We started the week by doing all the finishing touches to the roof.  The first job was to cut all the roof tiles around the Velux roof windows.  As usual things don’t always go in our favour, and with all the tricky cuts we had to do to get the roof tiles in and fitted, this was one of those times.  Once that was done we set about fitting the top edge abutment kit which is a specialist roof ventilation system, then Stu set about finishing the guttering and down pipe while I made a start on cutting the lead flashing to length.  I woke up to heavy rain Tuesday morning and the weather forecast didn’t look like things would improve greatly throughout the day, so on safety grounds we took a day off.  On Wednesday I set about fixing the lead flashing into place while Stu pointed up the tiles on the two gable ends.  We actioned a few minor snagging points and then that was the roof all done and finished.
 

We had a set of three metre long, 5 piece bi-fold doors delivered to site earlier in the week which came in a kit form, and we made a start on putting things together.  The first job was to make the frame up.  Having gone through all the parcels when they had been delivered we couldn’t find a set of instructions or a tick off list for what we should have had delivered.  I contacted the manufacturer and they emailed me over a set of instructions, but unfortunately they were for a three door installation, but the principles seemed the same.  We soon realised that we were missing some of the specialist screws which were of a particular size.  We tried some similar screws that we had on the van, but they weren’t up to doing the job.  So we had to take a trip to a stockist in Peterborough where we could get the screws in singles rather than getting a box of 200 when we only needed two.  All this extra time and hassle just because someone hadn’t put the required number of screws in the box!  As we progressed we soon noticed that the number of hinges didn’t match the number of doors that we had either?  But as we had no check off list, we couldn’t confirm this.  I contacted the manufacturer again and explained our situation.  After some oohing and arhing we were told that we must have a three door hardware kit and not a five door kit, but as we hadn’t flagged this up within the first 48 hours they were trying to wash their hands of things.  I did explain that we didn’t receive any instructions, a check off sheet or several key parts so they weren’t exactly in a position to play the high ground.  I took up my case with the retailer who was really helpful in the circumstances and would be able to get us a new hardware kit that we could pick up first thing Monday morning.  Not ideal but the best it was going to get.
 

After all that, we couldn’t progress with the doors, so on the Friday I put in the roof insulation while Stu ran in new electric cable feeds to meet up with the existing.  Once that was done, Stu and I did think about what work we could do for the afternoon, but as the World Cup was about to start at 1pm and it is only on every four years, we thought it only right to go home and watch the football!  Come on you England!

It was an easier week for Stu and me this week.  It started off with a Bank Holiday Monday which is always nice, followed by a half day on site due to the rain as we fixed the baton down and made a start on laying the roof tiles.  The rest of the day I spent catching up on paper work.  On the Wednesday I had a meeting with a potential new client and in the afternoon put a price together for the works.
 

Thursday was a busy day.  First job of the day was fitting the two large Velux windows.  Between the both of us we got the two frames into position and fixed into place.  I then fixed the two flashing kits into place while Stu continued to lay more roof tiles.  Once the flashing was all fixed it was ready to get the windows up into the frames, which were about 3.5 metres up in the roof timbers.  On the nice installation drawings it shows a cartoon man casually lifting and fixing the window into place.  After the sweat that came pouring off me and Stu as we grappled with a window 800 wide by 1200 long trying to get it to drop into the frame, and fingers crossed not onto the floor below!  These cartoon tradesmen make it look so easy.  Fortunately the second window did go in nice and easy.  In the afternoon we fitted an exterior UPVC window, and then fitted a sheet of damp proof membrane followed by foil backed insulation sheets ready for John and J the plasterers to come in and screed the floor the following morning.  John and J arrived at 8am, and as I had all the materials ready on site for them I left them to crack on with things. By lunch time the floor was screeded, job done.

After our week in Cambourne near Cambridge Stu and I were back to our extension build to continue with works there.  Our main focus was to complete the brick and block work on the two gable ends. While Stu and I were enjoying our working conditions on the Monday of clear blue skies, nice warm weather and plenty of sunshine, I don’t think the same could be said for Dean our electrician.  Dean was out at Cambourne doing the second fix electrics on the loft conversion en-suite so everything was up and running for Stu and I’s return on Tuesday to complete the work.  Doing the electrical work wasn’t the issue, but working up in the confined loft space area was?  This is because in the nice sunny warm weather outside meant the area Dean was working in was near enough a sauna!  When Stu and I were there on Tuesday it was cooler than Monday, and we were both getting a good sweat on, so reports of Dean looking like he had stepped out of a shower were not probably far of the mark.

On Tuesday we finished off the last bits we needed to do on the en-suite.  We checked that the new digital shower unit was up and running, the new down lights were ok, the towel radiator was working properly, plus we had had a good tidy up and clean down before our departure.  Mark and Hannah the clients were very happy with the finished job and the work we had done.  So much so that we received this glowing reference:

“This is quite simple, if you want a superb job being done this is the company to go with.  Blueberry was one of seven builders who gave us quotes for our en-suite wet room.  It was a very easy decision for us.  Not only were they very competitive but Richard was easily the quickest, most efficient and professional builder we contacted.  During the build Richard and Stu were again superb.  Accuracy, build quality and all round attention to detail was excellent.  During the whole build communication between builder and client again was superb.  Richard would give me daily updates on progress and would involve me in design decisions.  The finished en-suite wet room is superb and exactly what we wanted from the start.  I would recommend Blueberry to anyone and would be happy to be a reference in the future.  I’m sure we will use the boys again.”
 

For the rest of the week we got the gable ends on the extension completed and also put up the facia, soffit and guttering, so we were ready to make a start the following week on doing the roof.

After our week off, it was back to the en-suite refurb we were working on.  As is always the way when you return to work after a break, it can take a while to get back in the swing of things again.  But this was soon forgotten when we saw the arrangement of biscuits that had been left out for us to choose from.  The level of hospitality on this job has been first class and very kind.  But we were here to work and started to get the job moving again.  Stu ran in the last of the water feeds to the shower head while I ran in the extractor ducting. Once this was done we could start to board out the en-suite with Hardibacker which is a water proof cement board.  We got the lower half of the room boarded, then set about tanking the floor and wall areas.  This involves rolling on a water proof membrane to the board so providing a water proof seal.  The next day we finished off boarding out the room.  Once that was all done, the last job of the week was to tile the floor area.
 

Monday to Wednesday of the following week consisted of tiling the walls and then grouting the tiles to finish them off.  On Thursday Stu plumbed in the towel radiator, and while he was doing that I put the sink, pan and cistern together ready to be fitted into the en-suite.  Unfortunately poor old Stu was having one of those days when nothing was going his way and everything took longer than he planned, I know that feeling!  Next item was to have the sparky wire in the electric shower unit, extractor and new down light.  As there wasn’t much more we could do until the electrics were activated on the following Monday we took the Friday off.

This week Stu and I were travelling out to Cambourne near Cambridge to carry out an en-suite installation in a former loft conversion.  On Monday we put together our materials list and then headed off to do some shopping, popping into around five different merchants.
 

On Tuesday I started stripping out the soon to be en-suite room, while Stu set about running the hot and cold water feeds up from another en-suite below.  Getting up and down two flights of stairs every time was certainly keeping us fit; maybe we should have installed a lift first.  Stu drained down the heating system and then plumbed in a new towel radiator in the existing bathroom the following day, while I put in some new structural support timbers for the new floor area and then laid new floor boards on top.  On Thursday Stu had to plumb in the correct size towel radiator in the bathroom as he had fitted the wrong towel rad on my say so.  I got my towel rads mixed up and Stu fitted the wrong one in the wrong place, whoops!  After that he ran in the first fix hot and cold water feeds to the en-suite toilet, sink and shower unit.  While Stu did that, I ran in the shower waste pipe work, put down the wet room shower base and fixed some additional floorboards to give a one level floor.  I then started on putting in some new stud work to create some new false walls.
 

Stu had to re-hang the living room radiator on Friday due to the fact the youngest member of the family where we were working had been using it as a warm seating area and nearly had it off the wall!  Stu then ran in the sink waste pipe while I finished off the stud work and started to insulate the new walls with cellotex insulation ready for boarding on return from a well deserved break.

We are making progress with our extension build in Sawtry, but we could be making more progress if the builder’s merchants got their act together.  I had ordered two cavity lintels from a merchant the previous week, ordering earlier than usual knowing that one of the lintels sizes, which is 3300mm would have to be ordered into stock.  I was told the lintels would be delivered into them on the Monday so we could pick them up on Tuesday and continue with our brick and block work.  By Monday lunch time Stu and I had the brick and block work up to lintel level, we just needed our lintels.  I phoned the merchants to make sure we were still on for picking up the lintels Tuesday am.  The answer was no.  The lintels would not be into the merchant’s yard until Tuesday.  Great!  As there was nothing more we could do, we had to take Tuesday off.  On Wednesday morning I was in the merchant’s yard for 07.30 to pick up the lintels.  As the 3300mm lintel is not exactly a small thing, I was a bit bemused as not to see it laying in the yard.  I loaded the 2100mm lintel up, but couldn’t see the 3300mm lintel.  I asked one of the yard lads where the lintel was, but he looked even more bemused than me.  But then again I think that’s how they look most of the time!  I went into the office to make further enquires.  The bemused look was starting to spread, and after some worried looking through paper work it became clear that they didn’t have the lintel.  I had been in the yard for 30 minutes now and was minus the lintel I had come to collect.  Obviously starting to realise the cock up they had made, the merchants started making some worried phone calls to subsidiary merchants to see if anyone else had one in stock.  Very fortunately for them one of their other merchants did have one in stock.  So I made my way across Fengate to pick the lintel up.  All fun and games!

We got the lintels bedded onto the walls and we ran in the brick and block work to plate height so we were in a position to make a start on the roof.  On Thursday we go the two wall plates fixed into position and made a start on running in the timber joists.  On Friday we got all the joists cut and fixed into position, leaving the openings for the two Velux windows to fit into.  As this is a shallow pitch single storey roof we have to do more work than usual on this roof to allow for the extra ventilation.  We had a good system going between us; I was up on the roof doing the fixing while Stu was at ground level cutting all the baton and ply sheeting to size.  We fixed the cross baton timbers into place to provide the through ventilation, and then fixed some plywood sheeting to the top of the batons, ready for some felt, more batons and roof tiles.  After a couple of hours with the sun beating down on us we got all our work finished.  Everything was dead on square and I was impressed with what we had done for the day and the finish of the roof (although I would say that!).  So just as we finished for the day I heard the ice cream van going up the road.  So I ran out to get a couple of large ice creams for a job well done.  Well, it would have been rude not too!

Not a lot to add this week.  Stu and I were still working on building up the extension brick and block work to plate height.  Waiting for the lintels to arrive on site for the window and door, plus the roof materials so we can make a start on that.  I should have more to write about next week.

We were back to concentrate on our single storey extension this week, and it was only a four day week due to a Bank Holiday Monday.  On the Tuesday Stu and I put in the block and beam floor.  Stu cut out all the openings into the existing house brick work so we could slot the concrete beams into position.  After the beams were in, it was just a case of in filling the beams with the concrete blocks to provide the new floor area.
 

The rest of the week was spent doing the exterior face brick work.  Stu the cement technician was on the mixer serving up barrows of his finest recipe cement, and in between was loading out the site with bricks and blocks and making up the window and door frames, while I was on brick laying duty.  I was a bit rusty on the brick laying at the start of the week, but soon got up to speed by the end of the week and things were progressing nicely.  A nice simple week.

On Monday and Tuesday Stu and I were finishing off the bathroom refurbishment.  The only thing left to do is fix the shower head to the wall once the missing parts arrive from the shower manufacturer.

On Wednesday we were back over towards Northampton fitting a new front door for a previous client, while on Thursday we working near Cambridge fitting a waste disposal unit.  So that tidies up all the little jobs we had outstanding, so next week we can get back to the extension we have started and make a start on the block and beam floor and start getting some brick and block work up.

On Monday Stu and I had a day laying the footing trench blocks on the extension job, before moving on and starting a bathroom refurbishment job on the Tuesday.  Our first job was to strip out the existing bathroom furniture and to take up, and replace, the floor board that had seen better days.  While the floorboards were up, Stu ran in some new pipe work and moved some other pipes about.  On Wednesday we put in a new stud wall, put the bath together and fitted it into position and tiled the floor area.

While Stu plumbed in the bath on Thursday morning, I put the taps and waste onto the sink ready for its installation.  I then plumbed in and fitted the toilet while Stu set about getting a new radiator and towel radiator ready for them to be fitted.  Friday was a fun day all round.  Stu had to plumb in a new shower with a new shower pump unit, which doesn’t sound too bad, but when there is a big large hot water cylinder in the way in an airing cupboard space it makes things that little bit harder.  So while Stu was doing his best contortionist moves, I was fitting a product called Mermaid board (decorative bathroom panels) around the bath.  Come late afternoon I had all the boards fixed into place and Stu was nearing the end of his shower fitting.  He got all the pipe work completed to the back of the shower, then we got the shower unit fitted to the front and tested it for any possible leaks which there wasn’t.  It turned out to be a long day, which we don’t need on a Friday, but we had got everything done we had planned to do for the week.  So we were on track to be all finished off by Tuesday of the following week.