Outbuildings: Week 37, Day 4

Outbuildings: Week 37, Day 4

The floor covering team were back on-site, since they’re happy the self-levelling screed they laid on Monday has dried out enough for further work to proceed. They spent the day tidying up a few areas that weren’t as smooth as they’d like and fitted the ‘coved’ skirting and the capping strip that will cover the top of the vinyl. The weather has turned cold so it’s needing some heating in the Utility Room to make the flooring sheet pliable enough to lay and form up at the edges – ideally it wants to be 18C.

The plumber was back on site too, with the priority for them being the underground mains connections into the new building and removing some redundant underground pipe loops dating back to the House build. While those had been isolated via underground stop taps, it seemed unwise to trust those long-term, so the tee fittings were replaced with straight couplers. There’s just one more loop to remove tomorrow, once the hole dries out a bit more. Then two deep holes that have been open for a few weeks can be filled in.

There was also more progress on the GrassGuard perimeter to the block-paved parking area, which is starting to look much closer to being finished.

Ongoing progress on the Marshalls GrassGuard perimeter around the block-paved area

A larger digger and a dumper truck were also delivered in preparation for the arrival of the replacement concrete headwall, which is due tomorrow.

Outbuildings: Week 37, Day 3

Outbuildings: Week 37, Day 3

As expected, the main build team were back on site and focussed on laying the Marshalls GrassGuard blocks around the perimeter of the block paved area – and tidying up, in preparation for exiting the site. The overflowing skip was removed.

The self-levelling floor screed laid in the Utility Room on Monday had caused some condensation on the windows and doors so I turned on the newly-completed ventilation system and started to take some airflow measurements with a view to properly commissioning that in a few days. Without any of the Extract and Supply valves fitted, the Supply vents were moving significantly more air than the Extract vents – which was surprising because they have longer duct runs. It looks like the fan speed will need increasing on the Extract side (and / or reducing on the Supply side) – since the flow volumes want to be balanced to reduce the tendency to vent air through the building fabric.

The heat pump / air conditioning installation isn’t finished yet and running the ventilation – even though it incorporates Heat Recovery – is tending to cool the building, so there’s a small oil-filled radiator helping to maintain the temperature in the Utility Room to aid the floor laying tomorrow.