Week 1, day 3: Rain day
08th May 2014
The plan for today was to take the wooden roofing timbers off. However, this would have involved taking the tarpaulin off, and it poured with rain all morning. After finding some little jobs to do, by 10am Kerry called it a day and they went home. If the tarpaulin had been taken off, the rain would have come in and got the chipboard floorboards under the tiles very wet. To replace them would be costly - a cost that could be avoided by leaving it until the next day.
Mid morning, the skip was delivered: the biggest skip I think I've ever seen - taller than me. That's one thing to tick off the list at least!
I came home from work early, worried about the house being alone and exposed and unsecured. Mid afternoon, the building inspector popped over. The left hand wall is proving troublesome - it isn't as designed on the plans and was not what the building inspector thought he was approving when he approved the plans. Had he known that the wall was what it is, he wouldn't have approved them. Anyway, no point looking back, now we need to decide what to do with the wall. The options are:
1) Build two columns, one at either end and insert a steel for the upper floor to be supported by. Use timber framing to fill in the walls.
2) Build block work up the entire wall.
Both options will involve digging out a foot of concrete in the floor to confirm that the foundations are ok, and to build either the columns or bottom layer of block work into.
It is a bit of a set back, but at the end of the day, it is what it is and we have to work with the builder and inspector to come up with the most cost efficient way to do it, to enable the wall to be structurally sound. We don't want the wall to cave in after a few years - I think we'd all be in trouble if that happened.
The wind is as strong as ever tonight - the tarpaulin sounds like it is going to take off, taking the scaffolding and possibly the side wall with it! Apparently this is the worst part - once the roof is on, it will be much better - just still can't see when that will be...
Mid morning, the skip was delivered: the biggest skip I think I've ever seen - taller than me. That's one thing to tick off the list at least!
I came home from work early, worried about the house being alone and exposed and unsecured. Mid afternoon, the building inspector popped over. The left hand wall is proving troublesome - it isn't as designed on the plans and was not what the building inspector thought he was approving when he approved the plans. Had he known that the wall was what it is, he wouldn't have approved them. Anyway, no point looking back, now we need to decide what to do with the wall. The options are:
1) Build two columns, one at either end and insert a steel for the upper floor to be supported by. Use timber framing to fill in the walls.
2) Build block work up the entire wall.
Both options will involve digging out a foot of concrete in the floor to confirm that the foundations are ok, and to build either the columns or bottom layer of block work into.
It is a bit of a set back, but at the end of the day, it is what it is and we have to work with the builder and inspector to come up with the most cost efficient way to do it, to enable the wall to be structurally sound. We don't want the wall to cave in after a few years - I think we'd all be in trouble if that happened.
The wind is as strong as ever tonight - the tarpaulin sounds like it is going to take off, taking the scaffolding and possibly the side wall with it! Apparently this is the worst part - once the roof is on, it will be much better - just still can't see when that will be...