Floor prep & getting stuck

After the wall head, Sunday required some significant clearing out. Jaimin managed to clear the West side out fairly quickly but the East side was done on the wettest most dull grey Scottish day ever. Thankfully Ali was on hand to help and suffer alongside in the wet.

Stuck.

During this episode, "somehow" they managed to get the Volvo stuck at the bottom of the hill. Long story short is that is stayed the night there and the next day Jaimin went back, used the dropped chimney blocks to make a "track" and then managed to get out. :-)

Almost free...

Following a conversation with the roofer, and a few others, mentioned that using a cement pump while the roof is off would be sensible. So we've decided to hold on the roofing, and go for that plan. Cue a lot a shopping and some more deliveries - sand, rebar, insulation, 1200ga DPM and tape...
One of the consequences is that we have to get the level of the shower drain sorted, so very depressingly Jaimin has had to dig out the gravel from the French Drain and make a hole through the soil to the bathroom.

Plan is to whack and lay sand this week, lay the DPM and insulation (and rebar) this weekend, and get the concrete in... The weather could be a big issue though while the DPM is installed. And it will probably be delayed... 

Wall plate levelling

Last weekend the roofer finished levelling the wall head and installing a threesome of concrete lintels above the bathroom door. It involved a very cool Stihl stone saw. During the process, we decided the lintel above the north facing window was too rotten so I became a joiner, and had to improvise with making a lintel. Because it's C16 I've decided despite it doing the job I'm going to replace it, and the other 3 lintels on the main room, with C24. They take minutes to make and are treated.

New lintels above bathroom door

New, but useless, C16 lintel to be replaced

The observant amongst you may have noticed we have dropped the central chimney. Gone! 

There was more tidying up, below, and there are now some slates to grade...

Lifting the lid

After an unexpectedly extended Easter break helping Bumpy build his shed, the roofer has been up to tear off the roof and prepare for the delivery of new trusses to erect and re-slate.

Bumpy's shed:

Rabbit protection

The mission today was to patch up the holes in the internal wall and repair the sleeper wall that had been penetrated by vermin (mainly rabbits). The Big Man (James) kindly lent a hand which made things tick along nicely. His uncle is a brickie so while at B&Q gathering supplies he made a quick call to establish the mix ratios required :-)

We started using a good 1:5 mix with a drop of plasticiser, mixing in the wheel barrow (not the cement mixer...) and managed some patching.Tip for all (including those builders on YouTube): use a garden hoe to mix the mortar-mix, it's a revelation. Despite an overly generous use of plasticiser, our mortar mix skills improved well as the day proceeded.

We revealed the extent of the "vent holes" that had been built in to the sleeper wall (why were the facing down slope in to the house?) we decided to mix some gravel in to the mortar to create an aggregate mix, which worked much faster.

Once the internals were done we did some very rough "re-pointing" on the gable walls, with some more tidying up on the external faces of the old vents.

Once James left, Jaimin did some laser levelling of the drain pipes to try and get a feel for what the level of the main soil pipe will have to be. Some working out leads us to the rather depressing statistic that this will be about 380mm lower than the existing pipe... some digging awaits.

Bricking it

The wall that broke when ripping out the bathroom door frame was patched up (badly) and gave Jaimin a new respect for brickies. The cement mixer with "next day delivery" that was ordered on Wednesday failed to materialise so the wheelbarrow and spade were employed. Mixing mortar for the first time ever was not very successful but after a morning of effort the walls seems to be repaired.
Jaimin says that using his hands was apparently a lot easier than using a trowel.

Bricked up

In the afternoon Nick arrived and after trying (with moderate success) to work out the existing fall to the septic tank inlet (it's ~1.5m from the kitchen drain) Nick & Jaimin set about digging a trench above the clay pipe. Unfortunately installing the shower at the "right height" will require a new drain pipe... But this is probably the right thing to do in the log term and should also give us some options to separate rain water from grey water. Blisters abound...

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!