Part 14 - Drainage and a few other things
Work continues on site with our foul and surface water drainage now installed;
Following an initially negative assessment of the treatment plant design by the digger driver, its installation worked out far better than he or I expected, causing him to take back everything negative he had said. A hole was dug out to the required depth and the conical shaped treatment plant lowered in. Naturally it pivoted about on the point of the 'cone', but all it required was four lengths of timber to prop it in place, then backfill with a dry mix concrete / fill the plant with water.
Our foul water and surface water soakaways were dug out and filled with aggregate, in the case of the surface water, mixed size aggregate I had picked off the spoil heap on site, and for the foul water soakaway, clean aggregate bought in.
Slab laying followed the completion of drainage works, and we now have a 600mm riven slab path running right round the house, as well as the landing/access area at the main door;
The slabs were laid on a dry sand / cement mix, mixed on site using a mixer scoop fitted onto the loadall;
The slabs give us a nice clean edge to landscape up to. The digger is due back shortly to finish digging out / creating our driveway and turning area, and to do the basics of landscaping / earth moving ready for final landscaping in the spring, once the winter weather has done its job and everything has had a chance to settle:
Inside, the joiners have finished off plasterboarding, fitted the kitchen units and staircase. The kitchen has been fitted at this stage as it's being 'built in' with enclosing partitions;
The staircase;
The joiners have built some shelving underneath the stairs, and created a solid balustrade using MDF and plasterboard, topped with an oak handrail. As you can see, I've primed the newel post ready to paint in to the adjacent plasterboard, the idea being we will have a seamless appearance. I'm not sure yet how we will fill the join between newel and plasterboard - flexible filler or caulk.
Oak veneered MDF shelves have been made and will be fitted into the unit once decorating has been completed. Oak veneered MDF faced with a solid oak apron has also been used for the shelves you can see in the kitchen, and for all our window cills.
This next picture shows the stairs after a coat of osmo oil. We had initially been thinking of painting the stringers and risers white so that the oak tread would 'float', but in the end decided to go with the two tone appearance. I spent half a day sanding it all down, and have now applied two coats of oil.
The final couple of pictures show the mezzanine area accessed by the stairs and the view down into the main room;
Where we have solid balustrades, they will be topped with oak to tie in with the other internal finishes and stair balustrade.
The decorator has started and will have the bedroom and link section of the house taped, filled and sanded for me by the middle of the coming week, which will let me get the first half painted while he tapes and fills the other half of the house.
- 1
9 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now