As the title says, it has been a pain in the bum this week due to the weather, especially the rain.  I don’t have a lot to report this week as we only managed a two day week (the kind of week Wayne likes!).  When we were on site we continued with the foundation brick work, continuing to build it up, putting in the frames for the doors and patio doors.  Fingers crossed we will have a better week for the weather next week and we can get stuck back into things and get the job moving again.

Wayne the brickie was in Spain having a long weekend this week, but was expected back on site on the Thursday.  Stu and I spent Tuesday finishing off in-filling the block and beam floor with the blocks.  On Wednesday we had deliveries of 16 pallets of facing bricks, and 10 cases of internal blocks.  So Stu and I spent most of the day loading out the bricks and blocks in preparation for Wayne on Thursday.  Even with a telehandler, there is still a lot of lifting and carrying, and all the bricks/blocks, muck boards all have to be placed to Wayne’s exact specifications, or else he becomes a ‘not very happy chappy!’.

On Thursday and Friday we all got back into the swing of things, working as a team and getting on with the job at a good pace.  Wayne was brick laying, Stu was keeping the muck flowing, and I was loading out for Wayne as he went, plus dealing with the material delivery of the external blocks as they arrived.  By the end of Friday, we had finished the foundation brick work, and we were ready to start on the external block work.  Not looking forward to this, as the blocks are heavy, and Wayne’s back is not as good as it could be, so stand by for some moaning and groaning!

Stu and I were back on site on Monday 5^th after our two week Christmas break, and it was all systems go as we got straight on with putting in the block and beam floor.  The beams arrived first, and using the telehandler we manoeuvred the beams into position as per the plans.  The infill blocks arrived shortly after wards, so we stacked them up ready.  Once we had the concrete beams in place using the telehandler, we then had to put them into their final positions, which unfortunately meant some serious hand lifting by Stu and I as the beams were bloomin heavy.  This took us through to the end of Tuesday, and on Wednesday and Thursday it was a case of putting in all the infill blocks, all 18 pallets of them!  By the end of Thursday we had the majority of the blocks in and we just had the perimeter blocks to cut down to size as they sit on the internal block work.

On Friday we were not on site as we took a ride out to Northampton to look at a few little jobs that my cousin wanted doing.  There is no thing as ‘little jobs’ when family come asking!