Roselea

Category: Groundworks

  • Cut New Trench and Install Conduit for Full Fibre Optic TelComm Cable

    We were having an upgrade of our phone and internet connections but the old conduit that we had running from the telegraph pole out on the Loke, going all the way to our Garage, seem to have been blocked or damaged by something. It is possible that our twin wall corrugated 50mm plastic conduit that we originally installed back in 2010, may have suffered in a location where there was more load pressing on it than we expected. The original phone line is still working and it even moves so it probably would have been ok to thread in the new fibre optic cable but we decided to have a complete rethink of where we wanted our new high speed data communication channel to be routed and now that we have our main house constructed and we got our Tech Cupboard available, including already having a WiFi hub and switch located in there.
    So, over the last four days, we decided to lay in a brand new conduit, a black 20mm thick walled plastic pipe, from the Tech Cupboard, under the floor in the Hallway, around into the Utility Room and through the Utility Cupboard and through the wall to the outside, all below the floorboards, right down near the concrete level.

    Then, outside, we cut a 18inch 450mm deep trench, using a narrow long bladed spade, coming away from the building at right angles, curving around in front of the front porch legs and near the fence line, continued all the way past our house and eventually, reaching opposite the telegraph pole that is located on the other side of our Loke.

    Fibre Conduit trench (1)

    Fibre Conduit trench (1)

    Fibre Conduit trench (2)

    Fibre Conduit trench (2)

    Fibre Conduit trench (3)

    Fibre Conduit trench (3)

    Fibre Conduit trench (4)

    Fibre Conduit trench (4)



    We then had to cut our way across the Loke, using our electric super heavy “kango” road breaker machine, to cut through the highly compacted tracks, to reach the telegraph pole. We were careful during this segment because there are existing utilities running up and down the Loke, so we only went down 12inch 300mm, to make sure we avoid accidentally hitting a gas pipe, mains electricity and water. We did find a virgin media conduit and also we did discover our own previous conduit for our telephone and we skipped underneath both of those ones.
    Fibre conduit across Loke (1)

    Fibre conduit across Loke (1)

    Fibre conduit across Loke (2)

    Fibre conduit across Loke (2)

    Fibre conduit across Loke (3)

    Fibre conduit across Loke (3)



    The conduit pipe snaked around to the back side of the pole and then climbed up another 3metres, held on using three copper pipe clips and stainless steel screws.

    The next task was to thread the fibre optic cable that was coiled up and left behind by the engineers, waiting for someone to thread it into our garage. So, we did the job for them!!
    We sucked a length of string through the pipe using our most powerful vacuum DIY cleaner machine and join the end with the fibre optic cable and reversed the process by pulling the string back. We had measured forty-three metres of conduit that we used to go from the Tech Cupboard, all the way to ten feet up the telegraph pole! It was hard work pulling that length of cable back through the conduit, but, slowly, and finally, we made it !!

    Fibre comes into Tech cupboard

    Fibre comes into Tech cupboard


    At this point, there was a pause of some days while we waited for the OpenReach engineers to come back with the necessary fibre optic junction box and modem which will convert the laser light into an electrical network signal and that point, we can plug it into our network, and it is all done .. Just Like That !!
    Broadband Fibre all connected

    Broadband Fibre all connected


    We now have 500 megabits download speeds and about 75 megabits of upload speed, all only costing us a very similar price to our old broadband connection! Amazing!

  • Dug Hole for Filtration Module

    This afternoon (after being diverted in the morning to other commitments) we started the next stage of dealing with the rain water coming off the roofs (main house and garage), by digging a hole at the end of the Swimming Lane and next to the garage.

    Dug Hole for Filtration Module

    Rainwater-Filter-A-Hole-in-the-ground


    We will be building a water Filtration Module to receive the input from the roofs (in three 100mm pipes), entering a settling tank section first and then being filtered so the fairly clean water is collected and stored in our underground rainwater tank under the garage.
    This module will be attached to the end of the swimming lane, with additional connections for surge water to flow into the swimming lane and pond but also a connection for drawing the water from the depth of the swimming lane and feeding it up to the return channel via some form of a “water feature”.
    We had to dig down to the lowest pipework which feeds to the rain soak-away module, the depth being 1.2metres (4feet) down. The other pipe (the white one) is the feed to the rainwater tank which is at a depth of 700mm below ground level and the bottom of the swimming lane is 800mm down to the foundation level.

    Tomorrow, we will measure everything to confirm these numbers and then finalise the design of the module which will be made of cement boards and fibre-glass resin layers with internal removable units so we can clean them.

  • All Levelled and Flat around the House

    This morning, again in brilliant sunshine, we finished off the smoothing and levelling out the ground around the Great Room.

    Leveling-surrounds-Great-Room

    Leveling-surrounds-Great-Room

    It is all very neat and tidy now and we can walk or push trolleys right around the building, gaining access to the Swimming lane where the timber store is, or pass the Garage or along the front beside the Loke.

  • Levelling off the Ground Continues ..

    Today, in lovely sunshine, we carried on with the job of moving and levelling out the excess piles of soil and sand heaped around the outside of the house.

    Leveling-surrounds-Back-done

    Leveling-surrounds-Back-done

    We finished the remaining section along the back, past Bedroom 1 and the Great Room, continuing around the corner towards the conservatory. Surprisingly, the heaps of sandy soil that came out of doing the foundation strips, is still disappearing to fill up the gap right behind the Perimeter Wall, up to the ground level, well actually, we decided to level to the height of 2 blocks up off the foundation which is 50mm (2inches) below the real ground level. This means that we will have a bit of room to lay down the proper finishing surface like brick weave for the patio and footpaths etc.

  • External Ground Levelled Continues

    Today, the work of smoothing out the ground around the outside of the house continues, working alongside the Garage and the side door of the house.

    Leveling-surrounds-Utility-n-Bed3

    Leveling-surrounds-Utility-n-Bed3

    Leveling-surrounds-Back-before-work

    Leveling-surrounds-Back-before-work


    Then, around the corner, finishing  off the patch at the beginning of the Swimming lane and continued along the back alongside Bedroom 2 and Bedroom 1. It is surprising that the large mounds of soil is disappearing in filling up the gap next to the External Wall and so far there is next to nothing “left over” to have to get rid of – Phew!!

  • Last Stretch of Pipework Completed

     We finished off the installation of the pipes (running around the whole perimeter of the house) that [will] collect the rain water off the roof.

    End-of-Rainwater-ring

    End-of-Rainwater-ring

    The last stretch is along behind Bedroom 2 and in the corner with Bedroom 3 and towards the end of the Swimming Lane. We put in the 8th and final down pipe spur in that corner of the building and it is now all finished, ready for the Filtration Module which will sit at the end of the swimming lane, we will assemble it later on when we have the roof constructed.

  • 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.

  • Tidy Up After Floor Slab Creation!

    Today, in lovely sunshine instead of the wet rainy day we had yesterday (typical!!), we started the tidying up task after the concrete has set enough overnight, for us to walk on it. We loosened all the concrete blocks that was holding down the wooden framework, extracted the two sump moulds and started chipping lumps of concrete along all the framework.

    Removing a sump mould

    Removing a sump mould

    Also started going around collecting up the small amount of concrete that has spilt out during the filling process of the hollow cores in the Perimeter Wall. We also cleared away the left over pile of concrete we asked the pump operator to dump out of the pump’s hopper on our Loke (we needed some of it to finish the floor). Fortunately, we had thick plastic laid down for this exact purpose!

  • Floor Slab is Poured!

     What A Day!

    7 AM

    We started at 7am at the crack of dawn to clear away as much as possible the rain water still puddling on the DPM plastic by using our home made contraption, a blend of a vacuum cleaner extended upwards with a powerful water pump sitting inside it!!

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-1

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-1

    We got about two third of the area cleared before the first of the heavy vehicles arrived, the pump engine with its 30 metre boom arm (time was  8:21am) and soon after the technician chap also arrived in his van, closely followed by the first 6½ cubic metres of the special crushed granite with nylon fibre mixed in a high cement content and special emulsifiers to make a very liquid flowing mixture!

     9 AM

    We started on the Perimeter Wall, filling all the hollow columns using our (another) homemade deflector tool. It worked rather well, with only small amount of dribbling cement and small crunchy bits escaping outside rather than inside the wall. We managed to do almost all of it using the boom arm pumping the concrete, only missing out about 15 hollow cores because the boom arm couldn’t reach that far!

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-2

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-2

    That was also the end of the first load of concrete too! Most of it went inside and about half filled all the hollow columns.

     10 AM

    That was the slow bit done and now the pump could go much faster indeed, and when the 2nd lorry load of concrete parked itself next to the pump (this lorry and the 3rd lorry were already arrived and waiting up on Beccles Road!!), the whole content, another 6½m3 of it, came gushing out all in 10minutes flat!! The boom arm went around all over the place to try and load some concrete in each cellular region so the dividers won’t feel overstressed. The same happened to the third lorry load and by 10:30am they were emptied and gone!

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-3

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-3

    11am

    While we were waiting for the next two lorry loads of the concrete, we went around cleaning off the dribbles of cement and the crunchy bits off the bitumen coated exterior surface using the garden hose with the spray nozzle. Our technician chap helped by filling in the last 15 hollows columns in the far corner of the wall too!

    12pm

    Finally, the next two lorry loads of concrete arrived, the 3rd 6½m3 and a 3m3 and started filling regions right to the top. Then we were getting worried that we wouldn’t have enough as it was looking rather the strong possibility that we would need extra but we also were wondering why this was. Then, we discovered that we had overfilled the Great Room and in some places it was more than 10mm extra thicker. Oops! This encouraged us to slow down and be more careful with the 5th load of the 3m3 load.

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-4

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-4

    The technician chap was working hard in dabbling the concrete to make it smooth out and find a good level, and then spraying the surface with wax to slow down the evaporation.

    2pm

    After we had levelled and smoothed the regions that has been filled up, we than calculated to approximately what extra amount of concrete we needed to finish off the job. It came to 2½ m3 so we phoned the Norwich office to order that and of course having to wait again for it to come all the way from Norwich.

    3:45 pm

    Finally, the 6th and final load of concrete arrived and got the rest of the Floor Slab poured in, carefully making sure we didn’t overfill anything this time and it went well!

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-5

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-5

    4pm

    All Finished!! The pump Machine cleaned itself and dumped it hopper load of concrete that it sucked back up it pipes, on the plastic we laid there just for that purpose, and using wheelbarrows, we scooped up about 7 loads and took it over to the front door region to tip it in to finish off the very final bit of filling up. Then, we washed down everything and coiled up hoses and washed our boots and staggered back indoors!!

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-6

    Pouring-the-floor-slab-6

     

    The Movie

    Here is the time lapsed movie of our whole day compressed down to just a 20 minutes!!

  • Rain, Rain, Rain – Before Floor Slab is Poured!

     We woke up to the news that we had well over 10mm of rain overnight, plus the 5mm we had the day before and thus making 15mm of rain! Oh My! And Tomorrow, it is the day of the Floor Slab being poured with just short of 30,000 litres of concrete!!

    Rain-lying-on-Sunday-Morning-3

    Rain-lying-on-Sunday-Morning-3

    Rain-lying-on-Sunday-Morning-1

    Rain-lying-on-Sunday-Morning-1

    Rain-lying-on-Sunday-Morning-2

    Rain-lying-on-Sunday-Morning-2


    But after inspecting the plastic, it is not that bad at all actually. It seems that there is still plenty of “holes” in the plastic layer, namely all the various pipes (all 40 odd of them!) sticking up and the concrete blobs around their bases doesn’t make an absolute watertight seal and the rain water is able to leak out slowly.

    This is good news – Thank Goodness!! Or we would have to clear out well over 3500 litres of water if it had been perfectly sealed! Phew!