CopyAnt Blog

09 June 2008

Going down and going up

Oh the last three weeks have been so exciting. It's been all action on the little half acre 'up the Tara' (which is what the locals call the area we're building in I've just discovered).

Firstly Dave the Builder, being terribly keen to get on with it, decided to forget about Harrie the Digger and do it himself with a hired digger. I'm not sure if it saved any money at all, but it did ensure things got moving. So down and down we dug to make those all important footings. For the uninitiated, these are the deep holes that get filled with concrete that basically plug the house into the ground.... so yes they're very important.

By the end of the digging down and a week of rain, it was starting to look at little like some sort of world war 1 trenches recreation. Deep holes in the mud filled with sweaty looking water and despondent, exhausted looking chaps huddling under the unusual shelter we have there. It didn't help that Robbie got bitten by the dog next door, which gave an added authencity to the misery of the scene.

Then the weather improved and they built the boxing for the concrete. At this point I started to get a feel for what level our floor might actually end up and what the views might be from standing in our french doors. After that comes the metal (for some reason here in New Zealand we call this rough gravel metal.....) and the steel work. The steel work gave rise to a fabulous case of what I've termed "Builders' Art". This sign greeted me last week sometime and such was my joy to see the progress that I found myself appreciating the artistic merit.

After we passed our first inspection with flying colours (perhaps due to the art), the concrete pour was booked.

At this point, the importance of using a qualified and intelligent builder became really apparent. We'd ordered some Bowmac B75 brackets from Mitre 10 (with Nat's staff discount). After much head scratching and umming and ahhing Dave and I worked out that Mitre 10 had substituted the Bowmac brand for another brand of bracket which was a different length. You might think this wouldn't be a problem. However, these brackets are planted into the concrete and then attached to the posts that hold the house up. Essentially they attach the top part of the house to the concrete pad that, as mentioned before, is plugged into the ground..... So you can see that having ones that are too short, puts the house on a bit of a wobble. So big thanks to Dave for spotting this before we used the short ones and ended up with a big problem.

The concrete floor was poured last Friday without a hitch. Geoff Bell, the local concrete placer did a lovely job. He even indulged my unusual requests. I had a vision of having leaf imprints at discreet points on the floor. The idea is that when you open the curtains you find a little leaf print in the floor - or just tucked behind a door.... little surprises as you explore the house.

I'd collected leaves from around the place. It being late Autumn round here, I also soaked them for about 5 days to take the brittleness out of them. Because we couldn't be on site at the exact moment when the concrete was right to pour them, I entrusted them to Geoff to place. And rather than scorn me and my hippy ideas, he grinned enthusiastically (which I'll admit he does quite a bit) and talked about putting fossils into the slab.

Anyway, you can see the effect here. They're a little hidden under the boxing up for the upstand that the straw bales will sit on, but you get the idea.

Today, Dave and Robbie, created the concrete upstands that the straw bales sit on. These are important so that the bales are higher than the rest of the floor - just in case there's a flood inside the building.
I found this stage really illuminating as I can now really start to get a feel of how the spaces inside the building are going to work. I have to admit that before the concrete slab went down I was starting to worry that perhaps we'd designed it too small. Dave the Builder reassured me that this was a common feeling. In fact let's give it a name.... how about "Post-design inadequacy syndrome" or PDIS for short.

Anyway, I can confirm that getting your concrete laid is a great cure for PDIS. I'm now much more comfortable with the size of my house.

I've mentioned a few of the characters involved in the project. So here'a a few photos to go with them....

Robbie the lovely labourer - who appears to be a little camera shy.... or is he just working too hard to look up and smile.

Dave the Builder - much more comfortable with a smile for the camera (do you see what I mean about the mud though!)

Hubby Nat - proudly sporting his Mitre 10 shirt.

Our lovely concrete pad, from which will grow our dream home.

More soon!

Labels: concrete, straw bale building

09 June 2008

Going down and going up

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