April 25, 20179 yr Well we're certainly having some fun with groundworks this week! The quote of the day from the digger driver today was "what you have here boy is a bloody quarry" Even something as simple as a drainage trench is proving troublesome. Top middle in this picture you can see a scraped rock. We've had to get a pecker in tommrow to break it up as the 13T digger won't shift it. We've been moving rocks as big as 3-4ft all day.
April 25, 20179 yr That must be a biggie if a 13t machine won't shift it. Even my little 3t machine lifted this one (that's a 2ft bucket to give some scale)
April 25, 20179 yr Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics next week - a 30t is coming onsite to excavate the garage (And lift landscaping materials up the hill). We're digging the garge into the ground batcave style and think it's pretty much all rock. Should be interesting!
April 25, 20179 yr Author 15 minutes ago, jamiehamy said: Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics next week - a 30t is coming onsite to excavate the garage (And lift landscaping materials up the hill). We're digging the garge into the ground batcave style and think it's pretty much all rock. Should be interesting! Crikey. 30T! That's a biggun!!
April 25, 20179 yr Author 24 minutes ago, ProDave said: That must be a biggie if a 13t machine won't shift it. Even my little 3t machine lifted this one (that's a 2ft bucket to give some scale) I think the correct term is "seam" rather than "rock"
April 25, 20179 yr Author 4 minutes ago, Onoff said: This seems a more appropriate avatar: I like it.
April 25, 20179 yr Just now, Barney12 said: I like it. I will look at my clay/flint ground with a new found enthusiasm on the basis it's not as bad as YOURS! (Still a bitch without a digger!)
April 25, 20179 yr My recent trial pits exposed limestone, oh I am looking forward to starting my foundations !
April 26, 20179 yr If only I was building in cob - http://greenbuilding.co.uk/make-a-date-in-your-diary-for-clayfest-2017/
April 26, 20179 yr I look on our glacial till / made ground mix with new-found affection. All it needs is a clay spade and a Dinky Toy digger
April 26, 20179 yr I've got old foundations to contend with too! What looked just a boggy bit of ground was in fact waterlogged due to the footings of some old structure. Got to v.careful so as not to disturb the clay drains running through. Judging by how solid they are I'm sure they were built by the Germans who did the Jersey fortifications! I read somewhere they were forced to add coal ash/waste to their concrete mix due to supply issues and it turned out super strong! Edited April 26, 20179 yr by Onoff
April 26, 20179 yr 23 minutes ago, Onoff said: [...]Got to v.careful so as not to disturb the clay drains running through.[...] We did disturb ours and so had to replace them. As soon as we relaid the drain, it ran merrily for a couple of days - whereas before there was a hardly discernible trickle. So, if you do break through the drain, it's not all bad news.
April 27, 20179 yr Try not to be too noisy using your pecker. out of interest is it expensive? I'll be needing a big pecker myself soon.
April 27, 20179 yr It's to dig out the garage which will be pretty much underground - so excavating 9m x 12m and around 2.5m down - think it's about £6k for that.
April 27, 20179 yr That's going to be a nice garage . Pretty cool to be underground, what's going on top? Will it be kind of invisible?
April 27, 20179 yr We'll be growing grass on top and having a couple of bee hives :-) The plan was to get our first colony thus year but think we will wait until next season. But yes, hopefully it'll be pretty much h invisible from the house
April 27, 20179 yr 1 hour ago, jamiehamy said: It's to dig out the garage which will be pretty much underground - so excavating 9m x 12m and around 2.5m down - think it's about £6k for that. Does this include getting rid of your spoil? Or are you using what's excavated elsewhere? I'm looking at excavation of roughly the same amount for our founds and trying to get some prices together.
April 27, 20179 yr 36 minutes ago, Rossek9 said: Does this include getting rid of your spoil? Or are you using what's excavated elsewhere? I'm looking at excavation of roughly the same amount for our founds and trying to get some prices together. That includes removal of spoil. I had another prices that was higher but in the same ballpark.
April 27, 20179 yr Thanks for that @jamiehamy Our plot is made up ground so hopefully won't need a machine as big as 30t but nice to get a ballpark.
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