Day ?: Roof Felt

Roof felt and battons completed today. As well as the guttering.

Day ?: Roof starts

In just 1 day the roof structure is completed. I'm using Frank Bird Roofing to complete it.

Day ?: Walls Completed

The rest of the Walls are now complete and ready for the roof to start.

Day 33: Wind Posts installed

The planner has specified windposts which go inside the brickwork on the front wall. There has been a huge delay in getting these completed, which has held up the brickwork quite a bit. They were installed today at last!

Day 26: More Brickwork

The second side wall is completed in the 2nd day of bricklaying. So each side only took a day each. The brickwork goes up so fast with good bricklayers!

Day 19: Brickwork Starts

It's going up quite fast today as you can see.

Day 17: Concrete Slab Finished

There were 2 guys bringing in the concrete and 2 guys levelling it. It went in quite fast. I'm leaving it to go off for 2 days and the walls can then start over the weekend. It looks quite a big room now.

Day 17: Concrete Poured

Insulation was put on top on Visqueen (damp proof) and another layer of visqueen below the concrete slab. Aparently this is unusual to have 2 visqueen, but it was drawn on the plans.

Day 17: Sand Layer

Sand down to go between hardcore and Damp Proof Course.

Day 15: engineering bricks

Engineering bricks take the wall up to slab level today. Forecast is heavy rain tomorrow so the slab will be done on day 17 assuming the building control have no objections.

Day 14: Hardcore done

The ground has been levelled and the hardcore is in - using a whacker plate to compact it.

Day 12: Blockwork complete

The blockwork is finally completed. Until now the trench was filling with water which had to be pumped out. It's much better now it's at ground level.

Day 11: Trench Block

Its been a while since the last update due to Annabelle being born.
This week the foundation brickwork is being done. Using trench block makes the foundations look quite substantial. There has been a lot of rainwater in the trenches which needs pumping out every day.

Day 5: Concrete poured

I had to wait for the inspector to OK the digging before we could pour the concrete. I was struggling to get someone to deliver concrete for this afternoon but it paid off. I finally got Quality Mix Concrete in St Helens to deliver within 2hrs - excellent service. And it means the concrete can harden over the weekend.

Day 5: Inspection Passed

Finally the digging has stopped. The Building Inspector has been and everything passed. So we are now ready to pour the concrete.

Day 4: Holes boarded out

To stop any more holes collapsing they have been boarded out. The digging is taking longer than anticipated due to the ground conditions. A huge boulder of concrete about 800mm diameter stopped progress for a while today. It must have been left by the people who built the house.

Day 3: Hole Collapses more

More foundations have been dug, but some of the Walls are falling in. The walls will need to be supported tomorrow. I think it's due to the holes being so deep and the soil being dug previously.

Day 3: Garage Underpinning

The planner expected that we would have to underpin the garage foundations. Another test hole showed they are the same depth as the house foundations so no underpinning is required.

Day 3: Pre Inspection

As the foundations seem much lower than anticipated building control to come out for a pre inspection. They confirmed we needed to match the house foundation depth.

Day 2: rain damage

No work was done today. Due to the rain some of the test hole has collapsed. Let's hope the rest of the holes don't do the same.

Day 2: Rain

Its been raining all night, and there is now a big puddle in the garden. The digging is now delayed until lunchtime when hopefully the rain will stop.

Day 1: Test hole

Not good news, the test hole shows the existing house foundations are 1.4m deep, which means the new foundation will probably need to be the same - more cost!

Day 1: Patio cleared

All of the patio has been taken up, and some soil cleared.

Day 0: Site cleared

We finally cleared everything ready to start

My New House Extension

This blog will be used to detail our new house extension.

External dimensions - 7.7m x 3.8m
Internal dimensions - 7.1m x 3.5m

Roof - Single pitch

The room will be used as a dining room / lounge, so no kitchen equipment.

I've not had an extension built before, and have decided to arrange the different trades myself, so there will be a bit of a learning curve.