Week 3, Day 1

Week 3, Day 1 – Foundation concrete:

  • On some days, the team focus their energies on things that aren’t particularly visible: researching options for improving the design, comparing prices from different suppliers, arranging deliveries or completing intricate preparations for later steps. On other days the progress is a lot more apparent; today was one of those other days…
  • Following all of the preparation of the foundation trenches the concrete got poured today, using some big bits of plant:
    • A concrete boom pump for easy access to the trenches at the south of the house, over 15m from the driveway.
      • The thing I found most impressive was the degree of control the operator had over the position of the delivery pipe, using the remote control. He was able to manoeuvre the pipe through the network of trenches, barely touching the sides. I suspect that was as much to do with the skill of the operator as with the capability of the hydraulic control system.
    • A total of 7 concrete deliveries, roughly 55 cubic metres in all.

One of the hourly snapshots from the time-lapse camera caught the first concrete delivery.

Week 3, Day 1

Week 3, Day 1

Photos of concrete aren’t the most exciting but here are a few highlights:

Concrete boom pump

Concrete boom pump, manufactured by Putzmeister

Pumping concrete into the shuttering in the old cellar

Pumping concrete into the shuttering in the old cellar

Keeping the pump fed with concrete

Keeping the pump fed with concrete

Northern foundation, all finished

Northern foundation, all finished

Week 2, Day 5

Week 2, day 5:

  • Delivery of a 20-tonne lorry load of stone chippings.
    • This will be used to stop the area by the site cabins becoming so muddy in wet weather.
    • 20 tonnes of stone chippings looks at lot smaller than you’d think!
  • Completing the excavation of the second (southern) GSHP collector trench.
  • Installing marker pegs in the foundation trenches to indicate the required depth of the foundation concrete.
    • The overview photo shows the laser level used to ensure the pegs were all at the right height in relation to Finished Floor Level.
Week 2, Day 5

Week 2, Day 5

Stone chippings delivery

Stone chippings delivery

Southern GSHP collector trench completed

Southern GSHP collector trench completed

Both completed GSHP collector trenches

Both completed GSHP collector trenches – each one is 1.5m wide, 50m long and they’re 10m apart with the excavated soil piled “outboard” to allow access up the central 10m track for laying the sand required below and above the collector pipes, and for installing the pipes themselves. At this stage the further trenches for the pipework tails connecting back to the house had not been dug.

Depth marker pegs in house foundation trench

Depth marker pegs in house foundation trench, ready for concrete. This is the trench at the north side of the house where the ground slopes away; the pegs on he southern side are much further below ground level.