We started the week nice and easy by having a day off. Dane was on airport collection duty, while I was at home awaiting two deliveries which could arrive at any time during the day. On Tuesday we were back to work and our first job was to put in the last steel measuring nearly five metres. It actually went in easier than we thought which was a bonus. After that we put in to place the first of the two timber beams, and then we set about removing the last wall that had to come out.

John and J were on site on Wednesday to screed the extension floors, with me and Dane on the mixer and barrow with John and J doing the screeding. Thursday was all about first fixing with Dean doing the electrics and Kevin Fisk doing the plumbing. On Friday Dean was still on site finishing the electrics while I made a start on the timber stud walls, with Dane prepping the dining room and kitchen walls ready for plaster boarding next week.

We also had a meeting with Richard at Choice Web Design as we finalized the final details of our new revised web site which will be launched soon. The site has been refreshed and bought up to date but with a few new features. The new features revolve around our new design service which includes a new client area which we are really looking forward to launching which gives our future clients their own private access to their own design drawings and planning applications all for a new fixed price service. So keep your eyes open for the new site.

This week was all about getting the two structural openings done while the clients were away for the week.  We had two openings to do; one which will extend the dining room, the other will extend the kitchen.  By doing these two openings we are virtually taking out the entire length of the rear ground floor back wall. 

The early part of the week involved taking out the old patio and utility door along with the kitchen windows.  We then acro propped the internal joists and then acro propped the external brick work with additional strong boys.  The next job was to break out all the brick and bock work.  On Thursday we had two brickies on site to build up the internal piers and pad stones ready for the steels.  Friday was the day the four out of the five steels went in.  The two steels in the dining room went in nice and easy, but the two steels for the kitchen which measured nearly six metres in length took a bit more organisation and forward thinking.  We took our time and finally got them into position with a big sigh of relief.  When the clients returned they were pleased with our progress and had their first opportunity to see the new size of their new kitchen area.  One more steel to go in, and then we get can start putting everything back together.

We weren’t exactly working up a sweat this week by any means; we were saving ourselves for the big week next week when the steels go in.  This week was about just ticking the job over, doing little bits and pieces to try and keep ourselves ahead.  The week consisted of finishing off a few small jobs, some forward thinking on materials so everything would be on site when needed, putting in the window boards and a timber stud wall and taking the kitchen out on the Friday so we were in position to crack straight on with taking out walls on the Monday.  The clients are taking a week’s holiday next week which is really good for both parties.  This was scheduled back in February when the contract was being drawn up so in that respect we are on schedule, if anything a few days early, but at least the client doesn’t have to come home to a messy house every night for the week and we have the opportunity to work in an empty house.  As the A-Team used to say, I love it when a plan comes together!

Our first job of the week was to remove the garage door and tooth out the brick work ready for Richard the brickie on Tuesday.  In the afternoon we took down the double plaster boarded garage ceiling so Dean the electrician could access his cabling later in the week.  Never a pretty site taking down a ceiling, so a good tidy up was required before we departed site.  On Tuesday Richard the brickie was on site to do the brick and block work in the garage opening we had created.  While that was being done, Dane and I marked out for a new opening to be created from the hallway to the garage room.  We hired in a special masonry chainsaw that would cut through the double skin block wall, or that was the plan.  Unfortunately the chainsaw had other ideas. The first problem was getting the thing to fire up.  Dane got a bit carried away and ended up pulling the start chord off in his hands, so I had to rush back to Huntingdon to get a new start chord fitted.  When I got back, things didn’t improve.  After about what seemed like about 50 attempts to get it started, we gave up and called somebody out to take a look at it.  It was then taken away and at around 4pm we were told it was ‘knakcered’, or not working to me and you. This wasn’t a great help as we had to have the opening done by lunch time on Wednesday so John the plasterer could run the new screed in.  We made some calls and Travis Perkins in Peterborough had a similar machine that was available to us on the Wednesday.  Wednesday morning was a bit of a rush as we did the new opening, we put down the DPM and the cellotex insulation and we got finished just in time for John’s arrival.  In the afternoon I was mixing the sand and cement, Dane was on the wheelbarrow and John was doing his stuff laying the screed.  By mid afternoon we were all done.

 On Thursday we had a breakfast meeting with a former client who wants us to undertake some more work for him on a new project, and on the Friday I finished off the lead work on the roof and pointed it up, and we then set about getting the last of the glass panels in the doors and windows making the extension water tight.

After our first week off in the year it was back to continue with our latest extension in Alconbury near Huntingdon.  That was after I had to sit through Danes holiday photos, which weren’t too bad, but the ‘budgie smuggling look’ is not a good one!  But getting back to more serious things, our first job was to finish off the roof tiling and point up the two gable ends which Dane attended to while I had to go and deal with an emergency bathroom leak.  On Tuesday Dane made a start on the guttering and down pipes while I chased out the brick work ready to run in the lead work and the abutment ventilation system.  I had to go back to finish off my work in repairing the bathroom leak the following day, while Dane had a meeting with our client to bring them up to speed as to where we were, and what are plans were for the coming weeks.
Thursday was finishing off the gutter, down pipes and getting the lead run in, and then picking up our door and window order in the afternoon.  On Friday we spent the day getting all the door and window frames fixed and fitted, ready for the glass to go in early next week.

It was a nice easy three day week for us this week as we finally got round to taking some well deserved holiday time off.  On Monday while I and Dane ran in all the roof trusses and the strapping, one of Richard’s brickies was on site to build up and finish off the two gable ends.
Tuesday was fun and games with the weather going into rain mode to make amends for all the sunny days we have had of late.  We managed to get the facia and soffit on and the roof felted, and then from around 10.30 onwards it was on/off with heavy showers.  We managed to get some of the roof batons fixed on, but as the rain shower kept coming it was getting more and more of a risk to be on a roof.  So at around 14.00 we decided to call it a day.
For our final day of the week Dane set about laying the slate roof tiles while I gave the site a good tidy up to get everything back ship shape.  Dane virtually got all the tiles run in apart from a few cuts that were needed, and then we took down our trestles and scaffold boards so the site was clear in our absence.  Dane was off to cook himself in Egypt for a week while I was moving house and having a staycation, all the rage apparently! As long as I am not working, I don’t mind where I am.

Monday was another day of paper work at home as the van was in the garage having a few niggles put right.  After picking the van up on Tuesday morning Dane and I spent the day doing a few runs in the van picking up scaffold boards and trestles and getting them to site so Richard could continue with his brick work which he did on the Wednesday.  Thursday he was away for the day so Dane set about running in the wall truss hangers while I dug out for the underground pipe work for the gutter down pipes.  Richard was back in on the Friday to finish the two gable ends and that completed all the brick and block work, so we could then make a start on the roof the following week, hopefully getting most of it done just before we take out first well earned break of the year, and are we looking forward to that!

It was quiet week for Dane and me.  On the Monday we put in the block and beam floor at Alconbury, so everything was ready for Richard the brickie to start putting up the brick and block walls on the Wednesday.  On Tuesday we went to finish off a few snagging points from a previous job, and on the Thursday we met with Richard from Choice web design to discuss revamping the web site and adding some new exciting content to the site.  This meant on the Wednesday and Friday I had the joy of doing my VAT return and going through my paper work ready to submit my end of year accounts.

On Monday we decided to shutter the footings as there was a strong chance of rain and we didn’t want the footing walls to collapse in on themselves.  We pulled the last length of the trench to finish things off, but things weren’t going to plan.  We kept digging down but we soon started to realise that the existing footings on the house were deeper on the left hand side than the right hand side.  We got to the stage where the digger was no more use as it couldn’t reach, so it was out with the shovel and a bit of hand digging.  We ended up a further 800mm down on the left trench than the right.  Obviously this had been done for a reason on the existing house, so we called out the Building inspector to check things over before we proceeded with the concrete fill.  The following day the inspector signed off the trench at the depth we had gone down too, and Dane and I set about running our levels in.
We got onto site around lunch time on Wednesday expecting the concrete pump lorry to turn up around 13.00, with the concrete lorry following on shortly afterwards.  The concrete pump lorry arrived on time and he set himself up ready for the concrete.  Unfortunately the concrete company weren’t on the same page as us.  The concrete delivery turned up at around 15.00, two hours late!  Dane got his quantity spot on (and didn’t he let me know it!) and we filled the trench to our level, tampered it down, job done.
On Thursday we filled up another skip with earth as we took the earth level down to give us the 150 void below the block and beam floor.  On Friday Richard the brickie tuned up to run in the trench blocks and a couple of courses of bricks ready for us to run in the block and beam floor the following week.  Everything was ticking along nicely.

Monday was another bank holiday, so on the Tuesday and the Wednesday Dane and I went about getting the new site set up.  This involved travelling about moving tools and materials, organizing the toilet hire, digger and dumper delivery, contacting Building Control, organizing material prices and deliveries and putting together a proposed work schedule for the coming weeks.
On Thursday we took delivery of the digger, dumper and toilet, plus two skips ready to get rid of the earth from the footings.  We then set out for the extension footings and once that was completed we made a start on pulling the footings.  Because we only had a path for access down the side of the property I had to get and use a micro digger for the first time.  Looking at the size of it I thought we might end up hand digging as the machine looked a bit under whelmed for the job in hand.  But I was soon put in my place as the little micro digger took no trouble in digging down to a metre and a half and had no problems in disposing of the earth into Danes tracked skip loader.  Don’t judge a book by its cover as they say.  We also called out the building inspector to check off the trial hole we had dug so we could continue the footings at the agreed level all the way round.
Friday was just more of the same as we continued to pull the footings and fill the skips.  By the end of Friday we were only left with a small length of trench to finish off on the Monday, so we had made good progress and things were going well.