Roselea

Category: Tidy Up

  • Outside Wood Rack Completely Sorted!

    After finishing the roof repair, we got down to sorting out the external wood rack we got under the overhanging roof, alongside our front door.

    Everything was pulled off, lots of jumbled pieces of wood timber, some plastic pipes, metal tube and more small pieces of OSB boards.

    We decided that anything smaller than 6 inches in length and odd sizes in width, can be thrown away to the bonfire pile. We got loads of short pieces already in the garage under the internal wood rack so we didn’t need this collection outside as well!! We ended up with the bottom shelf containing rough sawn planks of 2inch by 6inch, 2inch by 4inch and 2inch square of various lengths from 3 feet, up to 16feet long!!

    Then, the 2nd shelf up now contains a collection of more long lengths of timber but much smaller batten size pieces like 2inch by 1inch and two fresh piles of 38mm by 25mm and 25mm by 19mm batten, both being 5.1 metres long.

    The 3rd shelf contains more finished pieces of wood strips, planed timber, plywood strips and more like that.

    The remaining shelves are mostly empty now ready for the new steel pieces to be stored on those shelves while we work on preparing the steel pieces in the garage.

    All the rubbish was put in a wheelbarrow and taken over to the burn pile and we finished completely in the dark very late in the evening!!

  • Levelling Out Section Beside Loke

    Today we cleared and flattened the strip of ground alongside the Loke from our driveway, all the way to the hedge and water meter.

    Loke-side-flattened

    Loke-side-flattened

    We scraped the whole section between the house and  the Loke, making sure we still had a berm beside the Loke to keep out the rainwater running down the Loke.

    It is now approximately flat, ready for all our building materials to be unloaded from the Loke, like the first item to be delivered is the steel.

  • Drained Rainwater Away off the Floor Slab

    This afternoon, we got out our submersible pump and connected up with some 32mm bore plastic pipe to pump the rainwater that has collected in our house, from the last couple of days of rain showers we had.

    Water-Water-everywhere

    Water-Water-everywhere

    We estimated about 4500 litres of rainwater has fallen, forming a complete “lake” across the whole Floor Slab. We had about 15mm to 20mm of rain in this period of 3 days and the area of the Floor Slab is about 260 square metres which means that for every single millimetre of rainwater falling out of the sky, we would have collected 260litres of water. Since we had about 15mm to 20mm (according to the rain gauge), this means we had collected approximately 15mm x 260 litre per mm  = 3900 litres .. to .. 20mm x 260 litre per mm = 5200 litres – wow!

    We spent about 2 hours pumping the water out, mostly from the 2nd sump point near the Great Room where the “lake” seems to be deeper and more connected to the rest of the Floor Slab. Initially, we had 3 lengths of output pipe connected together so we could reach the downpipe directly connected to the underground rain soakaway module and we measured the time it took to fill a 3 gallon builder’s bucket (which came out at 20 seconds). This is about 40 litres per minute. Then, when we moved up to the 2nd sump point, we had to drain the output water from the pump straight into the swimming lane itself and this meant that we didn’t need the middle section of pipe (which is a corrugated air tube) and so we connected the 32mm smooth bore pipe directly to the short fat pipe off the pump and .. o boy .. it took only 15 seconds to fill our bucket up! This translated to an increased rate of 55 litres per minute!

  • Clearing Away Left Overs of Floor Slab Formation

     These last few days, we have been clearing and tidying up the left overs bits and pieces created from the formation of the Floor Slab a week ago. All the spillage of excess concrete around the outside of the Perimeter Wall is now all picked up and moved inside ready for collection. Also all the concrete blocks are loose and also ready for collection. The rain keeps coming and going and our Floor Slab has a constant thin layer of rainwater all over, which actually helps with the curing process so we are not in a hurry to drain the water away.

    We also are doing other tasks too like sorting out the remainder of the roof’s rainwater guttering pipework, plus also the process of ordering the steelwork as well.

  • The 5th and final day of Smoothing the Ground ready for Floor Slab

     For the first half of the day, we finished off scraping and leveling off the remaining section of the Great Room. We are all completely done now, the whole area across the footprint of the house is now all smooth. After lunch, we ran the petrol compactor all over everything to make sure it is good and settled and solid.

    Smoothing-the-ground-finished-1

    Smoothing-the-ground-finished-1

    Smoothing-the-ground-finished-2

    Smoothing-the-ground-finished-2

    Smoothing-the-ground-finished-3

    Smoothing-the-ground-finished-3


    We might sprinkle some sand here and there to fill any holes we might find that are too deep, but it is looking good actually.

  • Day 4 of Clearing and Levelling Ground for Floor Slab

     With slightly cooler weather, we carried on with the task of scraping and clearing away the excess sand and soil from all the ground between the foundation strips. We did the remaining section in the middle of the house (Hall and Bedroom 2), and then also completed the section with the Kitchen and Bedroom 1 and finally we got half way across the Great Room.

    Levelling-Site-Day-4-1

    Levelling-Site-Day-4-1

    Levelling-Site-Day-4-2

    Levelling-Site-Day-4-2

    Levelling-Site-Day-4-3

    Levelling-Site-Day-4-3


    Some of the ground was very hard so we got out our electric rotavator to loosen up the surface so we can scrape it – phew! We have probably moved, in total over the last 4 days or so, several tons of excess material to the outer regions beyond the Perimeter Wall, but it was a good day’s work and we should easily finish off this task tomorrow – no sweat!!

  • Day 3 of Smoothing Off the Ground Ready for Floor Slab

     Today, working in damp softened soil, we carried on with the scraping of the soil inside the footprint of the house. We finished off Bedroom 3 and the front half of the Hall way, plus removed a huge amount of soil from Bedroom 2 too!

    Ground Smoothing Day 3-2

    Ground Smoothing Day 3-2

    Ground Smoothing Day 3-3

    Ground Smoothing Day 3-3

    Ground Smoothing Day 3-1

    Ground Smoothing Day 3-1


    On Monday, we will carry on scraping backwards towards Bedroom 3 (from the Entertainment room) and through to the back Perimeter wall, and continuing to the Kitchen and Bedroom 1 areas.

  • Day 2 of Levelling the Ground for Floor Slab

     We did a little bit of work this morning before the rain became too heavy for us, scraping the area around the Utility Room working towards Bedroom 3 in the right back corner. We emptied the trolley of any soil to avoid that getting soaked and muddy!

    2016-09-16

    2016-09-16

    Weather permitting, tomorrow we will continue with the scraping and levelling of whole footprint of the house, we will have to put down a “guide” rail so we can continue to use our timber scraper tool, to bridge the larger area between the concrete strips.

  • Clearing and Leveling area ready for Floor Slab Day 1

     Today, we carried on with the tidying up task of removing the batter boards, disassembling the unused concrete shoots, collecting up all the rubbish and any other miscellaneous items left lying around the area inside the boundary of the house.

    Site-cleared

    Site-cleared

    Then, we started scraping and leveling the surface in the Entertainment Room and the Utility Room alongside it, by using a four metre long timber piece, supported by the concrete foundation strips down each side, to drag the soil away and leave a leveled surface.

    Entertainment-room-leveled

    Entertainment-room-leveled

    2016-09-15

    2016-09-15


    Tomorrow, a short day (just a couple of hours in the morning), we will bring up the level in the Utility Room using the soil in the trolley and then empty the rest from the trolley, by dumping it over the Perimeter Wall somewhere, before our appointment in the afternoon and predicted rain too!

  • Clearing the Site Ready for Floor Slab

     This afternoon, we continued with the clear up operation on the site, removing concrete “homemade” blocks, removing the Batter Boards around the outside and repairing the kitchen sewage pipe that got caught by the mini-digger bucket several months ago!

    2016-09-14

    2016-09-14

    Tomorrow, we will continue with this tidy-up operation to remove last of the OSB boards and pre-fab shoots (we never used!) and  remove the excess soil and level up the areas between the foundation strips, giving each a good old run over with the petrol compactor plate. Then insert the last remaining temperature probe conduits and heat pump water loops too.