2014...............and the work continues
Returning to action after the festivities, and the first target was to get a flight of steps up to the top of the bank, we were fed up with the precarious and often slippery approach to the back door. With lots of good left over timber for shuttering, each step was produced individually, dug back into the slope, so that each new step overlapped the lower step by a considerable amount. Proper overkill really, but it produced a very substantial flight, and each steo would be faced off later with 4-5" of stone. At the same time, I continued building the path around the back of the house.
After a few days all the steps had been cast. A larger middle step was required to facilitate the manhole, quite arkward to get right, but it turned out well. The edge of the steps nearest the boundary would be used as foundation for a small stone wall to make a garden bed. As the gate post would need to clear this, an inset was left in the top step that a post could later be set into.
Continuing on with the concrete path, we had now taken it up to the patio door, so movement around the back and side of the house was a much cleaner affair. We then continued downwards to form the base for the patio. It was interesting because we were now interacting with the preparatory work that had been done, and it was pretty much spot-on, giving us a decent inclination to shed rainwater. Everywhere was so well consolidated at this point, that only a light tamping compaction was required to prepare for concreting. Also because we had used 'turf walls' to delineate between garden bed and patio, we had the confidence of knowing the base was sound.
A few decent days and several mixes, the patio base was taking shape, and I was thinking forward to the summer house. We wanted, basically a shed, that would meet a lot of uses, but most importantly enable us to put away the patio furniture conveniently and quickly. With the summers that we have, I don't think it is practical or sensible to leave good furniture to suffer the elements for weeks, on the basis of one decent day enjoyed. OK you can cover it up, but then that usually looks a mess, gets blown around in the wind, and then you get green algae on the patio beneath it. When I looked at the space we needed, I realised I would need to reclaim a bit of ground I had earmarked for garden.
At this point we had only decided upon the size of shed we would have, and therefore the size of base needed. The extended area was dug out, retaining any decent earth, until I was down to solid ground. I emptied everything out of the shed so that I could move it. I didn't want to take it apart again, so opted for pushing, using rollers and levering until with a few grunts and groans, it was in a new 'temporary position'.
Everything was put back in the shed, and I set up the shuttering for for the new shed base. I had filled up the reclaimed area with hardcore, but It became clear that I would need quite a bit more if I was going to avoid a massively thick concrete base. Although it was about 20 miles away, my son Dan had demolished an old block shed and had a pile of rubble he was wanting to get rid of. So after borrowing the means to do it, I transported it all over to our site. It all needed breaking up, but I had plenty of time.
After breaking all the rubble into small pieces, I loaded it into the base. I consolidated it with a tamper, a plate compactor would have been better, but as I didn't have one, and did not want to stump up quite a lot of cash to hire one, I was satisfied that this was fit for purpose. After concreting the slab, I took the shuttering off and laid the path around the back and sides. I didn't want to site the shed right up against the wall, I wanted to get all around it to make sure it could all have a protective coat of preserver occasionally. We had now decided where to buy it from, and plumped for a company called 'Tuin' in Norfolk, we placed an order for a 'Britt' 28mm log cabin, 3 metre x 2.5 metre.
The summer house (aka shed) arrived on a single pallet offloaded by the integral Hiab or Forklift (can't remember which), and it was all sealed up in a plastic sheath. I unpacked it and stacked all the components by number in the garage. I had some 100x50 tanalised timber delivered to lay the base timbers on before putting down the 'ring beam' timber. From that point, assembly was very straight forward as each piece of the kit had a letter on it, which is referred to in the build plans. I read somewhere that it is recommended brushing linseed oil into the grooves of the walling planks before putting them into position, which my trusty Assistant did for me.
The only problem I encountered was when it came to lay the rafters, three of which did not sit level with the tops of the walls. In these cases it was a simple job to take a bit more out of the notch so they would sit lower.
After putting the roof on, which was constructed of individual but pre-cut lengths of tongue and groove, I fitted the door and frame. Next came the 18mm tongue and groove floor, which was an extra item on the order, I guess some would be happy with a concrete base inside. Anyway, this is where you can see the benefit of laying your own sub frame first. I had laid the ring beam on DPC which overlapped inside, and each floor cross member had DPC between itself and the sub timber. This should ensure that the floor and its support will last for years.
With the felt shingles (which were part of the deal) all fastened on, and trim pieces also installed, it was given a good coat of preserver. For what we paid for it (£1067) we can't really complain, but some of the advertising was a bit misleading. For instance 'quality door fittings'.....I've never seen such useless flimsy handles, so we fitted decent stainless steel jobbies. The doors are pretty poor too, and right now a few years on we are looking at replacing them with doors that have a more modern look and that keep out the weather, something the current doors fail to do. The shed does fulfill the requirement though, and even our large circular patio table can be lifted in through the double doors very easily. We no longer needed the old shed, so it was dismantled, and Dan took it away to St Eval, where, after a few adjustments and a bit of refurbishment, it started a new life as his garden 'Bar'.
I used the 150mm dolly blocks that had been left over from the build, to lay up to the expected ground level. Above that, and on the inside face, as usual I would build in Callywith stone. An underground pipe had to be laid from right up at the front garage corner, to take surface water from that part of the drive, and take it all the way down to the garden soakaway. On the way down, three 'Aco-drains' would collect surface water, and feed into it.
Back to the West side, as we already had steps down the East side, we wanted a ramp here so that we would always have access for anything with wheels. Because the house levels step around 1.3 metres, I decided to build a retaining wall at the stepping down point, which would then run alongside the ramp. Footings were excavated centrally between the house and fence, and a foundation was laid.
As the pipe passed the garage, it was at the same depth as the outlet from the garage radon trap. I decided to have the vent for it built into the wall, and used flexible pipe to avoid the drainpipe, which I later encased in concrete .
It was mid-April now, and I was flitting around doing whatever job suited me on the day so it seems. I encased the temporary standpipe in a protective structure, the garden system was now complete with this tap for use in cleaning the car and on the drive, the other two at the bottom of the garden. We were also turning our thoughts now to the garden, as I had been clearing the West side, I was finding some good earth that I was
spreading across the garden, and levels were rising. I put shuttering boards in place over the limits of the hardcore. These would not only retain the earth, but serve as a guide for laying the granite setts that I would be placing around the edge of the patio.
We had decided to eventually pave East and West sides, the garden slope, steps and lower garden, all with Marshall's Saxon natural colour slabs. The non-slip properties, obviously good for use on the slopes and steps , plus their contemporary
appearance, made them our first choice. In addition to the standard 450mm x 450mm slabs we would be using, they produce 600mm x 300mm, and although they are proportionately more expensive, I decided to have them for wall capping rather than cast my own. Cutting them around the integral posts was less of a problem than I envisaged, and they were laid in no time at all.
I had got my hands on a number of granite boulders, which someone had dug out of their garden whilst building an extension in St Breward. With great difficulty I had transported them back home in the trailer, and had dragged them off the trailer at the top of the site. Gary had used his digger to lift them down onto the garden before he excavated for the foundations. The intention was to use them to create a bit of a feature in the shrub garden, so now that we were at about the correct level, I dragged them across to where they would be used. One however, was simply too heavy to even lift end to end, or lever over timbers. I had to drill a line of holes right through the middle of it, then use chisels to eventually crack it in half. At about half the weight for each piece, it had now become moveable!
The plan was to fill the spaces between posts, with trellis. Off the shelf panels would not be available in this size, and would be rather too flimsy for my liking. I decided to make my own, and worked out an order, this time from Duchy Timber in Lostwithiel (I think just about the very best garden timber you can get around these parts). I made an adjustable frame in the garage, which I could simply gauge for each separate panel. around 400 metres of 38x19 and 50x25 tanalised timber was delivered, and the production line began
Over the next few days I produced 15 panels in all, that worked out to around £13 each, all exactly the right size and twice as strong as the garden centre offering.
I distributed the boulders around the bed as 'artistically' as I could, and we went off to trawl the local nurseries to see what plants we could find to meet the various criteria of the planting positions, climbers, ground cover, tall growing etc. etc. When you plant out an area such as this, it will always look a bit sparse to begin with, but as growth takes place it is amazing how quickly you find that you are pruning back!
After first laying the granite setts along the edges on the East side of the patio, next was the 'postage stamp' sized lawn. This was quickly brought about with the use of some excellent and good value turf from 'Homebase'. I then continued laying setts around the remaining edges of the patio, set into a good bed of sharp sand concrete. The walls either side of the garden steps were also completed, and the last two capping slabs put in place. The gap between the patio base that had already been laid, and the setts. was finished off with concrete.
After pointing the granite setts, it was back to the West side, firstly to dig out holes for posts, and then concreting them in. The fence was leaning all over the place along here, so with the use of a line and temporary props against the house to push them vertical, the posts were gradually installed in the right position. I then continued building shuttering and laying the concrete path alongside the lower level of the house. With the summer nearly upon us, it was time to think about the stone for the front walls. I went up to Callywith Quarry andand spoke to Jason Stephens. With the coverage I needed, he worked out that I needed about 8 cubic metres of stone, approximately 13 tonnes. Jason agreed to deliver half of this, and await my call for the rest of it, when I had built with it and made room. The first load was tipped on the drive, and before the end of the day I had it stacked away. Someone commented laughingly that my stack was neater than most peoples wall, but stone is easier to work with if you see what you have got.
Cornish stone is not ideal for building curves, and I had designed the walled beds with radiussed ends. We like the combination of Cornish stone and granite, and so decided to build the ends in granite, with squared off quoins to the back corners. I had used Darley Ford quarry before, and after first checking prices elsewhere, ordered 10 quoins, and 2 tonnes of random cropped granite to be delivered. You would not think you could build a wall out of this, but with a face somewhere....you can, in fact it is really ideal for building a curve.
I set up temporary guides at both ends of the wall so that I could build to a line at all times, essential with the randomness of stone. It was only the curves that had to be built 'freehand', but having the back corner quoins to run to, that wasn't too difficult. A niche was built into the left hand side into which we would later fix a slate name plate.
The end of July now, and I had gone as far as I could with the stone I had, so I asked Jason to arrange for delivery of the rest of the stone. There were some very large pieces in this delivery, it should all have been between 4" and 6", but much of this was nearer 8". On the plus side, a cut down the centre of such a piece would make 2 x 4" pieces, so eventually everything would be used.
With plenty of stone to go at, the inside wall and the boundary wall just past the corner of the garage, where the gate post would be, were completed by mid-August.
In between sessions of stone laying, I had been digging out post holes and concreting posts into position one at a time. They were all done now, and I was able to continue working my way up the West side.It was much clearer now where the ramp would need to be, and I decided to cut back the 6" blocks so that the shuttering could be fixed to the wall, with the ramp concrete covering the top of the wall, acting as foundation for the stonework.
I extended the stonework along the back of the garage, stepping down twice on the way to correspond with the fence line, and the height of ground on the other side of the fence. Now the beginning of September, and with this done there was nothing stopping us putting up some gates. We bought two tanalised gates made by 'Duchy Timber' and installed them either side of the house, which considerably increased security.
On the East side, I also had to make fencing to fully enclose the space. Over the next few weeks over on the West side, I continued concreting the area panel by panel, and the ramp was complete. Whilst building the stone walling at the front, any piece of stone that was 2" to 3" had been put to one side for the ramp wall, which I did not want to make too deep. I tackled this job next, eager to finish any stone work for this year before it got too cold and wet.
At the bottom of the ramp, we planned a small walled bed which we would use as the kitchen herb garden, the space was there serving no other purpose, so it would have been a waste to pave over it all. A space was left in the concreted base, and a foundation was laid along the fence line, to underpin a small block wall to be topped with stone. I had now laid all the sections of concrete base, and moving around the house was both clean and easy, walking or wheeled. I had called a halt to any more stone walling, and turned my attention to the front of the house again. The space in the top roadside corner would not form part of any car manoeuvering area, and as most of the frontal area would be 'hardscape', we thought it would be good to use this area to have a raised garden bed, with a central Cornish Palm, surrounded by other lower growing plants. I excavated a footing and laid the foundation. I would again use block faced with stone, and key into the walls either side with screwed in ties.
I would normally shy away from buiding a curved wall in stone but I didn't want to use up what was left of my granite for this purpose, and anyway the curve was gentle enough for the stone to work well enough. I built the backing wall in block, and that would go no further until the following spring.
One thing that did concern me, despite having provided good systems of drainage for the drive, was how the minimal kerb could be overcome by the flow of water along the road during a torrential downpour. We had a potential flood whilst we were building, if I hadn't diverted some of the water with a plank around the back of my car, I fear we would have had an unexpected indoor swimming pool!
The answer would be for the driveway to slightly rise before running down towards the house and garage. This would mean that we could create a high point at which some 'ground hugging' cars might catch, but it would ensure that we would allay any danger of flooding. When the tarmac would be be laid, we could have this radiussed gently to avoid any grounding, and in the event that is what was done. The idea of buying the granite setts was to create features around the drive, and this would be the first feature, a strip of setts four deep, that would give a coordinated appearance with the ends of the wall.. Doing this now would create this 'rise' and give us protection even before the drive is done.
By this stage, the ground under the entrance was very hard and consolidated from constant traffic, and made an excellent foundation. Using the kerb and a line across the back, I laid the setts on a good bed of concrete, pointing as I went to increase the bonded strength. I finished it in two halves, a few days apart, with care our cars could still be driven through the gap, then later over the first half. The water in the gutter would now have to be around 6" deep to find a way over this 'apron' of setts.
Next came the garage entrance. When it was built, the fact that the doors would be fixed to the inside face, and the implications of it, had not been given any thought. Now we were getting to the finer details, the fact that a section of garage floor could be seen outside was more than just a little annoying, I resolved that I must do something about it. I decided to cut away the blockwork, and then a portion of the floor, back to where the door closes to the ground. I would then lay granite setts, sloping to run water away from the garage.
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Working on only one of the two entrances at one time, after first digging out the top dolly blocks, I used my 9" grinder with a diamond cutting blade to get a decent line. I then took out the concrete floor and steel reinforcing wires to finish with a clean edge, and a deep enough depth to be able to bed the setts in to place. To ensure that damp wasn't transmitted through the masonry, I combined a DPC with the exposed membrane, and trimmed it off level with the garage floor. I repeated this process for the second entrance,
Just by the steps, the last section of cedar cladding had been left incomplete because we wanted to see how the steps would pan out. As they had been done for some time, I thought it would be a good time to finish this off. We only had a small amount of cedar left....just enough as it happened. I battened off and as the tapering ends would need support for fixing, I introduced a support timber with integral mesh covered breather for the cavity.
We were well into December now, and I continued the granite sett 'theme' around to the front door and ramp sides. First of all, I extended the 'landing' area to the gate and to where I intended building a small garden bed against the boundary wall. I layed granite slabs to match up what was already there. I continued bedding in setts around the edge of the landing area, but there was little benefit in putting in full setts on the concrete either side of the ramp, in fact this would have left too small a vertical gap between the sett surface and the DPC. I decided to cut them in half, to make two usable but thinner setts. This wasn't difficult with the a diamond disc, in fact if you cut a couple of inches into each corner, they tended to split with a bolster chisel. Another plus was of course this made my setts go further.
Well that was it, Christmas was upon us, we achieved quite a lot when I look back on the year.....still plenty more to do though!
