Roselea

Category: Build Progress

  • 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!

  • Day 3 – Completion of Bitumen Waterproofing of Perimeter Wall

     This morning, under a baking sun (temperature reached almost 30°C in the shade), we finished off the 2nd coat of the Bitumen waterproof treatment of the Perimeter Wall, around the Great Room and along the front section. We used just over 2½ barrels (65l) of the paint in total which is not too bad, as we should to have used 3 barrels but the 2nd coat went on easier and quicker but almost as thickly as the 1st coat. The coverage looks good and solid.

    We can now, at last, allow the uneven “piles” of sand and soil around the outside of the footprint of the building, to be levelled out and flattened to make a smooth surface for walking around and moving wheeled equipment around much easier!!

  • Day 2 of Bitumen Waterproofing Treatment on Perimeter Wall

     This morning, under a blanket of white clouds, we carried on with the bitumen painting of the Perimeter Wall, from the back corner of the Great Room and along the front of the house. We finished off the 1st barrel and started on the 2nd one.

    After lunch, under a very strong sun (phew!), we started the 2nd coat along the garage side and all the way along the back of the building to that far corner of the Great Room we started from this morning. We were much faster on the 2nd coat as it didn’t seems to need as much, but on the other hand, we have used up the 2nd barrel and we are now on the 3rd container!

    Painting-the-walls-Day-2

    Painting-the-walls-Day-2

    We couldn’t carry on because the bitumen had only 5 hours and less to dry since the morning so we stopped early for the day. We will continue tomorrow to finish off the 2nd coat and we will be all done!! We then can start leveling out the sand and soil inside and outside of the house, up against the wall and pull out the last of the shuttering and remove all the batter boards as well since they don’t provide any function any more – it will be neat and flat at last!!

  • Waterproof Bitumen Paint Job Started – Day 1

     Today, we started the task of applying  the bitumen paint to the outside surface of our Perimeter Wall to make it waterproof against damp and floods.

    The morning was spent trying to use compressed air and a spray gun to splatter the black thick heavy liquid from a tank to the wall, but unfortunately, it didn’t work! Even after we tried “Pushing” the liquid down the tube using more compressed air in the top of the tank to help the thick liquid to get into the air spray gun. So that was abandoned and spent the remaining time cleaning the tools with petrol to lunch time! We did do some more tidy up of concrete blocks cut-offs and OSB sheets etc. too! Just to conclude this experiment of spraying, the manufacturer stated on their web site when we stopped for lunch, said that the best way was to use a direct pressurised spraying system like those high pressure washers we used for cleaning cars and patios, but even stronger at 2000psi (pounds per inch or 133 bar (a bar is normal atmosphere pressure) !!) and we were trying to use our 10bar air compressor – no wonder it didn’t work!! Grin!

    So this afternoon, we went to the old fashioned method of brush and a tray and even a roller to apply the bitumen paint (which has rubber dissolved in it too) to the wall. We started on the garage side of the building, in the Utility room and went around towards the swimming lane, along the back of the building and arrived at the far corner in the Great Room. This is just over half way and we have used about ¾ of the first barrel of the paint. This is just about on track to the required coverage as stated in the instructions on the barrel, which we calculated to be 1½ barrels of the bitumen paint per coat for a complete circuit of the wall!

    Painting-walls-day-1-2

    Painting-walls-day-1-2

    Painting-walls-day-1-1

    Painting-walls-day-1-1


    We are going to do 2 coats so tomorrow, first we will finish off the long loop around the Great Room and the front section and then start the 2nd coat in the afternoon and hopefully finish off on Wednesday!

  • Day 11 of Perimeter Wall Assembly and .. It is ALL Done!

     With the rise of the sun  (;-), we started work early today at 9am, it was a very humid and stuffy morning with no breeze to keep us cool. But we got on with the 4th layer of our Perimeter concrete block wall and did 51 blocks before lunch time at 1pm.

    After lunch, with a little breeze and clouds hanging over head, we completed the loop by putting down 56 blocks, our afternoon load of mortar didn’t quite reach the end so we had to mix a small extra quantity to finish off the very last 1¼ blocks.

    Walls-Finished-Internal-Panarama

    Walls-Finished-Internal-Panarama

    Walls-End-of-day-11

    Walls-End-of-day-11


    It was a long day, from 9am to almost 7pm and doing 107 blocks which smashed the previous record, but it was well worth the effort as it is very pleasing to see it all done! So This Concludes the block laying for the concrete Perimeter Wall which took us 11 days!

    The next job is to spray bitumen paint on the outer surface to provide that extra protection against surface water and rising damp from the soil.

    Later when we are pouring the floor slab we will also fill the hollow columns with concrete.

  • Day 10 – Construction of Perimeter Wall

     A long day of doing the 3rd course of the block wall and going onto the 4th layer with our morning and afternoon sessions. The morning one saw us doing 49 blocks and in the afternoon we laid 47 blocks – a total of 96 blocks! A New Record!! Phew!

    First-bit-of-completed-wall

    First-bit-of-completed-wall

    Walls-End-of-day-10

    Walls-End-of-day-10


    We have 104 blocks left to do in the final layer to complete the whole job! We will have to put in a little extra sand into our mortar mix to make it extend to doing those extra blocks. Tomorrow WILL be an even longer day but well worth it as the job will be done at last! We might start an hour early to avoid running late into the evening!!

  • Day 9 of Perimeter Wall Block by Block!

    We started early this morning to try and do as many concrete blocks on our 3rd tier of the Perimeter Wall before lunchtime and the predicted rain coming this afternoon. But before laying any blocks today, we marked the walls where the 3 doors will go as there are no blocks in rows 3 or 4.

    Front-door-goes-here

    Front-door-goes-here

    Back-door-goes-here

    Back-door-goes-here

    Conservatory-door-goes-here

    Conservatory-door-goes-here


     The block laying went quite nicely and we laid 49 blocks with the one mortar load. Therefore if we had the afternoon to do more work ahead of the approaching rain (which would ruin any mortar joints done in the afternoon, not having enough time to set), we would have been on course for a new record of just shy of 100 blocks!!

    Walls-End-of-Day-9

    Walls-End-of-Day-9

    Maybe, on Monday, we will get another chance at beating our record when we continue to do the 3rd layer and move on to the 4th and final layer, which in total, is about 210 blocks left to complete our Perimeter Wall – about 2 days of work left to do!

  • Day 8 of Perimeter Wall Heading Upwards!

     We set a new record today of putting down 85 concrete blocks in two sessions! This morning, we carried on with the 2nd layer and completed the Great Room, the Kitchen and started on the front extension by 2 blocks, doing 39 blocks all together. The afternoon session saw us completing the circuit, finishing the front section and the back door side of the building. We put down 35 blocks to join up the circle!!

    Walls-Layer-3-Bedrooms-2-and-3

    Walls-Layer-3-Bedrooms-2-and-3

    Then we started the 3rd level and managed to do a further 11 blocks before we ran out of mortar. This was a total of 46 blocks for the afternoon!! We probably achieved this higher rate because we reduced the amount of mortar we put down on the layer.

    Walls-End-of-Day-8

    Walls-End-of-Day-8

    We have a day off tomorrow, but on Saturday, we carry on with the 3rd level, remembering to leave a gap for the doorways (the French doors in the Great Room, The front door and the side door in the Utility Room). Wonder what record we can break then? Grin!