Orange
Category: Local (To Me !!!)
Drismal
Here we are and it’s Day 8 of our conservatory re-build and we have been really lucky with the weather since the works started. The only rain, so far, has had the decency to hold off until the end of the working day. Sprinkling while the guys have been packing up. Seems our luck has run out and this morning is starting out dull, with a light drizzle, a condition I like to describe as drismal. So it’s on with the jackets for Bob and Simon, the brickies, suitably fortified with a hot cup of tea.
So I have been pondering the economics of home construction work and have come to realise that an essential item has been missed from our costing.
Tea !!!
Or rather I should say Tea, Milk and Sugar. It seems the great british workman is fuelled by sweet tea.
During a normal week we consume perhaps 30 – 40 tea bags, 1 – 1.5 pints of milk and no sugar assuming no sweet toothed visitors.
However, consumption has ramped up significantly and seems to be running at around 64 tea bags, 3 pints of milk and around 500 grams of sugar. This is just a rough guesstimate as the number of bods on site fluctuates. There is just the two of us but the workers vary from two to four and all but one drink their tea in the “white with two sugars” mix hence the sugar explosion.
And so I issue a word or two of advice to those considering a significant construction project on their own back door…..
If you want to keep them sweet, don’t forget to factor in the costs of providing regular teas to your workers.
Conservatory Re-Build – Day 7
What a difference a day makes……
Conservatory Re-Build – Day 6
Not much to report for yesterdays progress. The brickwork at the utility room end is up to the level where the new back door will be fitted.
At the opposite end, adjacent to the back door where the old conservatory had pulled the bungalow brickwork out of the vertical, repair work is almost complete.
The repairs would have been completed, were it not for the super hard screws used to secure the bedroom window. There were two and they seemed impervious to both of my hack saws, even with new blades fitted. Craig arrived early this morning and made short work of the screws using a mini disc cutter.
In the picture you can see that two different types of bricks are being used. Those nearest the door will not be seen when work is finished as the interior walls are being plastered. For those nearest the window frame and down they are reusing the original bricks as they are exterior to the conservatory and will be visible.
This picture shows how Barratt Homes fit doors in timber frame houses. Obviously it is robust enough but to my untrained eye it seems a little flimsy. After all it is plastic, not metal.
Bob and Anton are back this morning and are now, much to everyone’s surprise, to be assisted by Simon, another bricky. So the brickwork should progress quite nicely.
Conservatory Re-Build – Day 5
Here are just a few pictures to show progress so far. Nothing much to say as the day was event free. The guys just got on and laid bricks and blocks.
We had a sprinkling of rain towards the end of the day, thankfully not enough to stop work. By close of play yesterday they were up to the DPC.
Apparently, todays main task is the end wall which is full height cavity with no doors or windows to break up the brick runs.
More later.
The New Conservatory Begins
After a well-earned weekend break the team from Executive are back on site and working. Gone are Anton and Angus, replaced by Bob and Connor. Still under the watchful eye of Craig.
I’ll say one thing for these guys, they arrive early and get underway pretty soon after, allowing for the time obviously. No machines until 08:00.
Starting today is the base brickwork, so compressor and pneumatic drill were picked up around 07:00 and shortly after cement mixer and barrows were delivered.
I’ll post pictures later today when there is something to see.
First Footings
Day four and the guys have worked really hard. A little bit of hand digging to finish off the footings trench then it was on to preparing the steel reinforcements.
The picture above also shows the first barrow load of concrete poured into the trench.
The guys had to barrow all the concrete round from the front of the house to the back.
Two deliveries later and the footings were complete…
In between concrete deliveries the grab truck returned to remove the last of the spoil and the mini digger was collected and taken away. We have also had a delivery of bricks.
The guys now have a the weekend off. Back on Monday morning to start laying the brick base.
“Where’s yer stop-cock Bob?”
The ground preparation for the conservatory build carries on apace. The digger arrived early yesterday morning and, along with a pneumatic drill, was soon put to work digging out the old footings.
However, proceedings came to an abrupt halt when the kitchen drain was discovered and the pipe cracked.
This was duly repaired and the work continued.
Continued, that is, until lunch-time when I was asked … “where’s yer stop-cock Bob ?” Apparently the guy with the pneumatic drill had managed to crack both of the water pipes which supplied the old utility room.
Work once again stopped while parts were obtained from the local hardware store and repairs made. With the water supply made secure and cold water feed once more live my wife and I headed off out to lunch.
After a very pleasant, leisurely, lunch with my granddaughter and great-granddaughter at The Pavillion Tearoom, Stansted House we returned home.
What a difference a couple of hours can make. The guys were pretty much finished for the day, just tidying up. The digger had been put to good use and apart from some hand digging the footings were dug.
The picture doesn’t really show the actual depth but the trench is around four feet deep.
During the afternoon, while we were out, a grab truck had arrived and taken away a load of the spoil from the trench. A second visit is scheduled for later today.
What the picture also doesn’t show is that the guys managed to break up another drain pipe during the excavations. This one being the drain for the washing machine and sink in the old utility room. This one will be made good once the new build and plumbing begins.
Apparently, this last drain was not the only casualty of the day as while using the digger the step under the garage door was caught and the brickwork knocked back. A piece of brick was dislodged and landed on the head of one of the guys. He is fine but does have a mark on his head.
The great British workman is a tough breed. I would have had to go lie down in a darkened room.
And so work continues. The steel reinforcing mesh was delivered yesterday and the guys are going get that in place ready for concrete to be poured. Let’s see how they get on.
Work Lag
We are all familiar with the term “Jet-Lag” and many of us have experienced the effects during our all too short vacations in distant lands. This is where our body clock insists on waking us up at our normal home country times despite the fact that we are currently the opposite side of the world. Worse still it prevents us from getting to sleep after a full day doing touristy things.
Well I have discovered a similar effect now that I have retired.
No matter that I don’t have to get up to go to work. Despite the fact that we have disabled all alarm clocks and the alarm functions on phones and computers.
My body clock is insisting that I wake up at 07:00 every day and, since I am one of those people who cannot stay in bed once I am awake, I am typically up and about by 07:30 which was my normal time to rise when I was working.
I have tagged this effect as “Work-Lag”
Many folks have said the effects will wear off. My sister retired quite a few years ago and she is still waking before 06:00 every day. There is always an exception that proves the rule. Some folks have suggested that the inability to lay-in is a form of guilt. Well we can discount that one after over 45 working years.
I am looking forward to the day when I can have a guilt free lay-in.
Further Adventures In Conservatory Land
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.
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.
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.
WrAnTz 