The off and on weather had pushed back his previous jobs, and there was a danger that would happen to us too, meaning more money!
But last Sunday, he turned up with his Land Rover and trailer with his digger in the back at about half 8.
Whilst I began a fried breakfast feast and made the teas, he made a start digging our deep trenches!
Roots were a bit of a problem as they are everywhere!
But he had no trouble digging through the concrete drive way. Like cutting through butter amazingly!
By the end of Sunday, the space allocated for the earth was full, with one side still not finished! We massively underestimated how much earth would be coming out of the ground. It's difficult to see how deep they are in photos, but I had this one of Andy in the trench. He is just over 6ft tall.
Pretty deep!
Monday morning, Andy arranged for 2 grab loaders to come and take the earth away. Just to put into perspective how much earth we ended up moving: a grab loader can take 16 tonnes of earth. We had 6 grab loaders come out in total! And let me tell you - they are not cheap!
On top that, we were also paying for a dumper truck that Andy was driving to move dirt from one place to another. We looked like a proper building site!
Day 2 had another set of problems. The digging on the other side unveiled some sort of brick tank. No idea what it was...but it was nasty smelling and had nasty stuff in there. That took pretty much the rest of the day to break down. It also meant our foundations had got wider at that point, which meant we needed more concrete!
The digger chap and Andy had estimated 32 to 36 cubic metres of concrete so 40 was ordered for a delivery on Friday. We used a company who pre mix the concrete on site as opposed to off site. That means it will only mix as much as you need so there is no waste, and prevents you from ending up with not enough.
Day 2 we had building control out to inspect the depth. He turned up in his suit and nice shoes, peered over the edge and said they were fine and left again! £500 well spent there! At least it's a private firm and not the council!
The foundations are massively over engineered in my opinion for a single story extension so I imagine they thought the same also and just wanted to check we had solid bottoms to the trenches.
After 3 days of digging, the digger man and Andy added levelling points inside the trenches and he went home, ready to return for the big pour on Friday.
For the rest of the week, Andy and I finished off the foundations, levelling and adding the clay heave.
The clay heave is something our structural engineer said we needed. As the clay expands and contracts, the polystyrene sheets take the weight, therefore not compromising the foundations and leading to subsidence.
It was a pain to put them up and secure them, given the foundations were not a perfectly flat surface for them to sit against. They need to be secure to the side of the trench, otherwise when you pour the concrete, they just float to the surface and you're buggered!
To add insult to injury, Wednesday night brought rain and the morning saw a part of the foundations collapse. Thursday night meant I finished off the clay heave whilst Andy frantically dug out the collapsed side.
Foundations needed to sit on a solid surface, so lose ground is not acceptable - hence the getting rid of the additional tonne that had collapsed before the concrete came the next morning.
The last job was to build a brace where there is a step in the foundations on the left side (as you face the house). This is due to there being a change of floor height between the bedroom and bathroom.
It was a late night, but we did it!
The sunrise on Friday brought a man and his machine! Digger man had a friend who had a giant crane with a pump on the end.
When you get concrete delivered, they deliver it down a chute. The pumps you sometimes see usually need to be rented separately. Also, you are allowed 15 minutes of unloading time for free. After that, you get charged by the minute! So you need to get the concrete off the lorry and into the trench as quickly as possible. Hence the chap with the big ass remote controlled rig and pump!
Then the digger man turned up. He was there to basically make sure the concrete is poured and levelled correctly. Foundations is the most important part of building. Messing it up is not an option so we were willing to pay for the right people to be there. Andy just couldn't have done it on his own - plus there is added pressure to get it right.
About an hour later, the first concrete truck turned up and the pumping began!
Then the next truck turned up.
Then the third one turned up and started pumping..then broke! The driver had to manually start shovelling the mix in the back of that truck so pumping resumed.
Finally, the 4th truck turned up and the pumping was finished!
By lunchtime, the foundations were finished!
It feels great to finally have them done! It's been 2 years and 2 months since we bought the place and it's amazing that this is finally happening!!!
The most difficult and most expensive part is now done and dusted! I don't want to jinx it, but hopefully the rest will be easier! No other nasty things to uncover through digging!
Next job is to dig out the floors and lay them with concrete. Then the walls can go up! Then the roof can go on! Then the windows can go in! Then we are water tight! Woo hoo!
