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Week 4 - out of the ground, or is that in?

Red Kite

Entry posted by Red Kite

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Digging is progressing well despite the rain - they had to pump out a bit as we had that swimming pool we wanted! They had no muck away on Monday so only 4 days and the bulk of the big dig is complete and you can start to see the scale of the project. They have done the rough dig and are now levelling out the bottom and starting to place a layer of stone that will then be concreted over to form the slab. The hole is actually bigger than the basement by about 1m all round so they have room to work so it will get smaller! You can see that they are laying a gravel filled French drain all round the back to collect the water that runs out of the clay in the thin layers of sand, but given the rain we have had the water is not at all bad. We have to say the contractors are absolutely brilliant - very pleased so far, but for them this is a relatively small hole - hate to think what a big one looks like!

 

Now the big dig is done we can heave a sigh of relief because there were no 'nasties' underground to cause us unforeseen problems - one of the advantages of such a huge excavation - so we are technically 'out of the ground' (it might not look like that though) and past that big landmark moment. Its taken a lot to get to this point - its really good to know we are moving forward and been a long uphill struggle to this point - now we should coast downhill all the way!!!

 

The Building Control Officer came out this week and brought a couple of his graduates (who like the BC Officer really loved the project which is really encouraging) as they dont get to see this kind of construction often (or ever before if I understood right!), probably because not many people are as insane as we are! He was really happy with the soil conditions and the works so we can proceed with the slab and he will be back when the steel is in and we are ready for the first pour. He is really helpful and supportive and a complete contrast to Planning (the less said here the better), we get the feeling his goal is the same as ours - a really great building. We had some discussion about a window from the garage/ workshop into the pool room - it needs to be fireproof as its between a garage and habitable space, and its also through the thermal envelope so it needs to be thermally efficient. Now these two requirements (FR 60 and PH) clash and we have struggled to find anything that does both (at any price). We batted about some options and he made some good suggestions to mitigate the problem. But in fact I think we will follow the Architect who said - its only a workshop and you can buy an awful lot of lights for the cost of a very special window! So artificial light in the workshop will be fine.

 

We have also finalised the windows because a 12 week leadtime means they need to be in production in time for the TF. After much research / quotes and head scratching we selected Internorm for two main reasons - firstly they do a really neat integrated Juliet balcony that was proving very tricky for the SE and Architect and was going to be really expensive to do any other way (though the Internorm solution is expensive its really simple). Also we were going for wood/aluminium on both houses, but they do a PVC/aluminium range that is 15-20% cheaper, has the same external appearance and performance and looks really pretty neat on the inside in dark grey (not at all like your typical uPVC windows). So Plot 1 will go that way and this brings the cost down. The only concern is the quality of the fitting (we are assured that they now have this under control) - the quality of the windows  is amazing. We just need to bottom out on front doors - any suggestions as the Internorm option was pricey.

 

Also signed Nick (from Wales) up for M&E - looking forward to that and he does seem to be one of the few people who knows exactly how to integrate all the bits and pieces that come with PH levels of design.

 

So that's it for another exciting week - hope you liked the videos atmospheric look as the digger appears out of the mist/rain at the beginning of the day - we worked so hard to achieve that effect. Seriously does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve the problem of overnight condensation on the camera?

 

See https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0 for the week by week video diary

 

P.S. seem to have solved the battery problem for the TL camera by using Energiser Ultimate Lithium AA's - at least they do more than Duracell - appreciate the suggestion on external battery pack and will go for that if the Energisers dont prove to last long enough.

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Tennentslager

Nice videos there, you need sharp eyes to see the truck that takes away the soil, I thought the digger driver just made a mound and it magically disappeared 

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Red Kite

I wish!!! If you can figure how to magically get rid of muck-away then you have it made and lots of folk here will beat a path to your door! Trust me those super quick lorries are really expensive- money gone in the blink of an eye?. I think there is an expression "where there's muck there's brass" - no more true than when you build a house - but I believe that a portion goes in tax so at least I am supporting a worthy cause!

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Jeremy Harris

I think the muck away cost alone for our ground works came to over £9k.  Sadly we had no topsoil worth saving, as the whole plot had been overgrown with small trees, shrubs, brambles etc for years, so the top stuff was full of roots.  Landfill tax was a fair hunk of the cost, too.

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Bitpipe

Brings back memories of our basement - we dug it over 3 days with 72 truck visits to do the muck away - that was for a hole about 12m2 and 3.5m deep - clay, gravel and some chalk.

 

What's your basement build method / insulation strategy?

 

We laid a 'foundation' of 300mm thick EPS 200 (which sat on 150mm of crush blinded with 50mm of sand), covered it with a membrane and the slab was cast on that. 200 mm EPS 70 applied to the external walls.

 

We put a land drain to soakaway at the base of the slab and backfilled with fist sized stones - essentially a giant french drain all around the basement. At ground level it still needs finished with a strip of geotex fabric and some decorative shingle.

 

Good luck!

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