Prepare and wait (a bit more!)............
Having laid armoured electric cable (telephone and data cable too just in case) and water pipe during the preparation for the bottom garden, I now uncoiled them in preparation for laying underground. The cables all went in a duct, and then with the water pipe, placed in a trench up to where I expected their entry into the house. I had decided that we would install a large underground tank for rain water harvesting, but only for use externally, car cleaning, for use in the garden, and washing down. I judged that the extra equipment and pipes needed to supply rainwater (cleaned up) to toilets and the washing machine, and facility for topping up with mains if the tank ran dry, was simply not worth the cost or inconvenience. We would therefore have a garden network of taps supplied from the tank. With these services underground, any reclaimed topsoil could now be back-filled into what will become either garden bed or lawn, and so I started digging into the bank manually, separating out the good stuff.
The sewage pipe joining from Arlington was by necessity exposed, so to protect it from damage and frost, I built a stone enclosure around it with a rodding access still accessible by lifting a slab that I used as a cover.
In the front corner of the garden, a shed was sited on a concrete base I laid in 1996, it needed to come out, and I thought it would be good to use the shed as a materials store. It was simple to take apart, and after moving the panels down the garden, I reconstructed it clear of where we would be building. The concrete base was then broken up, and the rubble redistributed over the area I had cleared for the shed. That wasn't easy....as usual I had made it thick and very strong.
To ensure that the patio area and paved areas at the side of the house will have adequate surface drainage I had decided to excavate a large soak-away pit, and rather than back-filling with blocks and rubble (which greatly reduce the capacity), I was going to use 'PolyStorm Cells'. These are like large milk crates, are extremely strong, and give a void capacity of 95%. You can even have them under a drive and will easily take vehicular traffic. I chose the position and began digging the pit. As the pit would also have to take water from the rear roof section if it was overflowing from a tank that was already full, I decided on 12 crates, equivalent to holding 2.28 cubic metres of rainwater. That meant a hole of one metre by 3 metres, and at least 1.5 metres deep. I got cracking!
First of all, I stripped back the lawn, and used the cut turf to build a retaining wall, behind which I could fill with the good topsoil. By the time the pit was deep enough, the bottom of the pit was broken stone, and when I threw in a bucket of water, it disappeared almost instantly.
After laying down the crates, I covered them with geotextile, and laid protective slabs on the top. I then fitted two adaptors, one each side, and layed two short runs of drainage pipe. Now the whole thing could be covered up for ever. I had it in mind to have a 'bed' in the patio just above the steps, with no firm idea of what I would put in it, and after digging out a footing, I laid a foundation for it. I laid the blockwork roughly up to the level of the top step, and back-filled around it with shellet and rubble. The 'walls of turf were now delineating the shape of the patio, so that the earth was good and deep one side, and the patio side was solid all the way down,
In April 2012 we had accepted a good offer for Arlington, but by mid May, their buyer had withdrawn....so nothing was going to happen quickly. We had to continue looking for another buyer, whilst hoping that their situation would resolve itself. It was now June 2012, and a sudden flurry of activity saw a number of viewings taking place, and offers to consider. On 29th June we accepted an offer from Steve and Karen Evans, game on! In the meantime I decided to proceed with the rainwater harvesting tank, and placed an order through my Builder Centre Rep. Greg Blee. There were a variety of tanks on offer, I opted for a WPL RainRetain 2700L Premium garden System, using a German made two part cylindrical tank. It would need to go quite deep, but that was good, as it would keep the water cool and reduce the chance of legionella.
It had been a considerable time since we had received our original planning permission, and during that period we had plenty of opportunity to study our plans in greater detail. We had also been talking with our chosen timber frame supplier, 'Frame UK', and a number of design issues required a slight rethink. the inevitable second thoughts arose, and these were enough to require a further application for a 'Non Material Amendment'. The re-drawing costs and application fees were going to add considerable cost, around £2K, but we went ahead and submitted the application on 17th August. At the same time, we asked Chris to submit the site plan with our original centrally sited build, which was done
1) We decided that we would prefer to have a larger garage with two separate garage doors rather than one large door.
2) As the utility room door was going to be fully glazed, it seemed unnecessary to have a window next to it.
3) Slight changes to a number of windows WG 1, 2, 3, 6, 10 and 11 to suit tmber frame
4) The wall between the kitchen and utility moved to give more room for tank and heating components.
(The application was approved 19th October, but anticipating that they would be approved, we had carried on regardless).
I still had time on my hands, so opted to dig out the pit by hand. It was a very very big hole, and by the time I got to the bottom, and needed a ladder to get in and out, I was hacking out solid rock!
The tank was simply too heavy to put in the pit by hand, so I gave Colin Bilkey a call again. It was the first time we had met his machine operator Gary Prideaux, who would turn out to be our digger driver throughout the build, and was absolute tops! He thought he had come to dig a hole to put a tank in....not drop a tank in an already prepared hole. He thought I was mad, perhaps he was right, but in fairness you cannot dig a pit with a digger that has straight sides and flat bottom. Once the tank was in the pit on a bed of pea gravel, I back-filled around it, again with pea gravel, two loads of 4.25 tonnes from Denis May's.
Finally...on 16th August 2012, we moved out of Arlington. We handed over the keys, and moved into temporary accommodation.
I then connected up the pipework around the tank, the lower connection in the picture is the tank overflow, the other is the filter basket overflow going into the surface water drain pipe (tank water would only come off the roof, the furthest right hand side connection). It was now September 13th, and Colin Bilkey and Gary Prideaux arrived to clear the site. Gary on the digger, Colin taking the spoil to the quarry. By the end of the day the site, including all of the Cornish hedge at the front, was stripped off and cleared away. My trusty Pajero, which was a pig to start, and had many 'advisories' at the last MOT was becoming a liability, and I decided to sell it and the trailer to our driver Gary (after giving him a rundown of warts and all). I judged that everything would be delivered from now on, and they were better out of the way.
Our Architect, Chris, was well aware of where he had progressed to, and although we were still awaiting approval for the amended plans, there was nothing really stopping us going ahead with the footings, and I had employed the services of a builder to carry out the groundworks and get the base ready for the timber frame. Chris promised to get the footings plan to me, but on the first day, I had two builders on site, Shane Seedell and Tony Darrock, and no plan. Chris was also being 'difficult to get hold of', but eventually I spoke to him, he blamed the Structural Engineer, from whom the foundation plan, which was based on the loadings of the building, would be coming. I eventually received it a couple of days later, and we all got back on site to commence
It was 20th September, I had called Colin, and he had arranged for a swing shovel and dumper truck to be delivered, we would use the dumper to move spoil to the quarry. Gary would drive the excavator.
We had scheduled the Timber frame for delivery at the end of October, a little over a month to dig footings, lay foundations and build the base and garage. Tight but...well this is what we have been waiting for for so long.
And they're off!
On site 20th September 2012
