Kelvin Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 Floor slab poured today. Feels like a big milestone as that’s the foundation complete ready for the kit next month. Steelwork for garage floor done ready for foundation pour on Monday. Foundation for retaining wall poured. Good progress this week despite the weather. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorfun Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 13 minutes ago, Kelvin said: Good progress this week despite the weather. the weather looks great! what are you talking about? 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 24, 2023 Author Share Posted March 24, 2023 😂 it was blowing a gale on Wednesday so we gave up with the DPM laying. Also been peeing down all week. Today been the best day. Ironically we could do with a bit of raining on the slab now. Due to rain later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 27, 2023 Author Share Posted March 27, 2023 Lovely day today for the garage floor pour. Garage gets delivered next week. Brickies back tomorrow to build the retaining wall. Drainage to finish off this week. Then a general tidy up and hardcore all down around the site and machines off by the end of the week. Give the ground a chance to settle a bit before the kit arrives in three weeks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 30, 2023 Author Share Posted March 30, 2023 Busy few days. Shuttering off the garage floor. Final finish could have been a little better but I’m covering it anyway. Drainage and ducting mostly complete, retaining wall built but we are going to go 200mm higher. Starting to get final MOT down. Site has dried up really quickly after all the pissing rain. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorfun Posted March 30, 2023 Share Posted March 30, 2023 coming along nicely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted March 30, 2023 Share Posted March 30, 2023 Keep these pics coming. Proper constrruction. Our project is floor tiling at the moment and not the most exciting pictures for the forum. Is the retaining wall just to a hardstanding, ie no waterproofing required? Can't see, so have you got drainage behind it, or weep holes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 30, 2023 Author Share Posted March 30, 2023 (edited) Yes drain behind and weep holes. There was an old field drain running between the house and garage so that’s been re-engineered and the drain behind the wall feeds into it. I’m really pleased with what will effectively be a courtyard between the house and garage and into this hard standing area. It’ll make for a nice area to sit in as the front of the house is quite exposed to the wind Edited March 30, 2023 by Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted March 30, 2023 Share Posted March 30, 2023 It can be scorching. The worst sunburn I ever had was in Perthshire...and roads melting. And your patio will be ready for that week every decade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 Founds finished. All drainage in. MOT all around and general tidy up. Garage arrives next week snd timber kit from the 17/4. Couldn’t be happier with the groundswork guys. Professional, easy to work with and very fair minded. They’ll come back after the kit is up to concrete the steels in place. Then back for 3 weeks in July after the scaffold is down to build soakaways, connect drainage, install the PTP and some initial landscaping. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted March 31, 2023 Share Posted March 31, 2023 Have you covered the concrete to cure and protecf it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 We did have it covered but it was overheating. They said it would fine to be left uncovered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted March 31, 2023 Share Posted March 31, 2023 Wrong. It needs to be kept wet for a week. Although a week of drizzle is ideal so maybe now ok. But wind drying will also be bad. Overheating is a new one to me. That only happens in hugely thick concrete pours...dams, power stations. The sample cubes the rmc companies take are kept under warm water for 30 days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorfun Posted March 31, 2023 Share Posted March 31, 2023 57 minutes ago, Kelvin said: Then back for 3 weeks in July after the scaffold is down to build soakaways, connect drainage, install the PTP and some initial landscaping. if my experience of self-building is anything to go by i'd be surprised if those dates are hit! everything ALWAYS takes longer than you expect. that is unless you've already added 2 weeks contingency between each stage (which i didn't so never hit dates!). obviously, i hope you do hit them but i found it got quite stressful when i'd lined next trades up but things ran over and had to delay them etc. in the end i started adding at least 2 weeks between trades to help reduce my stress levels. site looks awesome btw. the TF just flies up and by the end of April you'll have a structure which is an amazing milestone. how exciting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 The garage slab has been wet since it was poured on Monday. We covered it up yesterday because it was much warmer but the surface water was still evaporating off it too quickly. Rain was forecast last night so we uncovered it. The house slab has been down for longer and has pretty much been wet for most of that time. The water was pooling a wee bit at one end and dry at the other so I spread it out. Today it’s been raining all day on and off. I have an IBC of water on site in case I need to wet it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 (edited) I put in a month contingency between groundworks finishing and timber kit arriving and we used 2 weeks of that. The clock has reset for the kit obviously. They are saying 10 days to complete. I have 2 weeks contingency planned in for the kit. I spoke to all the follow on trades this week to update them and they are still on to start mid May with the roofers planned middle of June. The joiner has a bit of pre-work to do on the roof plus fit the rooflights which will be the first task. But yes expecting delays of course. Edited March 31, 2023 by Kelvin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorfun Posted March 31, 2023 Share Posted March 31, 2023 19 minutes ago, Kelvin said: I put in a month contingency between groundworks finishing and timber kit arriving and we used 2 weeks of that. The clock has reset for the kit obviously. They are saying 10 days to complete. I have 2 weeks contingency planned in for the kit. I spoke to all the follow on trades this week to update them and they are still on to start mid May with the roofers planned middle of June. The joiner has a bit of pre-work to do on the roof plus fit the rooflights which will be the first task. But yes expecting delays of course. you're already was ahead of me then! i was so naive when i started and thought everything would go like clockwork. what a fool i was. 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted March 31, 2023 Share Posted March 31, 2023 Good to see you being considerate of the contractors. The timber frame people must be forever juggling postponed projects, which then clash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 Yes can’t be easy lining the jobs up especially if you are on and off the job at different points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markharro Posted March 31, 2023 Share Posted March 31, 2023 7 hours ago, saveasteading said: Wrong. It needs to be kept wet for a week. How critical is this? We have 2 separate slabs just poured after powerfloating - we intend the slabs to be our final floor finish. The first on Monday was left to the rain until yesterday when we covered it with polythene thinking that would slow down the curing. The smaller slab went down on Wed and has been uncovered since and left to the rain and drizzle. More drizzle all day tomorrow then 3 days of dry weather when I was intending to cover this smaller slab too. Should I uncover the first slab for the rain tomorrow? what about the smaller one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted March 31, 2023 Share Posted March 31, 2023 3 hours ago, markharro said: How critical is this? see message on other trail. Nobody will die with 1mm cracks under a house, but why not do things right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markharro Posted April 1, 2023 Share Posted April 1, 2023 Yes agreed but thats not our concern.....its that the exposed concrete will eventually be our floor so I'd prefer to minimise any cracking and understand how best to do that now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted April 1, 2023 Share Posted April 1, 2023 32 minutes ago, markharro said: minimise any cracking So as well as not adding water, then keeping it wet, there is the subject of crack control using crack inducing joints and reinforcing mesh. Need any advice on that? What does your drawing or spec say? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markharro Posted April 1, 2023 Share Posted April 1, 2023 Thanks - yes agonised for ages on cutting joints etc and in the end the installer advised not bothered - one of the concerns was our UFH pipes. May live to regret it but thats what we are doing. I am really just interested in whether we should be keeping it under polythene now for the next week or doing that that and also removing say once a day to wet it and recover? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted April 1, 2023 Share Posted April 1, 2023 I expect it us wet enough so just keep it covered. Is this concrete on which there will then be insulation then screed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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