Outbuildings: Week 35, Day 3

Outbuildings: Week 35, Day 3

Progress on the groundworks is stalled waiting for a replacement concrete headwall – and the digger and dumper have been off-hired until that arrives.

Good progress on the electrics today though. The socket ring-mains are now ‘live’ in the Utility Room and Workshop, and more than half of the ceiling-mounted light fittings are installed and tested. Mains power is also available for the heat pump, water heaters, and alarm system.

Surface-mount ceiling light fittings in the Utility Room; 8 in total (plus 1 IP-rated fitting in the Shower Room). The internal unit for the air-to-air heat pump is also clearly visible.

The secondary electrical distribution board in the Garage, which serves the Northern half of the building, is much less well advanced than the primary board, so will take a few more days to power up and test. That means the roller shutter garage doors will have to be commissioned from an extension lead.

There were also a couple of preparatory visits by the contractors who will apply sealant to the external staircase and the brickwork expansion joints, as well as the team who will install the floor covering in the Shower Room and the Utility Room.

Outbuildings: Week 35, Day 2

Outbuildings: Week 35, Day 2

Better weather than had been forecast – windy but dry – enabling all the threshold drains around the Courtyard to be installed. The Garage doors need to have level thresholds so it’s essential for those to have drains to prevent water seeping under the roller shutters, but around the Courtyard there will be a step up to all the doors, of two brick courses, so the drains aren’t strictly necessary – but they could be raised if any of the doors need level access in the future.

A few other odd-jobs:

  • Repairing the broken drain pipe discovered yesterday
  • Checking the heat pump outdoor unit that was delivered at 7pm yesterday
  • Reviewing the work required to connect the water mains – and concluding the still-open excavations need a bit more hand-digging before proceeding