Outbuildings: Week 2, Day 1

Outbuildings: Week 2, Day 1

The footprint of the buildings is clearly taking shape as the ground was further levelled out ready for the foundation trenches to go in – and the natural slope of the site is more clearly evident.

Just out of shot to the left there’s a mini crusher ready to work on the pile of concrete chunks from the demolition of the old floor slabs – though those need a bit more preparation to remove the reinforcing steel from some of the pre-cast concrete units.

Mini-crusher ready to start work on the pile of concrete chunks

This was the first of the reinstated automated daily posts, where a simple placeholder with a site photo from 12:00 gets uploaded every weekday – then manually edited later. WP-CLI does most of the work.

Outbuildings: Week 1, Day 5

Outbuildings: Week 1, Day 5

With the general site clearance completed, work progressed to preparing for digging the trenches for the concrete strip foundations. This included establishing the level for the top of the foundations, as shown in the photo. The subsoil is distinctly more orange than the topsoil and demolition rubble on top, and should provide a solid base for the foundations.

The old concrete floor slabs broadly followed the slope of the site: higher at the South (right of the photo) and lower at the North (left) – I think mostly to help with draining cow slurry from the old cow shed. The new buildings will have the same floor level throughout, so slightly dug-in to the site at the South and slightly elevated to the North.