This week was a labour intensive week, but also a straight forward week.  Between me, Stu, John, J, Dan and G it was a case of getting the remaining exterior walls rendered.  Everything went to plan, the weather continued to be kind to us with glorious blue skies and warm sunshine.  Better late than never!  Stu and J were on the mixers; me and G were getting the muck up onto the scaffold and onto the boards, and John and Dan were doing the rendering.  By the Thursday lunch time the rendering was finished and I was really pleased with the level of finish John and Dan had produced, plus the way we had all worked together as a team to get the job done as efficiently as we could.

That means on the Friday Stu and I could make a start with the painting, starting with the under coat.  Normally I don’t like painting but as this was only going to be a two to three day job I didn’t mind so much, and with the lovely weather we were having it was a joy to be working outside.  In the morning it was a struggle as we got the harder to get too gable walls done and out of the way, leaving the easier front and rear walls to do in the pm.  By the end of the day we had all the walls done except the front wall which I thought was good going after our slow start.  So on Monday we can get the last of the under coat on, then get the top coat on and really start to see the new build take on a new life.  A nice change from all that boring block work to look at.

After Stu’s week off in the sunshine of Cornwall, and me getting back on top of my paper work and doing a few bits and pieces in a casual week, we were back on the site of the New Build near Ramsey.  The first job we had to do was put in the bathroom window that I forgot to put in when we originally did the two skins of block work.  I remembered all the window and door openings to the front and rear elevations, but I was in my own little world when doing the side elevation block work and totally forget until it was too late!  I jokingly like to blame Stu for everything that goes wrong, but I have to hold my hands up to this shocking mistake.  We got the lintels in, cut out the block work to make the opening and fixed the window into position.  Fortunately because we are rendering the block work the window will always look like it was meant to be there and the level of finish has not been compromised.  If it had been brick work, it would have been a totally different story.

John and Jay the plasterers were on site on Tuesday fixing their render beads around the build in preparation for doing the scratch coat.  There was nothing Stu and I could do so we took a day off and left John and J to it.  On Wednesday Stu and I were labouring for John and J.  Stu the Cement Technician was in charge of the mixer and I had the joy of making sure John and J had a constant supply of muck on their boards.  Running up and down the scaffold, pulling up the buckets of muck on the pulley, who needs the gym!

By the end of Thursday we had scratch coated the whole build, bearing in mind it is a large four bedroom property and we were all pleased with our efforts.  Good job.  On Friday John and J made a start on doing the top coat.  As they weren’t sure how the scratch coat would react to the top coat, they focused on some of the smaller areas of wall.  While they got a feel for how things were going to work out with the top coat, Stu and I worked out a routine so we could keep the muck flowing as quickly as we could.  Things can be more temperamental with the top coat, especially as this is the level of finish everyone will see, so it’s important we have the muck there when it is needed and allow John and J to do their job to the best of their ability.  John and J take a real care in their work, and their attention to detail is spot on.  At the end of the day things had worked out well.  We had a few teething problems with the scratch coat drying out the top coat too quickly in areas, but generally it was a good day and the level of finish was really good.  So we can now look forward to getting on with the two large gable end walls on Monday and Tuesday, break the back of things as it were.  After the poor weather during August and the many lost days to rain, the weather has been great.  No rain, very important when rendering, and lots of blue sky and sunshine.  It looks like we are getting a few late days of summer in before autumn takes hold.  I’m glad things have turned out as I planned!

Stu has just started on a two year plumbing course doing two evenings a week at College, doing practical work on site as the course progresses.  Stu has invested his own money and time to do this course and it is a big commitment.  Hopefully at the end of the two years he will be a certified plumber, and it is another trade that we can bring in house and not have to rely on sub contractors.  I hope Stu enjoys the course; I will support him all the way and wish him every success with the course.

A nice easy four day week his week after the last Bank Holiday of the year, and it was also our last week on the job in Peterborough.  On Tuesday we finished off putting on the last parts of the soffit and facia along the side elevation of the extension.  We also put the glass into the window frames that we had fixed in on the previous Friday.  Wednesday was about putting in the glass for the French doors so all the glazing was then fixed in, but we also put in an internal box lintel prior to us knocking down what was the external wall and making a new opening from the extension through to the existing dining area which we did the following day.

Thursday we put together a snagging list of the last final jobs that needed doing so we could have the job completed, things like putting in expanding foam and silicone around the window and door frames, pointing up the gable roof tiles and finishing off a few other minor jobs.  On Friday all we had to do was fix the down pipe to the wall and point up a few bricks and the work was complete.  While Stu did that I loaded up the van with our tools and left over materials so they could be dropped back off at Ramsey so we could return to work on the new build.  We swept up, removed all the rubbish and debris, and that was job done.  We had completed the work bang on our six week schedule, and the client was very happy with our rate of work and level of finish.  I hope to have his words up on the web site soon. 

Stu now has a week off, I have a week of catching up on paper work, a few people to visit and materials to organise for the following week on our return to the new build.

On the Monday Stu and I got the roof baton on, and then made a start on the tiling.  The roof tiles are the false effect slate tiles, so there is a bit more work involved rather than just laying nice and easy concrete tiles.  On Tuesday we continued with the tiling, but after lunch Stu carried on tiling while I made a start in cutting all the lead to length and getting it bent into shape.  I got my first piece of lead in and Stu was in the ‘zone’ with his tiling with only one row of tiles to lay so he was all finished, when a heavy rain shower came over around 4ish and turned the rood area into an ice rink.  So for safety reasons we thought we would leave things and get finished in the morning.

On Wednesday we moved inside the extension as the weather forecast once again did not look to favourable.  As the roof is a single storey pitched roof, with a vaulted ceiling inside, we had to fill between the timber rafters with two layers of Cellotex insulation to make a 150mm fill.  The good thing is the insulation comes in sheet form and is easy to cut to lengths, the down side is when you cut it up you get all the little bits of debris floating around and it can get in your throat and eyes.  Even with face masks on and safety specs, the stuff still gets in all the places you don’t want it to.  Once all the insulation was in, we then fixed the plasterboard to the ceiling to finish.  The client will be doing all the internal work.

Thursday, Stu finished off his tiles and I tied the lead into the brick work.  We then chopped away some of the render so we could get our 150mm over lap up the wall.  We fixed the lead into position, put on our render stop bead, so we could then make good the render after lunch.  While I applied the render coat, Stu pointed up the lead brick work.  The following morning we applied some silicon here and there to make everything water tight, and I put on a coat of paint to the render to match the existing wall, and that was all our roof work completed.  We then took a trip out to our window supplier to pick up the UPVC windows and door.  After lunch we set about getting the frames installed, and if we had time we could get some of the glass fixed in.  Unfortunately getting the frames fixed took longer than we thought so we didn’t get time to get the glass in.  So we had a good tidy up and we were all ready and ship shape to crack back on with things on our return on the following Tuesday, after having an extra day off due to it being a Bank Holiday Monday.  Oh what fun, rubbish telly and poor weather, don’t you just love Bank Holidays!