Day 8 (10) - The 'Brickies' have arrived

Although a short day relatively speaking, today was an important day. For today the bricks and bricklayers arrived on site.
Sean and Aidy arrived just after 7.15am and after the obligatory supply of teas (milk & 3 sugars for Sean and milk & 1 sugar for Aidy) they had a quick look over of the site and the architect's drawings.
They then set up the surveying equipment to make sure they laid the bricks straight and in the right place in relation to the existing building.



Laser Level (Aidy in the background)



The blocks, bricks, cement and sand for this stage had already been delivered the previous day so all that was left to do was unload the cement mixer and start laying the bricks

 

Engineering bricks

As you can see in the image below, the concrete blocks are laid on top of the concrete foundations topped off with a course and a half of the engineering bricks to bring it to the damp proof course (DPC) level. The gap in between is for insulation. the same was laid at the front of the house in preparation for building the porch.

Bricks laid to DPC level

Detail showing gap through which soil pipe will pass through

 As all the heavy excavation work, the mini-excavator and dumper were taken away leaving a bit more space on our drive for the arrival of the bricks...once we can decide on which type to go for.

Ready and waiting for some hardcore action

The challenge we have with the brickwork is that we have to match the existing bricks as best we can; this is a condition of being granted planning. However, the house was built in 1954 and as you can appreciate, measurements were still carried out in imperial units e.g. inches, feet, yards as opposed to metric mm, cm, metre etc. 
So not only is it difficult to get your hands on inexpensive imperial sized bricks these days, but the few places you can get them only offer 2 or three types of brick, none of which are a carbon copy of the existing bricks.
The new bricks will also contrast for the first few years with the weathered, slightly darker bricks on display. Whichever ones we choose, it'll be noticeable.

More news on this tomorrow when we get the samples.

Day 6 (8) - Concrete, tree stumps and an escaped dog

After the break over the weekend, it was back to normal this morning.
Darran, Callum and Steve were out on the site after their morning brews, removing the shoring from the 2 trenches and readying them for the delivery of the concrete for the foundations.

The concrete, once set, will provide the base upon which the bricklayers will start to build upon, The concrete was delivered by Master Concrete which delivers concrete in a Volumetric Concrete Mixer (VCM). As opposed to the old fashioned Drum Mixers, a VCM delivers the ingredients (water, ballast, cement powder) seperately and mixes them as they are poured out on site. In this way, you only pay for what you use and you don't incur any "un-carried" charges (the charge for unused, mixed concrete being returned and disposed of).

The 45 tonne beast

Our delivery was the maximum 9m³ which is poured out at a rate of 1m³ of concrete per minute.


Water, ballast and cement - easy as A,B,C

Before long, the porch and side extension foundations had been laid and covered over with plywood so as to protect it from any adventurous cats (although Eddie did manage to get out via the back garden, run out on the Green opposite our house, and give Callum the run around before baing brough back in.
The concrete will set overnight, ready for the bricklayers to start their job beginning with a few courses of engineering bricks.



Steve & Callum supervise the flow

Out at the front of the house, the smaller trench for the porch was also filled and the guys took advantage of having the mini-excavator to dig out the trench for the new water supply pipe and remove the tree stumps of a birch and beech tree to allow us to lay turf once the build is finished.

That's it for now.

Hasta mañana!