Showing posts with label utilities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label utilities. Show all posts

3 Jan 2014

Week 4 - Propping the slip and best foot forward


So Monday afternoon saw Charles, our structural engineer, and I, join Andrew on site to have a look at the slip and discuss next steps.  Charles was happy that we could prop the area and that would allow work to continue safely.  Andrew was keen that our solution be in timber as that's what he knows best and it can also be reused later in the project - sustainability!






So by Tuesday afternoon we had the very lovely hand drawn drawings (it makes me want all my technical drawings done by hand now!) and the delay was over.






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28 Nov 2013

Week 2 - Trenching the services and utilites

Andrew and Paul got in touch with their inner moles and dug, trenched and tunnelled away.  





They dug the trench on the upper level which contains the ducting for gas and water connections.







Then came the lower level trenching - this was a much bigger job altogether, not helped by the fact that the weather turned and the heavens opened. At one point the digger fell into a trench - poor little Takeuchi, but no mortal damage. A breaker had to be hired as in some places the rock seams reappeared and the little digger just wasn't going to manage it.  But straining and groaning she got there in the end.

 The ground has been really varied, there is the crazy sand like stuff- presumably crumbled limestone, seams of rock - or the core of the earth as Andrew likes to call it, and then rich black soil in the area I hope will become an orchard one day!



Off-site, it was all about the design of 'the hub', and finalising the structural details of the retaining walls.  So far so good, and only a minor, very manageable drama!
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21 Nov 2013

Introducing our builder!

Our builders have started!  May I introduce 
Mr Andrew Dodden of Dodden Ltd...







and Paul.



(As well as Andrew's beloved little digger in the background.)


These fine fellows are the chaps who are going to build our house - Hooray!  

Andrew has been working closely with our team of designers and structural engineer since early summer.  Together they have collaborated to design a build which should be super efficient and super simple (we're hoping that that means quick and cheap to construct)!  The first day had an auspicious start with a clear and sunny welcome.

But there will be no building of the house yet, oh no!  First couple of weeks of work will involve getting all the services trenched and ducted, then it's all about retaining walls until Xmas probably. 

We've got water, gas and telecoms coming from the top of the site.   Then there is the very, very long trench to the bottom of the site which will house the drains and electricity.  We saw the seams of stone that lay beneath the ground when we made the cut, let's hope it doesn't make the trenching difficult...


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