Two weeks ago we were meant to be starting on a bathroom refurbishment in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire.  The client had purchased all the bathroom furniture and units, so we were just going to replace like for like with some additional tiling to be donw.  Unfortunately they had also bought some bathroom decor panels which their primary use is for shower areas, but the client thought they could be used around a bath.  This was not the case.  So we were now in a position where it was extremely difficult to carry out the refurb without these panels or at least having a viable second option.  The client decided they wanted to continue with the decor panels, but they would have to order some similar panels which would work around a bath.  The earliest these could be delivered was the following week.  So Stu and I were in a position through no fault of our own where we now had no work for the week, plus it was going to spoil our plans for starting an extension the following week.  Fortunately the extension we were due to start on was also in Sawtry.  So after a few phone calls and some re-arranging we managed to make a start at our extension job, with our first job being to dismantle and dispose of the existing conservatory that the extension was going to replace.  This only took us a day, and there was little else we could do until the following week when the plant machinery arrived, so we ended up having to take Thursday and Friday off.

On Monday we were able to start on the extension work proper.  Our first job was to dig up the conservatory foundations.  The digger and dumper duly arrived during the morning, so Stu and I set about filling the skip with the conservatory’s foundations.  Once the skip was full, we couldn’t do any more until a fresh skip arrived the following morning.  The next day we measured up and set out the footings.  The skip was exchanged and we made a start digging out the footings.  The only problem was that we were filling the skips quicker than the skip company could change them over.  The skip was due to be exchanged on the Wednesday, but the skip company could not do this until late afternoon so we ended up losing a day as we had no new skip to fill.  We were back in business on Thursday and were going to have the trench dug out.  I called the Building Inspector out to have the footings checked off and had the concrete provisionally booked for a pm delivery.  Everything was in place and ready to go.  That was until the Building Inspector decided he wasn’t happy with the depth of the footings and wanted us to dig down further.  You can’t have the footings signed off until they are virtually finished, by which time there is not much chance of getting the digger back into position if you do need to go down deeper, which we did.  So this meant we had to dig out the remainder by hand.  We had to go another metre down and we had twelve metres of trench to dig.  Roughly, we were going to have to dig out nearly six tonnes of earth by hand (actually with shovels, but you know what I mean).  Great!!  We had no option but to get started.  The weather reports were not looking good for Friday with heavy rain forecast, so Stu and I thought it was best to give Friday a miss and look forward to more hand digging on the Monday!