Construction in Cornwall

Still not a bad height . 

49 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Still not a bad height . 

 

Exactly - it was reassuring to know my house is going to be nice and big when I saw a truck driving around indoors! 

 

 

Yeah reckon you're right, by the time all the floor levels etc are in proper the difference will be made up to around the 2.7 mark. I don't think building control will be too fussed as long as its somewhere near the mark. For me I might have to just try a bit of a cheeky one and put in a separate ceiling above the garage (also going to do beam & block) and hope that flies. So long as the overall height is not more than stated on the plans then I reckon I may get away with another 450 mm or so.

Well that's it, the wall is full of concrete, tanked and back filled - if it's still standing in the morning I think it officially qualifies as a retaining wall!

 

 

In my uneducated opinion I'd say thats pretty impressive! 

Did they fill it on the same day as the final pour?

 

Is the back fill wackered down, or just left to settle at it's own rate?

 

I see there is still a big step from the retaining wall height to the natural ground level at the back. Will that ground level be lowered to give the final garden level up there?

 

All looking good, now you can build the house proper.
 

27 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Did they fill it on the same day as the final pour?

 

Is the back fill wackered down, or just left to settle at it's own rate?

 

I see there is still a big step from the retaining wall height to the natural ground level at the back. Will that ground level be lowered to give the final garden level up there?

 

All looking good, now you can build the house proper.
 

 

Final pour was yesterday which ended up only really being about 1.5 courses worth. 

 

They had had a whacker plate on site but don't think they used it, it was being dropped almost 3m in height so they felt it had compacted quite well anyway. Will let it settle naturally for a bit then I expect it'll need topping up at some point anyway - at that point I'll probably mechanically compact it. 

 

Yeah currently I have another step up in the levels, now that the side wall is back filled I can drive a 1.5tonne digger up there and push back this lower level as much as I can - there are other houses gardens in behind at this higher level so the whole lot can't come down, there will have to be some sort of tiers but that's all landscaping problems further down the road. 

 

I have a whole other large garden area to the side of the house anyway, so this is really just a nice rear patio area to have off the back of the kitchen/diner. 

 

For or anyone that is interested the groundworks guy reckons 200 - 250 tonne has gone back in behind this wall. 

 

After originally removing around 750 tonne and giving 200 tonne to a neighbour - I'm now actually a little worried I won't have enough, my shellet mountain is now looking decidedly small!

You will probably be fine especially if you lower the level of that "back" garden a bit. Perhaps a row of gabions to shore up the step up the the gardens behind?

 

I had about 250 tons (pretty wild guess actually) of excavated soil. By the time I finished spreading it and leveling it, I have about 1 ton left over that will easily get used up, so I think I got it about right there then,
 

The last of the tanking, finally!