Outbuildings: Week 40, Day 3

Outbuildings: Week 40, Day 3

Quite a busy day on-site, with the most visible progress being the installation of the galvanised steel handrail and balustrade for the external staircase.

Galvanised steel handrail and balustrade for the external staircase

This will be left with its galvanised finish rather than being painted, to match the galvanised frames for the adjacent door and window and the galvanised light fittings – and the zinc roof of the house. The bright silver finish will darken down a bit over time.

The main build team were also back to work through the initial snagging list from the Architect. Most of that got completed, though the testing of the foul drainage showed up a major leak in an underground pipe which is presumed to have been fractured by the weight of a digger driving over it; there’s not much depth of soil ‘cover’ over the underground pipes in the Courtyard. The damaged section of pipe was replaced but the nature of the damage means there might be further damaged sections.

Outbuildings: Week 36, Day 2

Outbuildings: Week 36, Day 2

The garage door installation team were back on site to finish up the last few bits and pieces, which only took a couple of hours. The Hormann RollMatic 2 shutters have quite a sophisticated motor control system, with a ‘soft stop’ at the bottom of their run and they lift faster than they lower (when they need to be checking for an increase in motor load that might indicate an obstruction). The four-button remote controls have been configured to operate all of the doors from each remote control.

The electrical installation team were also back on site, completing all the outdoor lighting, the last of the indoor lighting, the special sockets for the rainwater harvesting system and some of the work on the two myenergi Zappi electric car chargers. A few more hours tomorrow should see the electrical installation completed – apart from the electric shower, which needs to wait until the wall has been tiled (which needs to wait for the floor covering to go down).

Completed Garage Doors with their External Lighting

One other bit of progress was a trial fitting of the steel handrail for the external staircase, before that gets fully welded and galvanised. It just needs a couple of adjustments to the fixing brackets – and the ‘return’ section of the rail for the landing needs fabricating.

Trial fitting of the steel handrail for the External Staircase