Roselea

Author: Shaun

  • The Front Trench Progresses..

     This afternoon, after the morning was rather damp with rain showers, we started on doing the line of the foundation trenches along the front of the house. we have completed the section from the Great Room and the Kitchen, towards the front door extension.

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-7-Front-GR-Kit

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-7-Front-GR-Kit

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-7-Rest-of-front-marked-out-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-7-Rest-of-front-marked-out-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-7-Rest-of-front-marked-out-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-7-Rest-of-front-marked-out-2


    Tomorrow, weather permitting, we continue along the Hall and Entertainment room section and turn the corner to do the final side trench nearest the garage. Then, all that is left to do is the 3 sides of the Entertainment room, and that’s it!

  • Module Number 4 Repairs All Done!

     Today, we finished off the re-assembly of the Energy Module number 4, with the placement of the thick insulation boards around the outside of the module and then the lid on top.

    We did have to shift it slightly to make room for these side insulation boards but apart from that, everything went back in more or less.

    Module-4-Repairs-Finished

    Module-4-Repairs-Finished

    The “mess” of everything lying out and about, all went back into the hole and the sandy soil put back on top!

    Tomorrow, we resume doing the foundation trenches.

  • Day 2 of Module Number 2 Repair

     We carried on with the repair work on Energy Module number 4, the module living underneath the entertainment room. We pulled out, on one side, the vertical insulation foam boards and then pulled out the bottom 4 layers, all 480mm thickness!

    Module-4-Repairs-Most-of-insulation-removed

    Module-4-Repairs-Most-of-insulation-removed

    We could now look under the remaining insulation blocks around the edges and we dug out the silt from underneath and then tried to push down these vertical blocks of foam but they started twisting inwards so we ended up having to remove all the insulation anyway!

    We dug out all the loose soil and got it back to the smooth flat bottom. This time, we remembered to drill our hole to push down the temperature probe conduit properly underneath the module!

    Then, we started reassembling the whole unit back together again, keeping all the pieces together as they were originally fitted. We got as far as getting all the plastic crates back in place and it is all wrapped up in the rubber sheeting including the plastic cover too.

    Module-4-Repairs-Tank-and-base-reinstalled

    Module-4-Repairs-Tank-and-base-reinstalled

    Tomorrow, we will finish the repair job and good riddance to the whole saga of rain water flooding our energy modules for the last time – we hope!

  • Repair of Module Number 4

     We switched over from doing the foundation trenches and its shuttering boards, over to repair the Energy Module number 4 that had risen. We thought we might need the use of the mini-digger during the chore of getting the module back into proper alignment and depth again.

    So we started by removing the dirt off the insulation panels forming the lid, lifted that lid off and revealed the rubber / plastic wrapped Aquacell crates.

    Module-4-Repairs-Top-removed

    Module-4-Repairs-Top-removed

    After lunch, we managed to pull out the plastic crates without the sides falling in, but we did have to get the water pump out and remove another 200 to 300 litres of water still in the bottom!

    Module-4-Repairs-Pumping-remaining-water-out

    Module-4-Repairs-Pumping-remaining-water-out

    The problem is that the bottom boards, all 4 layers of it, will need to be lifted out so we can see what has happened and dig out the water borne silt that landed under the module during the thunderstorm flood we had a couple of weeks ago.

    We resume with that task tomorrow or Monday.

  • Finished Third Strip

     This morning, we quickly finished off the 3rd front to back foundation strip we left over from yesterday. we then also moved some excess soil from around the front of the sticking out “front door” extension, using the mini-digger.

    Then we realized that we ought to repair the Energy Module number 4 first before doing the foundation strip along the front which might mean losing the use of the mini-digger during the repair chore. So we changed task in mid flow!!

  • Third Strip Almost Finished

     For our half day of work today, we almost finished the 3rd front to back foundation strip, with another 2 square pads incorporated in the line. The ground was jolly hard work in places with tough layer of large gravel stones to dig through!

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-6

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-6

     

  • Strip 1 and 2 finished and 3rd Started

     Today, in slightly barely cooler weather, completed the first front to back foundation strip shuttering, then completed also the 2nd strip which has two expanded areas to support the legs of the skylight. Then finally we marked out the position of the 3rd strip (working from left to right from F1/B1, F2/B2 and F3/B3).

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-5-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-5-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-5-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-5-1


    We are making good progress – despite the hot weather – Phew!

  • Shuttering Boards Cut and Started Next Section

     This afternoon, we sliced up 6 sheets of the 18mm OSB boards to make a collection of 2 different heights of shuttering. We made 12 pieces of 200mm tall and 16 pieces of 300mm tall.

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-4-Boards

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-4-Boards

    Then we drew out the string between the front and back batter boards at the number 1 position (the left side of the Great Room) and string across the number 3 line running along the front of the house (Great Room and Kitchen), the L3 to R3 batter board position. Two more metal pins were bashed into the soil at the intersection point.

    Lastly, we sweated ourselves in the boiling heat (it got to 31°C today!!!) in digging a narrow trench to make room for the shuttering and we have placed a 200mm high piece at the back  and 2 further 300mm high boards touching all together, coming towards the front of the house.

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-4

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-4

    We carry on with that foundation strip tomorrow and then do number 2 (the Great Room come Kitchen / Bedroom 1 divide).

  • Back Section sides all Completed

     Today, we finished off the shuttering for the back section of the building’s foundations.

    We put the two layers of the 89mm Timber to form the necessary height to hold the 150mm thick foundation strip.

    Part of the job was to dig out some parts of the shuttering where it got buried in our flood we had last week. Phew!

    Tomorrow, we will work on the front to back foundation strips, using 300mm wide pieces of 18mm thick OSB sheets This will allow for us to push the concrete harder along these channels without it spilling over the sides.

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-4

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-4

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-3

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-3


     

  • Emptied Module Number 4

     We started the repair process on Energy Module number 4 (the entertainment room – also the smallest module) by emptying the water out and putting it into our other modules. We had well over 2000 litres to drain. We used a powerful water pump with a filter to suck out and move the water using ordinary hose pipes and we got about a rate of 900 litres per hour so it didn’t take too long.

    Then this afternoon, while we had the equipment out, we also drained the swimming lane and chucked the water down our proper rain soak-away module. The meter reported that we shifted about 1800 litres when the level got to about an inch left in the bottom.