Day 5 - Digging the footings

A nice day for digging! Today we had several people joining the fray in the afternoon. Dave came and brought the digger back from a 'weekend job' and I took the opportunity whilst he was clearing the final patio debris to have a crack on the pneumatic drill.

Smashing up the old path was fun but tiring and dirty, my back doesn't know what's hit it. I dread to think what tomorrow will bring to it.

Early afternoon a minor error resulted in the cutting of the water to the external tap which although not a major problem was a requirement for the builders later on.

A second issue occured with the removal of the existing drain/waste for the bathroom which is to become the hallway to the new lounge. New pipes were required but at least we now have one in place ready for the bathroom that will be going above the existing kitchen.

New faces today included Derek, James and Paul who will be helping out more and more as we get closer to the building stage. Tomorrow brings the first inspection so pumping out the newly dug footings is required so they can see the gravel, we are at roughly 1m depth.

Day 4 - We have bricks!

We have hit earth and all but a small part of the patio has now gone and been removed by the grabber truck. The next test is to find gravel or at least dig a decent enough hole to use as a foundation.

With the patio gone its now quite a first step from the back door.

So now the back door it out of operation the wheelie bins now pride of place next to the front door. In the afternoon we had about 6 people from APR on site and the first of the bricks and blocks arrived so it now feels like we are building something rather than digging a pit.

Admittedly you won't be building much with them but its a start. Anyway here is the Day 4 piccy:

Day 3 - Guess what?....more digging

Day 3 and we are pretty much clear, a small area is left near the back door and the drains are clear all the way round. There is a little clearance left but I think we should be seeing the last of the patio tomorrow. How we stand:

Day 2 - More digging

David and Richard were here this morning, David came bright and early around 7.30 having driven twice round the block because he was a little on the early side. Richard came shortly after and marking out for the digging were made. Richard has said I can dump my extra bricks from down the garden along with the rubble from the patio so thats one less skip for me, also having cut out the patio near the garage we have decided on either steps or a ramp to allow access up to the raised garage door.

Site after Day 2 (front then back):

Looks like about one third of the patio has been dug up and removed. The waste has gone round the front and the first load of hardcore is due to be taken away tomorrow.

Day 1 - Ground breaking

Today David came around and started preparing the site, a side panel was removed from our fencing to allow access for the mini-digger and Mike had a quick chat with us and said he was happy with us using his driveway to get gear around the back of the house, good chap!

The raised patio was cleared and first attempts made at breaking the concrete, as you can see from this photo it was on the thick side and the first pneumatic drill wasn't up to the task:

David got a new industrial strength one from Stable Hire Ltd of Stamford and by early afternoon the breaking up of the existing concrete was underway.

The front is now a dumping ground of everything from hardcore to wheelie bins! and the back looks like this....

March it is!

Richard rang to say things were OK for March however there will be a gap between the groundwork and the brickwork due to another project. The people were starting to give him some grief so I said that a 2 week break between the stages wouln't be a problem as long as we get something going, so thats a favour you owe me now Richard :)

The date we have been told is the 26th, looks like the job of removing 200 tonnes of hardcore from my current raised patio has been given to a local guy who lives only a mile or two away. He came round Saturday morning and I had a quick chat to him about access etc. Seems they want to remove a panel from my left hand fence and get a mini-digger round the side of the house, the only problem being potential damage to my neighbours driveway which they say they will remedy.

Spoke to Mike and he seemed OK with the digger using his driveway so it looks as though we are all OK for starting. I will get some piccies up in my next post so you can see the before and after and during pictures as we progress.