LSB

well done Geoff, it's good to see a blog when you know where the site is. Well done on the progress.

what are peoples plans re eating

We had some work done on our roof, I think it was F&H, that is our house, not new build. He charged to put it on, but then just left it until well after the builder finished rather than specific weeks.

Sounds good to us and I like seeing concrete 🙂

When we laid the first concrete slab with suspended rebar due to clay we had to put expansion foam We are now getting ready to pour the floor slab for the other end of the barn, which is on sand so no heave protection needed. So, SE and BC agree that we don't need a suspended rebar floor support, just concrete with rebar within it. But, my brain is aching and I can't think if we still need the expansion foam on the sides. Each of the small areas are 3.5m * 6m and the bigger one is 4m * 13m. This one is still being dug out. Thanks for your thoughts.

What's the plan for Thursday, where and when ? Jill

I would so love to visit the site, but as we are extreme east and you are pretty much extreme west and we have all the animals to consider it just isn't feasible. But, I'm so glad you did all this research as we haven't even considered our cladding options yet as still putting one block on top of another one at infinitum. Well done

Currently the 15th is totally blank in my diary. My OCD doesn't like that so it would be good to put something in. How does that suit- still in Woody I hope

Saga for the day for us. I went to check the safe to see if I had anything worth selling - sadly not, but it's attached to the wall in the back of the wardrobe behind other things and difficult to get at. When trying to get to it I realised that everything around it was soaking, all my posh frocks - never worn these days, lots of important paperwork, the safe was full of water as it has a ledge. Also, some nik naks that were my mothers, worth nothing as such except sentimental value, now in the bin sadly. The floor and boards were also soaked. Before talking to the insurance Dave decided to investigate further. He got into the attic above and discovered a plumbing valve air lock thingy had perished and was dripping. So, I asked, why is so much soaked. Turns out when the heating is on it gushes rather than drips. It is 25 years old as it's in the house extension that we built back then. Oddly, there are 4 of said valves and the other 3 are still perfect. At least the part was only 7.99, it's just the damage it's done. The worst is that the leak is right above a wall which is why I guess we haven't noticed it and we are concerned about the middle of the wall, it is block rather than wood. I used one of said frocks for a party at the end of March so not been leaking for that long. We have guests from tonight until Monday so can't do anything until they have gone because it means draining all the water and possibly heating water as well. But with insurance excess it's not worth claiming. At least it hasn't delayed the real build as we had phase 2 trench fill yesterday so needed to be left to harden and it rained all morning. So, hope your days have gone better.

Another day / date sounds like a good idea to us

bet that's a bit costly

We would be happy to go to the Cherry Tree depending on work commitments as not clear about something in the diary and the person to ask is currently in Lanzarote.

Excellent progress 🙂

Good progress, well done

Our build planning said we must have sprinklers so it is possible without the turning need

Well done Geoff, Woody won't know what's hit it 🙂 Take care Jill & Dave

I hadn't realised that my last entry was in Nov last year. Where has the time gone. As with many self builds, particularly those on a DIY basis we have been very subject to weather slowing things down, not that it could be much slower. But, in fact compared with last year we have done loads. The NOT wall (the side of the barn that was open) is now a wall. This wall is 16m long, with 4 lots of French door gaps. double skin block with 150 cavity and 4 heavy lintels. It then turns the corner to head south. We also had a big overgrown bank which we dug out and cleared. Then out next door farmer came and took away all our soil spoil which we didn't need for some holes in his field. About 40 ton we think. And in the process flattened the bank. I then planted a hedge and seeded the bank. Inside what was the barn we have started digging down, in total it needs to go down 500mm so this is just a start The back bank needed digging back to allow for the digger for drains when we get to that stage. And finally in March we've started taking some of the remaining roof off, to be the stables roof in due course Hard to believe this has gone from bog to beach in a couple of months. Once the roof is dismantled then we can start with the trenches for phase 2 of the build. Thanks for reading. See you next time,.

I hadn't spotted this either, can't do this week.

already done that as we have some hessian from horse feed, just wondered if there was a recommended temperature as it fell to -2 last week after some blocks had been laid on a warm morning.

We've always been told that the temp must be 3 degrees and rising to mix mortar and lay blocks. But, the question is, how long does it need to stay over 3 degrees. At the moment it's warm in the day, say 10 degrees, but getting colder in the evenings, so if they are laid in the morning when it's warm enough, but we know it's going to be cold later, is that a problem. TIA

Hi Alan, we are using Gateway in Bury St Edmunds

Thanks guys for a lovely evening, entertaining and educational and others can just wonder what we discussed 😞

Well my BH locn may be a little old 😞 Or, maybe I'm bringing the helicopter

We will be there, and probably eat as I won't get home from work until 6 and it's 40 mins to get to Stow. There will be 2 of us

Looking for some advice on brick / block laying. We have built up 2 single storey cavity wall to Lintel level and am now running my blocks across the top of the steel lintel. The problem that we are having is as we set each block (7n H&H blocks approx. 9Kg) they seem to “skate” on the mortar, regardless of how dry we mix it. When we am laying block on block there is no problem, a tap with the mallet and the block moves a small predictable amount. On the Lintel they seem to slide about like a bag of monkeys. Is there a trick of the trade that we are missing or some way to overcome this ?