Canski

This will keep the weeds down. Concrete pour tomorrow then relax again. 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Canski

Brickwork tomorrow / Weds depending on when everything arrives on site. Wellies are at the ready.

getting there ! It’s tough on my own 🙄

any reason for using 2 x 7n's over 1 x trench block ?

On 03/08/2023 at 07:04, Dave Jones said:

any reason for using 2 x 7n's over 1 x trench block ?

Cost mainly. 

Update….beam and insulated block time. I didn’t know what time they were coming so I went alone and planned to wait there and unload them when they arrived and go and catch up on paid work. 
 

The weather wasn’t good so I opted to stay and move the beams around on my Tod. Not a bad day in the end but I was ready for a pint when I got home. Today was a bit slow. The insulated blocks fly in but the cuts take a while.  Hopefully we will have one house completed tomorrow. 
 

 

On 09/08/2023 at 19:16, Canski said:

Cost mainly. 

 

so it was cheaper to pay the brickie to lay 2 blocks over 1 ? 

My brickie is cheap 😀. The cost of the materials is the issue a trench block is way more than 2 x 7 kn blocks. I know you save on cavity fill but you also lose a bit of leg room for half of the wall. I prefer to put 1 course of both skins of blocks down then cavity fill with a trough and then level the ground out up to the blocks to make it easier for my next 2 coursing brick courses up to B & B

Edited August 11, 2023 by Canski

1 ready for UFH 1 to go. UFH going in on the first plot tomorrow and Sunday 🙄🙄 No church this week. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Canski

Both plots are ready for the oversite pour now. It was planned for last Thursday but due to the heavy rain that was forecast I postponed it. There will be a small cost involved but better safe than sorry. It’s not going to cause any delays as I had planned to get all the foul drainage in next week (I’m  still waiting for my sky plastics delivery  after 4 weeks)  and to stone the site up ready for brickwork and scaffold. It’s also a shame the supplier of the hardcore has re discovered the beer glass and has gone awol. I’m on to plan b with a more expensive supplier. This has been a frustration since demolition because the demo contractor was supposed to leave me 100 tonnes of crushed brick as part of the deal. I’m now learning that many people don’t do what they promise. I need to go back to some paid work for a few days ( for a rest mainly) today is my first day off in 5 weeks. 

Well it has been manic but just another day for me I guess. It has been non stop since demolition and I have had 3 days off since the 4th July. I have put some hours in an effort to get watertight by Xmas. I have never worked so hard. On a plus I have lost 14 KG around 2 stone in old money.  The brickwork will be up to wall plate on the 2 houses tomorrow ready for the trusses and crane on Friday. Or so I thought. .......

 

Yesterday the Trad deck guys failed to show but the material was delivered which took up the whole front of the site so I had to ask the scaffolders to come Weds instead of yesterday. They have been great to be fair, very communicative and flexible. Trad deck came today and put the safety platform in both houses in a few hours. 

 

Today the substitute crane driver came out to site because the original one turned up last Friday after 2 weeks of badgering him to see the site. Yesterday he decided that he may not reach but knew a guy who could. Well the substitute turned up today to take a look and decided he couldn't reach either.  He has a second Hiab crane with a fly jib that can do the job but of course it's booked out for Friday but available Thursday.

 

A few frantic phone calls later and I have managed to get the trusses delivered tomorrow and I will have to offload them with the telehandler   or by hand.  The long crane and luckily the chippies will be here on Thursday.

 

What could possibly go wrong ? a storm or something ?

 

People are the problem in this game. Not many do as they say they are going to do and the worst thing of all is they wait until the last minute to let you down. I don't know how they survive in business with the chaos that they create.

 

Rant over it's time for a beer. Well it would be if my local wasn't closed tonight due to lack of staff. 

 

Feel your pain! If people just did the job they're being paid for properly, and during the timing they confirmed... Everything would be 10x easier for 'us'. But that would require just a little bit of effort and care on their part... Which never happens because they don't care nor can be bother for the effort. It's a shitty industry.

We got there in the end. Thursday 

wasn’t the best day to be craning trusses into place and Saturday wasn’t the most pleasant day to be messing around in a roof space but the lads battled through the weather and after a bit of finishing off this morning we have 2 roofs completed ready for me to get my trowel out again tomorrow.  

Edited November 5, 2023 by Canski

I have not seen Trad Deck on self build before.  What was the cost for the 2 houses with delivery and collection?

1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

I have not seen Trad Deck on self build before.  What was the cost for the 2 houses with delivery and collection?

200 m2 labour £520 in £520 out and 2 weeks hire £540 plus £60 delivery. That was the easy bit … 5 trees worth of paperwork copies of hired in plant insurance, personal guarantees for payment, pre start meeting, references, one no show ( Monday clubbers) reorganise the whole week due to this blah blah blah 😂😂

Roofs completed, gables built on one house and half way up the other. The roofers start on Monday after a delay in deliveries due to me changing the roof tiles. I had both the LABC and the warranty inspector out on Tuesday and they have passed the houses off with flying colours. 😀

 

The LABC inspector was there for about 7 minutes and the warranty inspector for about 2 hours. I now know all about the LABC guys divorce 😂

 

Onwards and downwards now. I can't wait to see the back of the scaffolding and regain access to the rear of the site for the landscaping before I say goodbye to the forklift.

 

My next battle recommences with the DNO. It is now 19 months since i first applied for electric connection quotes and I feel that I am no nearer getting connected now than I was 19 months ago. 

 

Oh and I just had another council tax bill for a building that was demolished in July. 

I’ve not had time recently for updates. Getting there now. Slowly but surely. The roofer is supposed to be coming back this week to finish off.