Digging, breaking, loosening, clearing.

After last weekend's  effort this weekend involved Jaimin & James teaming up to dig out the bathroom floor and shift the soil to the heap in the "car park".

On Sunday Lucy and Jaimin did some more clearing out in side, starting with the foundation wall between the lean-to (bathroom) and the main room.

Unfortunately while trying to remove the doorway timbers, part of the wall began to collapse which will need to be repaired soon (look at the bricks). 

Cracks starting to appear

Bricks loose and fallen!

We then cleared out the rubble that had collapsed from the fireplace and then Jaimin used the Titan again to break up the hearth and clear out the stone. Evolution in action:

Le French Drain

Anticipate a big post to reflect a big weekend! 

On Thursday we had 11 tons of gravel delivered after a few precariously spinning lorry wheels and the world's nicest lorry driver helping out (thanks Ian). 

11 tons of gravel

Then on Friday evening Jaimin took receipt of a 1.5 ton digger and tracked wheelbarrow. After trying to work out the controls he managed to dig out the farmer's drainage ditch to hopefully prevent so much surface run off on to the access track.

On Saturday Jaimin and Oli set about preparing the site, moving rubble and digging a rural landfill for it (!). After some deliberation on the best approach Oli started by digging out the back corner of the bank and as lunch time approached we moved to the east and south (front) of the house to start on the "non-piped" drain.  While digging the trench, Sasha's sister Sophie arrived with husband James and baby Wilbur, and James got well stuck in with some great farmers advice and strong digging. Then another friend Ali came too and the pace picked up again. It looked like the quintessential family outing with children playing, husband's digging, and wives caring for all. The sun shone and the wind was light, so we were very lucky. We managed to get the front and east trenches dug, membrane laid and gravel filled while Oli kept eating away at the bank at the rear with the digger. We were then treated to a guest visit from Thomas & Bridget which was wonderful!

Happy families?

Man power - Ali & James

Backfilling membrane on the south trench

Digger man ripping up stuff

First drain laid!

Lots of gravel trips with the tracked barrow

More gravel needed east trench half complete

Front drains done!

After ripping up the water pipe to create a fountain, he unearthed another "cable" which caused lots of debate. It happened to be the original lead water pipe! Ali had the honour of chopping it in half with the axe. Some prize comments were made in the "identify the cable" discussion:

"If it's electric, the axe is ok because it has a wooden handle"
"Who insulates electricity with lead?"

On Sunday, after a sleepover with the McMillan's, Jaimin & Oli hit the site early and continue with the digging out.  When Ali arrived again, he and Jaimin spent the morning pick axing and digging the north trenches for the piped drain, as the digger was simply too cumbersome in the restriction.  It was pretty back breaking work but was aided by some tea and Lucy's ginger cake! When the girls arrived at lunchtime we had a welcome hearty soup and bread. 

While the digger dug the soakaway, Ali & Jaimin proceeded to dig out the rest of the north trench, pick axing carefully around the tricky spots next to the existing clay soil pipes. Once digging was complete, we dispatched the digger to the gravel pile, because hand filling the barrow was inefficient and painful. We laid the membrane and did lots of trips to the gravel pile to fill a base, then laid the 100 mm perforated pipe and backfilled. 

North drain complete!

Soakway filling

Oli finally hung up his shovel at 5.30, leaving Ali & Jaimin to do a few more barrow loads of gravel. Ali departed at 6.30 leaving Jaimin with the digger to try and do some very rushed soil mound spreading (we only had 1.2 hrs left on the digger). He also did some more rubble clearing and used some to fill the soakaway, and backfilled the original rural landfill.

8.30 pm departure was 12 hours from kick off but the drain was in and lots of earth had been moved. It had been an incredibly productive, collaborative and fun weekend with outstanding performances by Oli and Ali - thanks guys! 

Unleash the Titan

After a conversation with Thomas earlier today, Jaimin visited the plot this evening to clear the floorboard timber pile in preparation for the weekend, and then proceeded to give the Titan another go under the guidance of a headtorch, with some success! The trick is that concrete is strong in compression (000's of N) but weak in tension (00's of N), so when you have a hole, break towards it and you get good chunks! Some digging to come...

It was also his first time at the plot in the dark, and one lovely surprise was that only 1 other light was visible in the vista!

Digging a hole

Literally and possibly even metaphorically Jaimin spent Sunday digging a hole:

During...

After...

The day started well with Jaimin managing to get one of the 2 "roof ties" fixed down using nails and timber:

Strong...

The next step was to start digging up the slab in the shower area of the lean to, photos above, using the famous Titan. Tough going with vibration and arm-pump the order of the day.

This was followed by a lot of loading of soil through the small east window and many trips to the end of the garden to dump it out.

The family were on hand for a morale boost and Lucy did a sterling job of clearing out the "west wing" of the main room. She also managed to collect the remaining plasterboard from the bonfire, so it could be tipped. Here she is working hard:

Jack and Finn managed to have fun in the garden:

Good times

After the support crew left Jaimin managed to carry on digging then got bored (and tired) so did some investigation work to see where the soil pipe and kitchen waste came out. Nothing terribly fancy here:

At "rig down" he managed to do another semi-large load to the tip - every little helps.

This weekend is a big weekend with Oli on call for digger driving and 11 tons of gravel lined up to be delivered. 

Pooh pipe & post!

We received post!

Also, the pooh pipe test was passed today - great news. We poured water down the toilet and it pissed in to the septic tank! :-)

With Will's help the central support plinth was broken up, masses of stones and mortar deposited through the windows and then the fireplaces were opened up. Went well on the West side where the wood burner is planned, but slightly dodgy on the east (big fireplace) side. There was lots of loose stuff falling out and it was a real hodge-podge job of 2 or 3 old fireplaces consecutively built on top of each other, filled in with stones, bricks and ... slate! At least 2 fireplaces have been removed so we're down to probably the 2nd last layer but going any further will potentially compromise stability of the structure, plus create more rubble.

Will hard at work

Broken up central plinth

West end opened up 

Opening up the "mega fireplace"

No more plinth... 

Opened up, but messy.

While Will was "doing rubble" Jaimin managed to complete the trickier steps of a plan which will result in the the roof being tied to the walls slightly more convincingly. This involved nailing a restraint strap to a joist and one of the timber stud pieces, then attaching another (reclaimed) noggin to a breeze block using a frame fixing screw. Currently we have 3 "hanging timbers" which tomorrow will be connected to the breeze block noggins using other noggins in between. Messy, but hopefully somewhat useful and definitely better than nothing.

Noggin fixed to breeze block

"Hanging timber" attached with a restraint strap

To be connected....

To be connected also...

Also worth noting was the unleashing of the Thomas and Bridgit's "Titan" jack hammer, which allowed Jaimin to get through a corner of the cement slab and see if that's worth pursuing. Probably is! (In case you didn't also work it out, it means there is a functioning electricity socket, and we have power! There is also a defunct socket which happened to explode very early on!!!)

Unleashing the Titan

Today's mess...