This week Stu and I had a variety of different jobs to do as the extension began to really take shape, and even the weather was kind to us as it didn’t rain once all week.  On Monday we had to get the big 4.5 metre heavy duty steel lintel and its baby brother into place.  This is where things could go really wrong, as the big lintel had to sit on top of the two steel posts we put in right at the beginning of the job.  So it was the moment of truth as to whether our measurements were spot on or not.  We hired in for the day a special heavy duty winch, which would take the weight of the lintel and we could raise it up into position.  We got the lintel into position and sat on top of the two steel posts, and we were pretty much spot on.  The two bolt holes on the left hand side matched up perfectly, but we were 5mm out with the right hand bolts, which I would have taken before we started.  So we made the openings a little larger, got the bolts in and fixed everything into place.

On Tuesday we ran in the final brick work to the front elevation, running in a soldier course above the door and window opening.  We also got the timber plate into position and bedded on.  On Wednesday we fixed in all the timber roof trusses, covered all the roof area with 18mm ply, then cross laid two layers of roof felt, and finished by putting on a coat of bitumen.  The ply, the two layers of felt and the bitumen are not normal specification for a roof, but because the pitch of this roof is so shallow this is the specification Building Control required.

On Thursday we put up some of the facia and soffit, and finished off the remaining internal block work, and then on the Friday we ran in the last of the brick work on the side elevation gable.

This week was just a case of getting on with things and getting the brick and block work up to height by the end of the week ready for us to put in the bloody great lintels that had to go in.  Monday and Tuesday was good weather wise and things progressed nicely.  Stu was mixing up the muck or now as he likes to be called, a Cement Technician! while I was laying the bricks and blocks.  Stu was also doubling up as one of Willy Wonkas Umpa Lumpas again.  That’s what he looked like after he did all the cuts of the engineering bricks I needed as I ran the brick courses in, that or he has been over doing it with the fake tan!

Wednesday we were on site for 8am as usual. The sky was looking a bit dark and grey and Stu and I were not sure what the weather was going to do, but the Cement Technician put a mix in as we took a chance that the weather would be on our side.  Wrong!  Come 08.30 and it was lashing down with rain, again.  I checked the weather forecast on my phone, and it was reporting that the rain was set in for most of the day.  So once again, another day lost, we packed our tools up and called it day.

On Thursday the weather was blue sky and sunshine, the complete opposite to the day before.  Just before coffee break we had the lintels arrive.  One was a bloody great C section lintel, 4.5 metres in length; the other was 2.4 metres long and a smaller version of its big brother.  The lorry had no lifting gear, so it had to be hand balled off.  At this point, knowing the weight of these lintels, the lorry driver gave some story of a dodgy back, and then conveniently spent the rest of his time on his mobile phone and doing everything he could to hide out the way.  Don’t you just love good customer service!  Stu and I managed to slide the lintel off the back of the lorry and drop it to the side of the drive.  The driver suddenly appeared surprise surprise to get his paper work signed and sheepishly went on his way.  Mr M the client offered his help to move the lintel to the rear of the property where the extension was, and also called in his son and some extra hands.  It took six of us to lift the big lintel, and even with six it was still extremely heavy.  So much so that both Stu and I came to work the next day with bruised shoulders where the lintel had been resting.  By Friday lunch time we had the brick and block work to the height we needed. It had the weekend to go off, ready for lifting the lintels into position on the Monday.  Oh what fun that will be!

On Tuesday we were enjoying the fruits of another English summer, i.e., it was raining as usual!  We are working with engineering bricks as face bricks, and the last thing engineering bricks like is water. So after a few false starts and with no sign of the rain shifting, we decided to call it quits and take a half day.  On Wednesday we put the door and a very large side window profile into place to build the brick work around.  Most of the day was cloudy and sunny, but from 2pm onwards the temperature dropped and the cloud went from blue to black.  Just as I finished my last course of bricks and we took the decision to pack up and not take the risk of getting caught in more rain, the heavens opened and it absolutely chucked it down with rain.  We got the brick work covered up just in time to protect it from the rain.

On Thursday morning the client and I had a discussion about the window and doors.  Due to the way the brick course ran I made the door opening slightly larger than the plans.  The client had given this some thought but preferred to go back to the slightly smaller opening.  The client also wanted the window profile changed and reduced in height because as things stood the bottom of the window came up to his knees, and he is only a small bloke!  This set us back and we lost a mornings work altering things and getting things back on track.  It was my own fault, but it could have been far worse. But at the end of the day we are here to build what the client wants, and I would much prefer we did what we did to put things right and the client then ends up with a finished piece of work that they are totally happy and satisfied with.

Friday was a right old dull day.  The sand and bricks were still wet from earlier in the week because of the amount of rain fall we had.  There was a fine drizzle in the air, and the air was also damp.  I layed a couple of courses of bricks, but the engineering bricks don’t absorb the water so they were really difficult to lay.  As the weather looked set in for the day, we decided not to proceed with things.  So we waited for the muck to go off so we could point them up before calling it a day.  But we didn’t realise how long this would take.  The muck was not drying out very quick at all, and in the end I had no choice but to point up otherwise we could have been waiting all day.  After laying the first course of bricks at 08.30, the muck was nearly as fresh at 12 noon as when I laid it first thing in the morning!  Doing half days and keeping our fingers crossed for better weather is happening a little bit too much for my liking, especially as its August!

After the frantic Friday afternoon of getting the concrete into the trenches, Monday was a nice easy day.  The digger and dumper were being taken off hire on the Tuesday, so we used them to remove some more earth so we had our air gap between the remaining earth and the bottom of the block and beam floor.  By early afternoon we had the skip filled, so we washed the machines down ready to be picked up.  We then did our marking out for the brick work and block work.

Tuesday we ran in the brick work for the concrete beams of the block and beam floor to sit on.  On Wednesday we were all ready to go with the concrete beams.  They were 3500mm long, and the weight of them was just enough for Stu and I to carry them on our shoulders.  We had to get them from the front drive area, round the back to the extension.  We got the first one round.  Stu wanted the beam his way to sit on his brick work; I wanted it my way to sit on my brick work.  Then we realized we had a problem!  After some head scratching and some worrying concerns we had made a big mistake somewhere along the line, we spoke to our colleague, Dane the architect.  It came to light that he had increased the dimensions of the build by 200mm, but not sent out a revised plan, hence why the beams would not sit on our brick work!  After a few polite expletives, we then set about having to run in a new skin of block work for the beams to sit on, and make a few amendments to our work to get everything back on track.  By lunch time we had the new block work in but had to wait again for the cement to set, so we had to take a half day.  Unfortunately this work was not planned, and through no fault of our own we ended up losing half a day’s work on our schedule.  On Thursday we once again set about getting the beams into position.  This time they went in spot on, and by lunch we had all the beams in position.  I had booked in the building inspector earlier in the day to sign off the block and beam floor, and he duly arrived during while we were having our lunch.  He was on site all of 60 seconds, and passed off our work!  In the afternoon we barrowed round the floor blocks to infill the beams, we put down a slurry mix to bond the blocks and the floor was finished.  After a hards days work Stu and I had pulled back our lost time and we were now back on track.

On Friday morning Stu had the job of digging down and exposing the existing drainage pipe work.  Once it was exposed we set about cutting into the pipe so we could fit a new chamber unit. After a bit of pushing and shoving we had the chamber fitted into position, back filled the hole, job done.  Dane our architect colleague felt guilty for what happened with the beams (rightly so!), and offered to meet us at the pub and buy the first round of drinks.  How could we refuse!