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Build Diary

The build diary is a recorded account of progress on the building site. It follows the day to day developements and records all problems encountered. Every detail about the build can be found here from what the weather conditions were like to whether the wrong screws were ordered. It will all be in here somewere!

Latest Entry - 4th September 2005

And so it begins...

Well the first week is now over and what a start. The building site has undergone some heavy demolition work. In one big back breaking effort and with everyone taking a week of work, the old site buildings have been demolished to ground level.

Plans at the beginning of the week were to demolish all the buildings, to clear the site ready for the big machines to arrive, turning the site into a foot ball pitch.

Stables

A small wager was on between parties as to whether the stable block could be pulled down to ground level in a single day. We started the week on a high by getting the barn down in half a day. I must say that all of us involved deserve a real pat on the back for our efforts, as it was not an easy task. The structure was mainly wood with a storage section at one end constructed from 5 inch thick breeze blocks, secured together with a strong mix of mortar. It took three people three hours of frantic swinging with large sledge hammer (14lb weighting) to break the walls up. It was not easy and we all felt it the next day. But, we won the bet. He he.

Old Dairy

Once a dairy used for milking the cows and preparing the milk for sale. These old buildings consisted of two milking bays and two adjoining storage/preparation areas. The construction was of red brick for the internal walls with stone used for the outer skin of the buildings. The first task was to make the area safe to work in, which was handled by PJ who worked on the top of the building to slowly remove any loose bricks or stone. There were large wooden beams that once supported the roof on these buildings, these were dropped to the floor either inside or where possible outside the building. When safe the rest of the team headed in to remove any wood and begin work on breaking down the walls. This took huge amount of effort from all involved to bring these buildings down to floor level. We now await the big machines to rip up the floor and lower the level in order for the road to pass over the area.

What about Waste?

Because most of the waste from the barn was wood, it was possible to burn this off. The larger pieces were salvaged for a friend of ours who has a wood burning furnace and the rest was simply burned to ashes. Tarpaulin was removed and sent to the tip along with any remains from after the fire, such as hinges, nails and other metal supports. All the stone and bricks were put into a pile for future use where needed, most probably in building the road.

What about the Barn?

Our first plan was to demolish all standing or semi standing structures but towards the end of the week we started to wonder whether it might be possible to leave the barn standing during the build process, for use as a site hut. The benefit of this is that the building could easily be made secure for storing small items and tools. It could also be used as a rest area for staff working on the site, as it has electricity and running water on hand for making teas and coffees.

The only problem was, the barn was sitting directly on the footprint of one of the buildings. On closer inspections of the plans and after much scratching of heads and getting tied in knots with a lengthy tape measure, we found that the barn actually misses the main structure of the house. In fact the only part which sits on the footprint of the barn is the adjoining garage for the house. There does not seem to be any reason at this stage why the garage cannot be built once the house is up and running. This means that we can leave the barn standing for some time to come and we don’t have to spend any money on getting in a portable cabin or container.

So the last part of the week was spent making the barn secure and clearing out all the old hay from the loft. The floorboards up there were all rotten so some old board we had in the barn were laid out so we could use the floor level.

Hard work but somebody had to do it.

Our thanks go out to all those who helped out and got there hands dirty.