Huh !! These footings were supposed to be at lease a meter deep. They are barely the depth of the spade. The tip of the spade is just under the concrete footings.
The longer we delve into the construction of our old conservatory, the more we find out just how crap a job was carried out by the previous contractor all those years ago.
I guess we are lucky that it stood for twenty-five years.
Conservatory – The final wall is down.
Based on this mornings investigations it has been decided that the old footings will have to be dug out completely. I’m guessing that is probably the best course of action.
So, to keep up the momentum a mechanical digger is being brought in to dig out the new footings. Also a “grab truck” has been booked to take away the spoils.
To get the mechanical digger round to our back garden we have had to remove my neighbours fence. Thankfully we have good neighbours.
Conservatory – Neighbours fence removed. Large holes in garage wall.
The holes in the garage wall are as a result of the original builders keying the conservatory wall into the existing garage wall. When the conservatory shifted over the last twenty-five years it snapped quite a few bricks. They will have to be replaced as part of the new build.
Tomorrow will be another fun day in Conservatory Land.
Over the last couple of years I have been posting under the banner “View From The Conservatory”.
I thought it was probably time I showed you where my observations originated from. My main reason for this is the fact that we are knocking it down. To be replaced with a new bright shiny one.
Here is a picture to give you some idea……
Conservatory
This structure was built around twenty-five years ago. The company that built it had not, so we found out later, done a very good job. Unfortunately, they also went bust before it was completed. The build was completed under the supervision of the “Official Receiver” and needless to say the “10 year warranty” never materialised.
Over the following twenty-five years the conservatory has been slowly falling down, due to the poor preparation of the ground and subsidence of the footings. The conservatory has been slowly trying to pull away from our house and worse, one corner in particular, has been dropping presumably due to the clay base of the soil. Needless to say we also suffered leaks, sometimes emulating waterfalls, and draughts.
Conservatory
The photo above is the last view of the inside with all the carpets and most of the furniture removed. The patchwork on the floor is as a result of my trying to level the floor. You can just see that the two doors are out of alignment if you look at the handles and to the left you can just see the ivy which is constantly trying to invade.
The doors haven’t, until a couple of weeks ago, been opened for something like three years. Primarily because they were such a job to close again. Also, I had stuck gaffer tape all round the frames to cut down the draughts coming through the gaps. The seals were so out of alignment I could get my fingers through to the outside world.
Anyway, that is all in the past, as the next photos show.
Conservatory – No GlassConservatory – No RoofConservatory – No Frames, Just the partition wall.Conservatory – No Frames, partition wall has gone. Apparrently, halfway through the build, the original bricklayers decided to lay the bricks upside down i.e. frog side down !!!Conservatory – End of Day 1 – All gone barring the end cavity wall.
Tasks for day two – knock down the remaining end wall, start exploring existing footings to see if they can stay or if the whole existing base has to come up. Either way new strengthening and stabilising footings have to be created before any new build can be started.
WrAnTz 