13.    Gale force winds and torrential rain – but we need to get the drains in

The rain had to come this week because Ceri has come to stay.  But at least it means we have had time to sit and enjoy her company rather than being busy on site all the time.  We have been out to Wells to check out the new Caffe Nero being installed, visited the local reclamation yard and been in to Bath for a nice meal one of the evenings.  A great treat for us to see Ceri, and enjoy some time off.

At the same time we managed to squeeze in a few jobs so Ceri got to see us in action too.

Someone sneaked this photo of the project manager doing her stuff.

Whilst others are doing theirs

Monday

The rain was meant to come today. We had considered cancelling everything until a clearer spell but in the end decided to risk it in a defiant manner, and were rewarded because in fact the weather was kind to us. We managed to get the last of the footings cut in time for the final concrete to be poured tomorrow.  In fact we decided to pour half the depth of concrete today, as this would help support the trenches if the rain became very heavy in the night.  We didn’t want them all to cave in.  We couldn’t completely fill them today because we needed the surveyor to accurately locate the positions of the remaining holding down bolts for the steel columns with his GPS station.  We have booked our surveyor to come tomorrow which was his only time available this week, so we felt we had to crack on with everything in order to keep to the schedule.  We didn’t want to fall behind at this stage.  We therefore left enough room for sufficient depth of concrete in which we could set the bolts and we were assured this would be structurally OK.

This helps to show the different levels of the building - looking a bit wet in the trenches

Some of the remaining holding down bolts that will be positioned into the footings after the trenches have been filled to the required level.
Today's concrete will help prevent all the trenches from caving in over night if it rains heavily

Tuesday

The forecast for Tuesday was atrocious but the gang and the surveyor all arrived ready to work regardless of the weather.  We had 2 loads of concrete booked, and by 1:30pm the concrete had been poured and the10 sets of bolts had been accurately positioned and set.  It didn’t go without difficulties, but everyone did their bit to overcome whatever was thrown at them.  We won through and it was an impressive performance of sheer determination to get it done.  The site is no longer looking quite as tidy as it did before but Mike, our surveyor, who seems to have incredibly high standards still felt it was better than most sites.  When he first arrived on site and was met by these two oldies in charge he thought it was all a bit of a shambles, but I’m happy to say we seem to have proved our capabilities.  He is very supportive and helpful in his own quiet way.

Tomorrow morning Max will undo the bolts, take off the square wooden template, loosen the bolts in the concrete by dissolving the polystyrene cones that surround the bolts.  There is then sufficient wiggle room for the steel fabricators to align the columns that will be stood on each of these square sets and make the perfectly aligned building.  Easy! 

Wednesday 

It rained so hard we cancelled any work.  Stefan wasn’t happy, he likes to work come what may, but it wasn’t really directed at us though I have to say it felt like it.  He'd just got out of bed the wrong side.

Thursday

I have placed a new order for the reinforcing bars (those ones I was ‘struggling over’) so that hopefully we will now have the correct amount to install in the footings and retaining walls to the studio. In the end I asked our quantity surveyor (Jerry) to provide the schedule of bars and the various bent shapes needed.  Fortunately he has the knowledge, patience, and heaps of kindness to undertake the task.  Apparently it is not the job of the architect or the structural engineer to specify the materials needed, even though they have designed the building.  I wasn’t prepared to risk doing the calculation myself as errors mean money.   If it is difficult for them – then certainly I am not taking on the gauntlet for something so complex.  I’m glad I rang around to see whose responsibility it really was.  Jerry has become my best friend.

The walls need to have reinforcing bars because they are retaining walls holding back the soil that is going to be built up around them to allow the field to continue over the roof.  This is one of the ways we are trying to ensure the house fits discreetly into the countryside.

With the footings done, today we turned our attention to the drains.  It is nice to be working from a different drawing.  The plans we had for the footings are all so stained and battered from being referred to so regularly and taken outside in the rain, and handled with muddy gloved hands. Consequently the sheets were becoming more and more difficult to use.  Fortunately we have all the drawings in pdf format on the computer so we can refer to them in detail on the screen but that means a lot of going backwards and forwards with levels and coordinates on pieces of paper.  Everything we do has a level that is critical to the overall accuracy of the building, so each one has to be regarded with the same level of importance.  Jake is always very good at ‘making sure’ and double checking everything.  He doesn’t take anything for granted and assumes nothing.  An invaluable attribute, and especially good for someone so young.  He is 18.

I noticed him reading our ‘policy document’ that’s pinned on the wall in the site office the other day so he has obviously taken to it in the right spirit. 

So far - so good.  Everyone is backing the policy.

There are three manholes on the site each with an invert level given on the drawing. (The lowest level of the manhole)  The bathrooms, kitchen and utility room each have their drains that had to be plotted and positioned with an invert level that was higher than the manholes that they ran into. 

The manhole outside the kitchen looking towards the manhole in the road.

Three runs coming into the manhole just outside the kitchen

Each of the manholes had their invert level that would be higher than the one it led into – down to the final one in the road.  We now have them all positioned and the only run of drain left to do tomorrow is from the manhole outside the kitchen down to the last manhole before it drops down to the road.  We managed to fix the pipe into the council drain and build the bank back up again so that it doesn’t all fall into the road overnight.  

We've cut out the hedge and dropped the drain down in the bank to the manhole you can just see in the road.  Now all tidily put back.  Just got to buy and plant the hedge

Our land is about 2 meters higher than the road so there was quite a lot to dig out.  Allowing all that soil to be washed down on to the road and down the hill wouldn’t make us popular with the neighbourhood.  All today’s work was done in driving rain.  Not very pleasant, but it is so rewarding having done it.  Tomorrow morning should see the main drains completed.  We just have the land drains to install around the sides of the house to take the water from the roof away to the soakaways.  But this will be done at a later stage.

Friday

Stefan and Jake completed the drains and tidied up the site which is looking very different now after all this rain.  A bit of a quagmire.  Very sticky, and life is a constant battle of taking off and putting on muddy boots and wet through jackets.  Not easy to get them dry either, though I did stick my puffer jacket in the tumble drier to feel a bit more human after a couple of hours of working in  persistent rain.  Toasty for a minute or two.

This afternoon we have a meeting with the architects.  We will report to them on what we have done so far, and we will be checking on their programme of work to see what we can sign off and what they plan to do in the next few weeks.  They should be moving to some of the internal details shortly.

Next week

We hope to see the Building Inspector here on Wednesday to check the footings to the studio retaining wall as he needs to see these reinforcing bars in place. Unfortunately our Welshman is off for the week so we will be seeing someone else.  I hope he is equally affable.  Always rather nerve-racking as they can set you back days if they decide that what you have done is not right. It will be all hands to the deck to get this work done on Monday and Tuesday.  The weather is going to be bad until Monday afternoon according to the forecast, and then the sun will shine for the middle of the week.  The South West is permanently in the news for the amount of rain we are having.  It just can’t go on for much longer.  The caravan is managing very well, but the shelves that we put under the awning went a tumble one night when the storm made everything rock..  All the tomato sauce had splatted onto the floor – it looked as though we had had a grim fight in the night.  Not us.

Fred rang this afternoon and he and his wife, feeling sorry for us, have invited us for a meal next week which is really nice of them.  They have also offered us the facility of their shower.  Could be taken up. 

Actually we are very cosy and pretty civilised here.  Surprisingly so.