you can.

The original floor in the outbuilding sloped to the back. To correct this, I put some rubble at the back and some old stone slates at the front. Then covered it with crushed stone which was then compacted. This corrected the floor level as well as helping raise the finished floor level above the drive outside.

There is a layer of rubble underneath the crushed stone that has helped level out the floor. This now needs to be compacted before the damp proof membrane is put down and the concrete laid. The finished floor level needs to be just a tad higher than the drive outside (this will stop water running in).

One of the pictures off one of our security cameras. The concrete is mixed as it is delivered by the machine. The concrete is metered so you only have to pay for what you use. We thought we only needed about 1 cubic meter, in the end we required 1.75 cubic meters! If you order it the traditional way, you would over order to guarantee that you have enough to finish the job. This isn’t great but it is better than being short! However, it does mean that you frequently have surplus concrete to get rid of at the end of the job.

We used some battens along the wall to mark the top of the finished floor level. This is a piece of timber along the front to create the step into the shed. This should be dry enough tomorrow to walk on.

Bose 161 speakers

September 16, 2014 / stephen

We have just installed some hi-fi speakers in the lounge. Or rather, we have just installed another pair of hi-fi speakers in the lounge.

We had a set of black Celestion speakers and wall brackets from our previous house. We thought they might work well here. But alas, no. While they sounded great, they looked terrible. Against the almost white walls, these large black speakers just stood out like a sore thumb. The wall brackets didn’t help very much as they just stuck them out into the room even further! They had to go!

After doing a bit of research, we found some white Bose 161 speakers. Unlike most Bose kit, they were very reasonably priced. Just £180 for the pair. They also came with their own integral bracket (in matching white and very unobtrusive).

So there was nothing for it, but to take the old speakers down, fill the holes where the brackets had been, repaint that patch of the wall, and finally install the new speakers.

They have definitely been worth the effort. They look and sound great – plenty powerful enough to fill this large space (both the lounge and the kitchen).

The outbuilding slowly being rebuilt

September 15, 2014 / stephen

Only one stone needs to be replaced before the props can be removed.

We are going to need to empty out all of that old wood, but we can get a mower in here! Tomorrow we will remove the props and replace that missing stone.

We are going to need to empty out all of that old wood, before we can get a mower in here! Tomorrow we will remove the props and replace that missing stone.

We have used a couple of ashlar lintels that were left over from the house renovation (I think we ordered them by mistake, but no one remembers!). Anyway, they have been put to good use and now form the course above the door. This is support behind the steel beam behind.

We have used a couple of ashlar lintels that were left over from the house renovation (I think we ordered them by mistake, but no one can remember where they came from!). Anyway, they have been put to good use and now form the course above the door. This is support behind the steel beam behind.

Modifying the outbuildings

September 15, 2014 / stephen

We have been wondering for a while about the best place to keep the new John Deere mower. We had thought about building a tractor shed – you don’t need planning permission as long as it falls within certain constraints – but to get one that was big enough and looked half decent was just too much of a challenge.

Then Jo came up with the idea of widening the door in the end of the existing outbuildings. This is only currently used to store logs and this could easily be moved to an outdoor logstore (and might be better off outside anyway). The building is probably a couple of hundred years old and is built of a single skin of stone. Bits of it look very precarious. However, we are in the process of widening the existing door and installing a new steel lintel above the opening. The steel will be completely hidden from the front thus maintaining the look of the building.

There used to be a normal sized door and window here. Once reinstated it will be a 6ft wide door capable of housing the new John Deere mower.

The new lintel consists of an I beam with a steel plate welded to the bottom. From the inside you will see the back of the I beam, but you will not see any of the beam from the front. The stonework will be replaced exactly as it was and the edge of the steel plate will be lost in the pointing between the courses.

Birds

September 6, 2014 / stephen

We have had quite a few swallows darting about over the summer. Lately, these seem to have been replaced by large crows that walk along the top of the roof wearing clogs (well, at least that’s what it sounds like when you are laying in bed!).

Today, one of the security camera caught a rather large Blue Tit.

Although image is blurred, I think that this is a Blue Tit (probably a little too close up!).

RHI approved

September 1, 2014 / stephen

We seem to be on a bit of a roll with the ground source heat pump. Last week we finally sorted out the leak in the ground loops that had been plaguing us for the last 6 months. Today our application for the Renewable Heat Incentive got approved. We applied for it at the end of July and it looks as if our first payment will be at the end of October. The incentive is paid on a quarterly basis, so this means that the approval today means that our first payment is exactly 3 months from when we first applied.

The current tariff is 18.8p for every kWh generated. According to our EPC, it has been estimated that we will be generating 35,405kWh per year. A quick bit of mathematics will show that this generates a payment of around £1,660 per quarter. These payments are for 7 years and by the time we reach the end of this period, it should have re-couped the capital that we invested in the ground source heat pump.

We have installed our own electricity monitor (Owl Intuition) so we know exactly how much electricity that we are using. While we are going to have to wait to see how the heat pump, and the house, performs over the winter, current indications are that we are using between 150kWh per week in the summer to around 1,000kWh in the winter (this includes all of our heating, hot water, lighting and cooking). We will have to see how it all pans out…..

Bottom field looking better

September 1, 2014 / stephen

Now we have our own means of mowing the bottom field, things seem to have improved dramatically.

We have mowed the grass 3-4 times over the last month. On the first couple of occasions, we raked up the worst of the grass, but we are now getting to the stage where we can just leave the worst of the clippings to rot back into the soil. The grass in the bottom field does not grow as fast as the new grass in the top field.

Not quite a stripped lawn (and it doesn't look like much of a slope), but I did it on my own (and I haven't used a tractor before).

Here’s the bottom field as it looked like last year!

The guy riding the bike in the background has two paddles strapped to the top bar of his bike. He cycled back a little later, but this time he had only one paddle strapped to his bike. What happened to the other paddle?

This was the bottom field only a couple of months ago. We borrowed a tractor and topper to take off the worst of the grass. We are now using our John Deere Z425 to get a better (and quicker) finish to the grass.

This is looking a lot better than it was a year ago – or even 4 months ago!

We repaired sections of this wall last year and now you would never know that it has been repaired.

The grass in the bottom field is starting to look good. We have also had a go at sorting out the young trees in the far corner. We have removed the lower branches (essentially lifting the crown) which has meant that we can mow around the trees with the new mower.

Ground loop leak finally fixed

August 23, 2014 / stephen

This time last year we were installing the ground loops in the top field. And it looks as if we have finally located and fixed the leak. It was only a slightly leak, but over a two week period we would lose all of the pressure in the ground loops.

The ground loops themselves were put under pressure once they were installed and while the ground was being back filled. This would have enabled us to detect if there were any problems. In the end, the ground loops were under pressure for a few months without losing any pressure. So we knew this wasn’t going to be the problem. We had checked (and rechecked) all of the manifolds in the manholes. Again no problems. This only left the large pipes that feed the manifolds.

The leak was on one of the compression elbows on the large 63mm pipes. Unfortunately, the leaking elbow was not in one of the manholes and this meant digging a hole – a big hole. Once the joint was exposed, it was cleaned and tightened up. We haven’t lost any pressure since Tuesday (4 days ago). We will give it a few more days before gently backfilling the holes. It is a great relief all round that we have finally located and fixed the leak.

Leak in the ground source loops

August 18, 2014 / stephen

We have had our fair share of problems with the ground source heat pump. At first, it kept tripping out with low pressure alerts. The ground loops were flushed 3 or 4 times and eventually the alerts abated – we have only had one in the past 3 months.

However, there seems to be a leak on the ground loops and the end result is that we lose pressure in the system. This is a bit surprising since we had the ground loops on a pressure test for a few weeks after the ground was back filled – we didn’t lose a drop during this period. However, the larger pipes that connect the manifolds were back filled later and we believe that the joints on these larger (653mm) pipes may have worked loose. In hindsight, we should have made sure that all the joints in the system were accessible from inside the manhole, however, we now have no choice other than to dig them up.

This one was dug by hand. It was decided it was time to order an excavator after this one.

Unfortunately, not all of the joints are accessible via the manholes. This means if you want to check them, then a hole (a big one) has to be dug. This one was dug by hand.

The task here is to dig holes alongside the existing manholes so that we can access the pipework that runs alongside them. The majority of the digging was done by machine. The last 300mm was dug by hand.

Grass cutting

August 18, 2014 / stephen

Now we have re-seeded the top field, we seem to have an awful lot of grass to cut!

The bottom field has always been a bit of a challenge – it is fairly lumpy and has quite a slope to it. We have ended up borrowing a tractor and topper a couple of times a year, but this means that the grass only gets cut when it is 4ft high. The topper ends up flattening more grass than it really cuts.

The top field is fairly flat with some good grass on it. It was only sown about 6-7 weeks ago, so it will be next year before it fully thickens out.

These two fields are about an acre each. Then we have the orchard which is full of trees and the occasional tree stump. Up until now we have been using a mulching mower to cope with the grass in the orchard, but now with the top field re-seeded we have decided that it is time to invest in a ride on mower. Once we have a mower of our own (rather than having to borrow one), we suspect that the grass will get cut a little more often.

After quite a bit of research, we decided to invest in a zero turn mower. We haven’t been very impressed with the tractor and topper – it feels very unstable on the slope in the bottom field and the quality of the cut has been pretty poor. While a zero turn mower is going to be less versatile than a compact tractor, it is going to be quicker and make a better job of cutting the grass. It is also going to be a cheaper option.

We had a good look around and ended up on deciding on a John Deere Z425. Although John Deere kit is expensive, it is very well made and should cope well with the size of area that we are cutting. We have always opted for slightly more commercial equipment because of the size of the property. We arranged for a demonstration through our local dealer (Bob Wild in Hebden Bridge) and were so convinced by the machine that we decided to buy it there and then.

Over the weekend we have cut the grass in the bottom field a couple of times. We have raked the grass in-between each cut (don’t forget it was 4ft high a couple of weeks ago) and hope that we will get this into a decent state before the summer is out.

Adrian from Bob Wild Grass Machinery demonstrating the John Deere Z425 on the slope in the bottom field. This machine is a lot more stable (and a lot quicker) than a compact tractor and topper. Adrian actually demonstrated that it is possible to cut along the slope with this machine. The slope doesn’t look much in these photos, but it feels steep when you are on it!

If Daleks could mow grass, this is what it would look like! It feels a bit like driving a large motorised wheelchair. We need to shoot some video and post it.

Hagg Leys Farm