One week in

I’m gaining huge respect for builders by the minute. In what will probably be the hottest week of the year last week Ken and his team demolished the garages and greenhouse, dug the trenches for the footings and drainage and kept sub-contractors in check. By the weekend, when the weather finally broke, our garden was a hazardous place. They kindly put boards out so we didn’t accidentally fall in after a glass or two!

Brawn for the heavy work was obvious. The brain power needed for all the calculations and to make sure everything comes together has been more of a revelation.

The big challenge last week was ensuring there was sufficient gradient for the waste to flow from the extension to the existing drains the other side of the garden. On Thursday afternoon there were some worried faces and conversations. After an evening of working through the calculations Ken was sure on Friday morning that it would be enough and they started digging out the channels. They also had to avoid tree roots including an ancient pear and a rare thorn tree and a silver birch we had lovingly planted a few years ago to mask the wall of the house next door.

We then spent a busy weekend clearing up what we could in the garden, saving displaced plants and cutting up an elderflower tree that had been sacrificed to create more space to get the lorries in. It’s a tight squeeze with a bend and a drop which proved too much for a delivery this week of concrete blocks and beams. They were placed by hoist on our drive and the public path in front causing me some concern it would lead to complaints from neighbours. They all had to be moved manually before they went home for the day. A late one for them and back breaking work.

One that did make it in on Monday was the concrete lorry and the holes that took so much time to dig out last week were filled in a couple of hours to form the footings and the foundations for the extension. It has given us a much better idea now of its shape in relation to the existing house.

Next are the bricklayers who will start building the foundations and the walls. We suddenly realised that in a few days the siting of our doors and windows would be fixed. Being on site to address issues and questions like this in real time is proving incredibly valuable. We were able to measure out the detail of the toilet and utility room that will be at the back of the extension and decide exactly where we wanted the two windows and back door. The brickies will build to that instead of us having to fit round what someone else thought we wanted.

Going into this project I believed all the detail would have been done by the architect and the specialists who drew up our building regulations and structural calculations. I’ve been surprised how much information is missing and as a result I’m on the phone daily clarifying everything from deflection rates (mentioned in an earlier blog in relation to the sliding doors which has now been addressed with a new set of calculations) and measurements to the size of the rafters and the angle of the roof.

One of our planning conditions is we have to use hand made clay tiles because we are a listed property and in a conservation area. These tiles need a roof gradient of at least 35%. It looks like the architects drawing had the roof pitch at 35% but the building regulations have it at 29%. I need to sort this by next week when the roof materials will start arriving on site!

Ken has been great in going through the plans with me and flagging issues which, if we don’t resolve them now, could be a real problem later on. It’s certainly worth all the tea and milk as the tea breaks are great for these catch up conversations. I then scurry off to the phone and the PC to get the answers.

I’m glad we took the time to find a good builder. One piece of advice about getting a good builder is to be a good client and pay promptly. We’ve had our bill for the first stage and paid it within 24 hours. They have so earned it.