Mulberry View

Well, Liz truss apparently said before she was elected that if she was successful, she would quash it. https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/truss-vows-to-ditch-nutrient-neutrality-rules/5118915.article

That's great. Didn't want to take them off, everything cracks and we have a real problem!! I'll go take a look now.

How long should I leave the shutters in place for? I'm going to take the small ones off, but not so sure about the larger ones.

Good news. The shutters worked. Well, the one that I chose to make from OSB (god knows why), had me on the edge of my seat, but I think we're good. I'll perhaps add some pics when I get a few mins.

Yes, I covered that above!! LOL. I have 2 IBC's cut in half for the trucks to wash out into and a plastic sheet to limit mess on the ground.

Yes, I covered that in a post just above this one. I have some plastic sheeting to put down in the clean-up area, as it's not our land.

That's what I want to hear. I'm super stressed about this, it's been a rough 4 weeks getting to this point. I'm trying to get my head around how to know how much more to order towards the end. I've done precise trench calculations, that got me to just under 42m3, I have 43m3 ordered and apparently they've allowed for some part loads (whatever that means). I can't imagine we'll come in under, some of the trenches are a little on the wide side. But once we get into the latter stages, how do you estimate how much more to have loaded? I'm hoping they'll leave my Carport until last, that's a rectangular shape, with a total of 7.5m3 in it according to my estimate, it'll be easier to figure how much more we need as that area fills up. Trouble is, that's the furthest away from the pump, so I bet they'll want to do it first! I've got a couple of IBC's cut in half for the washout of the trucks and the pump (4 halves in total). I also have a couple of timber crates that we've lined with plastic to give them somewhere to dump any leftovers (but I think they'll only hold a cube tops). I've got myself and my Brother on site, my Father-in-Law as backup help and SWMBO to organise the concrete trucks as these will not be in our line of sight. I've made my laser staff and a timber tamping frame. We have 2 hefty tarmac rakes, spades/shovels and 2 wheelbarrows. We've sprayed guide marks on the sides of the trenches for a depth guide. Anything I've missed?

Baffling, but thanks. I really hope the shutters hold. 🤣

I can't get my head around the notion that this shuttering will work. In this example, the shutter is set up so that the bottom edge is the level of the concrete in the adjoining trench on the other side of the shutter. On the nearside, the step is 600mm (for reference, there is a line of screws that denote the level, it's about 300mm down from the top of the board). As the concrete can flow under the shutter, will the large head of concrete on this side of the shutter not influence the level on the low side? Here's another example. The concrete on the nearside is about 400mm deep and will be level with the underside of the shutter, on the far side, the level rises to 125mm higher, but not quite to the top of the shutter. I'm the king of overthinking. Pour day is tomorrow, I need to be able to sleep tonight knowing my shutters will work.

I can put caps on them.

I'm planning to sort the shuttering today/tomorrow. No doubt I'll overkill that, it's just my way! I assume 18mm Ply/OSB or Chipboard will do fine? As far as depth goes, I'm thinking of banging lengths of rebar into the bottom of the trench to gauge the top of concrete. Some suggest leaving the rebar long so as not to lose it in the concrete. I'll get some 12mm rebar for this and thinking around 2m spacing. Any other pointers there would help. I do have a good rotary level and am planning to make a staff up to measure the top of concrete. Getting the concrete in and right will be a HUUUUGE relief for me, it's been a very stressful few weeks after this whole nightmare episode.

It's a pump grade spec, going in with a boom pump. Will that mean its wetter? Thanks for the pic, I'm assuming some element of your timber will be stuck in the concrete afterwards? How far apart are the 2 steps in the top left of your pic? That's a similar arrangement to mine, though my steps will be bigger of course.

Thanks for your input. Do I need to make the top of the shutter level with the top of concrete or does that not matter? Presumably the bottom of the shutter needs to be level with the top of the concrete in the adjoining trench? I had the idea in my head that that concrete would flow under the shutter from the higher 'chamber' to the lower 'chamber and cause it to overflow. Does that not happen?

Fair point. I have 3 trenches that require this step, circled in red on this plan. The main rectangular shape (the one with 3 sleeper walls) is 600mm lower than the adjoining building. You'll notice that one of the 3 adjoining trenches is rather close to a corner, so I'm not sure of the practicality of 2 steps. Maybe one would be before the corner and one after it? We're on hard chalk, so apparently we don't have to think too much about overlaps.

I'm just debating getting the shuttering in place in my foundation trenches. I have a few to do, but the specific one that's concerning me is one where I have to have a 600mm step on a T-Junction. Instinct initially said to shutter on the face of the joining trench, but I'm now thinking of setting the shutter some way (perhaps 500mm) into the leg of the 'T'. My rationale is that it'll be easier to install the shutter there and will provide a decent infill gap between the step and the adjoining wall, instead of the very short piece I'll have to add if the step is right up to the adjoining trench wall. Would a shutter holding back 600mm of concrete, say 500mm back from a corner be risky? Might it break the corner off the trench? I hope my explanation makes some sense to someone! Also, what materials to use? It would be helpful to see pictures of your shuttering for inspo.

By way of an update, our application to Discharge our Surface Water condition is 2 weeks away from the determination date. Our Local Authority told me yesterday that as things stand right now, they won't be able to determine it, but they are confident of positive news, at least in respect of simple discharges like ours, within the next few weeks. I'll report back as I learn more.

Yes, read this a few days ago. I don't believe anything politicians say, particularly during an election race, but it'd be good news if it was true.

Question time - Our foundation spec is 600mm wide by 300mm minimum concrete, found onto hard chalk. That's it, no steel in the spec (just Claymaster, I'll post separately about that nonsense). I believe I am at hard chalk (no clay in sight whatsoever), but the trenches vary in depth as in some places we had to dig through some soft stuff. I'm planning to survey the trench depths over the next couple of days and produce a plan with spot levels on it, but believe we'll be no less than 400mm concrete and as much as 600-700mm in some places. Is this OK? Can anyone show me an example of how to correctly shutter a stepped footing? How many bodies do I need on pour day? We'll have a 42m boom pump and operator, I'll be leading the effort and armed with a rotary level, which I plan to attach to a previously calibrated depth gauge/tamping arrangement. Will I need chaps with rakes? Or does the pump do a good job of spreading? I'm thinking of one further labourer in addition to me and the pump guy. I think it'll be about 50 cube. On pour day, how can I predict that amount of concrete I'll need at a given stage? For example, if I'm 1" from the top of concrete and the concrete truck is almost empty, how will I know how much to order for the final load? Thanks in advance.

To be clear, my 'mate' is a very experienced guy. He's owns a civil engineering business (but did this job outside of his business), very good with multiple simple houses in larger developments, but a single unusually shaped house with a variety of levels would probably have caught many out. I don't want to hate on this guy, I should have known better and taken control. It's a steep learning curve. No other part of this build intimidates me as much as the foundations.

We had all those debates, having been in the 'mate' trap before. We'd decided against it, but got toppled at the final hour. It's a regret now for sure.

Many others have said that once we're out of the ground, we're in the clear. I took that for granted a bit. The 5T machine has done OK to be honest and I'm grateful that it's a littleun' now that I'm climbing out onto risky precipices. I'm only experienced up to 3T and even that to me is a big machine, so this 5T has been a step out of my comfort zone. The footprint of it is noticeably bigger. It felt far shadier than it looks here. About 2 foot of the rear of the tracks is on soil and the bar was supported on a stack of Heras blocks due to it needing to be directly in line with another trench. We had to pull several like that.

Yes, sadly, due to the FFL's. Our building has 4 'ground floor' levels. The main 'block' is somewhat sunken in the sloped plot, the rear section is quite a way into the ground, so despite only probably ending up with 450mm of concrete, the top of concrete will be over a metre underground. That was the point the 'groundworker' seemed to miss. His trenches were, in the main it turns out, sloped with the plot.

What an absolute cluster-f**k of a week. I had a friend who owns a Groundworks company offer to dig our Foundations as a 'mate'. He didn't want paying for it, he said it'd be a weekends work and would be a breeze for him. SWMBO wasn't keen and I had my doubts, but the offer seemed too good to refuse. However, we finally agreed that we would pay a proper company, too much was at stake. Then, my mate appeared. He said how disappointed he would be if we didn't allow him to flex his great digger skills. So, it was decided that we would do it between us. I hired a 5T machine and a small Dumper, we officially broke ground last Saturday (20th August). A relief for sure. We were digging most of Saturday/Sunday. I have a fairly good understanding of most aspects of this build, but the Foundations had concerned me, I felt out of my depth and made that clear. He assured me that he had this all in hand. After he went, the Wife and I proceeded to survey the bottoms of the trenches. Though obvious we'd hit the solid ground we had been specified to reach, we begun to notice that some areas didn't appear deep enough in terms of their relationship to the finished floor levels. As we got further and further, we realised that a whole section was wrong. If you look at the layout photo and imagine the hardest corner to dig on there, that's the one that was wrong. Not deep enough by almost half a metre!! The week since has been filled with a lot of swearing, frustration and no support from my 'mate. So, realising that nobody was coming to fish us out of the doo-doo, we cracked on. Straddling trenches in ways I never want to repeat, digger balancing on Heras blocks etc, we carefully scratched and scraped our way down through the flint-filled chalk, digger shaking like a shittin' dog, butthole clenched tight the whole time. The nasty stuff is almost done, I have one more tricky trench to fix. it requires me to climb the machine over a trench and onto an 'island' with a foot-or-so of leeway around the digger, before re-pulling one of the middle trenches. Oh, and lots of clearing up and manual removal of spoil from trenches that I could not reach with the digger without risking the walls of the trenches. The focus went off tidiness and onto survival. The place is carnage. Oh, and to add the cherry on the top. We have had to cancel the concrete pour which was planned for next Wednesday because I just don't think I can be confidently ready. This sees us going into September prices, and, I'm told, a 10% price rise. Happy days! Does it get better?!

Interestingly, I did contact Apec last year, but had forgotten until you mentioned their name. The work I was after was much more complicated back then, it's a fairly straight-forward foundation job now. Turns out a friend who is experienced has offered to help. It seems too good to be true and I'll believe it when I see it, but the plan is to dig over the weekend of the 20th/21st and pour the following week. Watch this space! Thanks for the input.

That's exactly it. No, not downloaded the full guide, but will now. Thanks for the link!!