Friday 19 February 2016

The walls go up

Building the shell
February 2016

With the foundations set (underwater) it was time to erect the walls.

This process is a case study in changing standards of construction over 30 years. The old extension sat on very light foundations but these are built on 18 inches of concrete. The old walls were solid made of two rows of bricks.



Rising from the foundations were two rows of concrete blocks with a thick layer of insulation in the middle. As soon as the ground floor level was reached in went a few tons of ballast, a thick layer of Celotex insulation foam and then a layer of concrete. 



Then it was up with the walls which reached window height in just one day, at which point they were persuaded  to make a wide central pillar to better accommodate the cooker. Then another day to reach the rafter level ready for the chippies. But before the timber guys could start they had to install a huge RSJ with one end sitting on a new pillar built in the existing kitchen.



The real hero's in all this are my long suffering neighbors who are tolerating all the bumping and banging with admiral equanimity.

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