Grosey

Haha my Dad turned up on site on Friday and his very first comment before even Hello was, "You're gonna wish you had holes in that beam!"

Also Roger the Dog has found a new favourite part of the house...

Just a few new photos of current progress. Tanking was completed and polished concrete slab finished at 2am on a Friday night a few weeks ago. Which meant standard house construction could finally begin. Things have progressed well with no major snags at this stage, up to first floor level now ready for block and beams delivery on Monday. The Steels that arrived were a fair bit more substantial than we were expecting. Lots of fiddly work at this stage but after the 1st floor is in place I'm hoping progress will really ramp up. Roof trusses are ordered for delivery on 4/12/16 so currently still on track to be some form of watertight by Christmas. Large Velfac sliding doors that are going on to the balcony won't be delivered until w/c 9/1/17 so full watertight won't be until then.

I use Evernote on the iPhone, add daily whose on site, what's happened and add in a couple of progress pics.

The last of the tanking, finally!

Light a fire = griddle pan for a bison!

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!

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!

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

Ah wasn't aware of the building regs but I expect that is where my 3m floor to floor came from. By the time block and beam first floor is in I expect my garage floor slab to garage ceiling will be no more than 2.7m.

Not sure if I fully understand the question, but this is the completed height for the retaining wall. This ground floor is all garage/workshop and finished garage floor to finished 1st floor is 3m

Wall fully up, 2 more pours next week on Monday and Tuesday to fill it. The logistics of this caused a bit of headscratching as to how to get the concrete up and in that wall - the plan seems now to be a bucket on a telehandler, 2 blocks sat straddling the wall with shovels scraping out of the bucket and in to the wall - or if the drivers good pour it straight in. We shall see. Then to tank and backfill behind, then I'll finally stop the civil engineering and get on with building a house

If you think the wall is thick now there's still the standard cavity wall to go inside this one which forms the structure of the house!

Vibrating poker, first experience of one of those today - Crikey that's a powerful vibrator!!!

Structural engineers design, I purchased the plot with detailed planning permission so wasn't involved at that stage. However from what I've been told this is a fairly standard level of construction to obtain building regs nowadays. Even if it does appear to be OTT. Updated pic pic as of today BTW - Also concrete being shovelled in by hand - the lads earned their brew after this lot!

Concrete in to about 3 courses, everyone has accepted this will be a slower process to avoid issues such as you experienced, I think a couple more concrete loads over next week then hopefully finishing the pour early next week. Tabking is RIW double drain on the outside face and RIW flexiseal on the inside. That's what the structural engineer spec'd however speaking to my builder last week he said that the tanking supplier is looking at designing and specifying a different system, we shall see what they come up with and make a decision.

Hi Anna, I've replied to your PM but just for future forum reference... i got my site insurance with https://www.selfbuild.uk.com/ who had no questions regarding the retaining wall so the issue was avoided. 18 months was about £550

I think I know where your pictures have disappeared to... in the dictionary next to "having a mare!" Hopefully the only similarities we have are the steak pie and chips tomorrow evening! I'm well aware of the risks though, but it's the builders call on this one.

These photos probably best show the full structure of the retaining wall, 5 courses complete on the inner skin now, ready to be filled with concrete tomorrow. Then another 5 courses next week and repeat...

1st skin, steels already set in to the concrete, second skin will be built in front in approx 6 course batches then concrete between the skins, along with additional reinforcing mesh in the "cavity". The external side of this wall will be tanked, as will the internal wall of of the second skin. Once all all that is complete a standard cavity wall will be built inside this lot to form the structure of the house. So this whole wall will end up with 4 "skins" By all accounts apparently this wall is majorly over specified and could probably retain a mountain when it's complete.

Stand pipe, Snack wagon and disciplinary stocks are now in place...

Finally starting to feel like I'm building a house! Steel reinforcing for the retaining wall has been put in, concrete in, first Building Control inspection and first warranty inspection all passed. Builders lockup is now on site, I'll be taking my caravan down tomorrow so we can have bacon and brew facilities. Feels nice ice for the property to be moving upwards in direction after so long going down in the ground! If the concrete is in am I finally out of the woods with groundworks, or is there still potential for any nasty surprises to come out of the ground?

Yes you can get swept tees for D54 that reduce down to D56.

So so where do you purchase a kitchen other than a kitchen showroom? I'd be interested in buying direct from a supplier if possible?