Extension Progress - Footings Poured!

Tuesday night it was 10 o'clock and I was stood in about 8 inches of water, with a flood light and a laser level trying to get pegs ready for the concrete that was booked for 8 in the morning. I didn't go to sleep feeling very happy about how prepared I was.

I woke early the next morning and had breakfast, I was outside just after six and there was my dad in the trench, already working, bucketing out the water. He was coming to help but I had no idea he'd be there that early, I was lucky that he did, as between us we got set up just in time before the concrete came. 

Both lorries turned up at once, just to add the pressure! 

Both lorries turned up at once though, just to add a bit of pressure. We had two dumpers moving it and between us we kept up well. 9 cubic meters of concrete, the footings took about 7.5 and the rest went to be used for a step on the patio (more of that in another post) or a slab outside my workshop. 

Poured in with the dumper, this made the job easier.  

In and levelled off

 We placed boards where we were tipping to prevent the splashing and had a the vibrating poker to make levelling the concrete easier, although we still had to use rakes and shovels as well!

The other side showing the step as well. 

It was a hard and long morning but we got it done and I feel so much better now it's all concreted.

I couldn't have got this far without the help of my dad, he has been an absolute legend in helping me (and pushing me late at night to do more). I sometimes look at him when he's working alongside me and wonder how he can still work so hard now he's 60, he's a machine and someone I always aspire to be more like. Having his skills and knowledge alongside my own in a project like this is amazing. 

Now I've got to wait a couple of weeks for my bricklayer before we can start building up higher! 

Garden Wall Footings

A few weeks ago dad came over to help me rip down the old wall and put footings in to rebuild it properly. It didn't take much pulling down, we literally just pulled it down by hand. Who ever built this wall one skin thick was a little silly!  

The wall was hiding the neighbours beautiful sheds

Loading the dumper

I think I managed to catch the moment the digger broke perfectly 

Space was tight and worse when wee had to use the bigger digger

We dug out what we could by machine then the rest had to be done by hand.

New footings in

Still need the shuttering to be removed

It was a long day on the Sunday but we managed to get most of the soil out, I then had a few (a lot) hours hand digging as it was all so near to the soil pipe from the house. I had to construct some shutters in a few places before we could concrete on the Wednesday night (the 5th), unfortunately as I was doing this I slipped with the saw and cut into my thumb. 

I needed stitches and I was worried I damaged my tendon so had a little visit to A&E. I helped the nurse hold the wound open and we watch my tendon go back and forth with no visible signs of damage except a slight nic in it, I was lucky. She stitched it up for me and I got back home about 5.30. 

Dad already had a load of concrete mixing so it was a case of wrapping it in some plastic and getting stuck in. Luckily my brother turned up to lend a hand - it was half ten by the time we finished and we were all dead by the end!

I've had most of the bricks come to build the wall and I've moved them with the tractor off the drive. The brick layer, Dill, comes tomorrow so I need to move some bricks today to get ready.

Slowly getting through the jobs!