Tuesday 28 August
A drop in temperature, heavy rain and high winds on Sunday made the house feel very uncomfortable, so I ended up sticking bubble wrap over the largest of the openings in the old kitchen and dining room to keep out the worst of the draughts and wet, and have spent a couple of evenings huddled over a fan heater in the living room, with a shawl to hand.
I also uncovered some of the original glazed tiles on the hearth of the old kitchen, but I'm not sure whether its worth keeping them as some are damaged and others missing.....a pity, as it would have been nice to have a bit of history in the modern part of the house.
But apart from that, I've had a welcome break from builders over the Bank Holiday weekend - just a couple of friends dropping by to see progress (or lack of it) for themselves.
However, I'm back to the reality of building work in progress today and its been bizarre to say the least.
Before the builders arrived this morning, I had two visitors. The first was a welder who had come to fit stiffener plates on to the steel beam which has been inserted above where the new garden doors will be installed. This was necessary because the beam had not been fabricated to the structural engineer's specification and no one from the building company had noticed this when it was delivered back in July. I only picked it up last week when the steel was put in place and I checked to see if all OK after a problem with other structural steelwork not being made correctly.
I felt very sorry for the poor welder who had got up very early and driven all the way to Oxford from Kent. However, I had to send him away again as the stiffener plates which had been made and delivered by the steel fabricator last week were the wrong size and shape. Even had they been correct, he wouldn't have been able to weld them into place as the space in front of the beam had been filled in completely with a "soldier course" of brick on end, even though I had forewarned the man in charge that this would cause a problem....
However, the welder had a look on site while he was here and said that, in his opinion, there shouldn't be a problem with the beam as installed and he thought that the Building Control officer would sign it off even though it's not as specified.
Arriving at the same time as the welder was a man from the plant hire company who had come to collect some bits of the beam lift that had inadvertently been left behind last week when the lift itself had been taken away. We looked high and low several times, but there was no sign of the missing extender arms, so he went away empty handed too.
A couple of hours later a truck arrived from the steel fabricators with stiffener plates of the right size and shape, but it was too late by then...the welder was on his way back home.
What else can go wrong, I wondered?
Well, there was a bit more to follow....I've been waiting for the man in charge to come back to me with a price from his supplier for the sliding/folding garden doors as the people I had thought about using came in well above budget.
The long awaited quote arrived this afternoon, but it's for a pair of simple sliding doors (so one half of the doorway will always be covered in glass regardless of which panel slides open), rather than doors with a slide and fold design, where both panels can be folded back fully to one side, leaving the doorway wide open to the garden if desired. That's what I'm looking for, so I had to say thank you, but no thank you.
Then came the news that the courier has "lost" the Velux roof windows in transit. Replacement windows will not be delivered until 6 September. Another delay, but this time not the builder's fault.
While all this has been going on, the guys on site have started putting up the timbers for the roof over the conservatory. A horizontal wall plate has been fixed to support the top of the rafters. Four timbers have gone up so far, two rafters and a pair of trimmers for the openings where the roof lights will be installed. The bottom of these timbers are propped up on bricks and bits of wood, so they are higher than the new wall along the boundary.
Looking at the large scale section drawing, I'm not sure that it's been done correctly. Alarm bells have started ringing in anticipation of more potential neighbour problems if they plan to raise the height of the wall along the common boundary...
I can't quite see what's happening where the first roof timber joins the rear wall of the house. This is where the end of a steel beam might protrude outside the roof structure. Even climbing up on the very wobbly scaffold didn't give a definitive view, so all I can do at this stage is flag it up with the man in charge and remind him that if the end of the steel is exposed, it will have to be covered on the outside to keep the weather out and insulated to keep the heat in...
The guy who has been doing the work today left clutching the large scale section drawing. When I asked him if there was a problem, he said that roof lights may have to be a little lower than shown on the drawing to fit into the sloping roof space. He's going to talk to his boss tonight....My concern is that lowering the rooflights might interfere with the box containing extract ducts which will run underneath the steel across the back of the house.
Back in the day when we went hot air ballooning, there was a saying "one pole leads to another pole" - a reminder to pilots to look out for poles and the lines they support when selecting a landing site. On a building project like this, the saying should be "one problem leads to another problem". There may be trouble ahead before we reach the relatively calm waters when the structure is completed and fitting out can begin....
The only other changes inside has been the arrival of some big boards and more concrete blocks in the old kitchen,
and the builders using the gallows brackets as a kind of trestle to support the box of Velux "flashing" components.
So much for carefully selecting the best finished pair of brackets for installation. They will probably both be scratched and blemished now...I do hope not!
Wednesday 29 August
I thought they had forgotten me today, but the guys eventually turned up after 9.30 am. Apparently, they had to grab some materials first thing.
They have spent the day working on the extension roof structure. The external wall now has a proper timber top, unlike the bits of wood and bricks that were supporting the rafters yesterday.
A couple more rafters have gone up, all the ends have been neatly trimmed and the top of the soil vent pipe has been cut off (but not capped yet) so that it will fit beneath the roof structure in the short term until re-routed internally.
The exposed end of the steel beam which sits outside the roof structure still needs to be sorted out, but the man in charge is coming tomorrow to review progress on site so I can point that out to him while he's here. We can also discuss the selection of garden doors and windows, now I've made a decision to go with the ultra slim aluminium framed slide and pivot doors.
The garden is still managing to survive the onslaught of being a builder store/workshop, and even flowering in between the building materials.
Inside, the hearth in the old dining room has been cleared and the rubble removed - all part of the preparation for laying drains to serve the new kitchen and WC/utility room.
I've started looking ahead and had a consultation/quote today for a new kitchen, (my daughter likes the design, so I must be on to a winner!)
The man in charge tells me that there will be a skip changeover next Monday or Tuesday (good job - the existing one is full!) I must remember to try to save a space on the street for the truck to park up in front or behind the full skip, ready for the changeover...
Work was supposed to start on the loft today, but its all quiet on that front...probably because there's no room in the skip for any more debris from stripping out upstairs.
Wednesday 30 August
I was just wondering where the builders were when there was a text from the man in charge. The big man who has been doing the bulk of the work recently is off sick, so no one will be coming today. However a team will be here to start work in the loft tomorrow.
The man in charge will by calling in around lunchtime to look at the roof of the extension (and discuss some other matters, although he doesn't know that yet...)
When he arrives, a number of concerns are cleared up
A drop in temperature, heavy rain and high winds on Sunday made the house feel very uncomfortable, so I ended up sticking bubble wrap over the largest of the openings in the old kitchen and dining room to keep out the worst of the draughts and wet, and have spent a couple of evenings huddled over a fan heater in the living room, with a shawl to hand.
I also uncovered some of the original glazed tiles on the hearth of the old kitchen, but I'm not sure whether its worth keeping them as some are damaged and others missing.....a pity, as it would have been nice to have a bit of history in the modern part of the house.
But apart from that, I've had a welcome break from builders over the Bank Holiday weekend - just a couple of friends dropping by to see progress (or lack of it) for themselves.
However, I'm back to the reality of building work in progress today and its been bizarre to say the least.
Before the builders arrived this morning, I had two visitors. The first was a welder who had come to fit stiffener plates on to the steel beam which has been inserted above where the new garden doors will be installed. This was necessary because the beam had not been fabricated to the structural engineer's specification and no one from the building company had noticed this when it was delivered back in July. I only picked it up last week when the steel was put in place and I checked to see if all OK after a problem with other structural steelwork not being made correctly.
I felt very sorry for the poor welder who had got up very early and driven all the way to Oxford from Kent. However, I had to send him away again as the stiffener plates which had been made and delivered by the steel fabricator last week were the wrong size and shape. Even had they been correct, he wouldn't have been able to weld them into place as the space in front of the beam had been filled in completely with a "soldier course" of brick on end, even though I had forewarned the man in charge that this would cause a problem....
However, the welder had a look on site while he was here and said that, in his opinion, there shouldn't be a problem with the beam as installed and he thought that the Building Control officer would sign it off even though it's not as specified.
Arriving at the same time as the welder was a man from the plant hire company who had come to collect some bits of the beam lift that had inadvertently been left behind last week when the lift itself had been taken away. We looked high and low several times, but there was no sign of the missing extender arms, so he went away empty handed too.
A couple of hours later a truck arrived from the steel fabricators with stiffener plates of the right size and shape, but it was too late by then...the welder was on his way back home.
What else can go wrong, I wondered?
Well, there was a bit more to follow....I've been waiting for the man in charge to come back to me with a price from his supplier for the sliding/folding garden doors as the people I had thought about using came in well above budget.
The long awaited quote arrived this afternoon, but it's for a pair of simple sliding doors (so one half of the doorway will always be covered in glass regardless of which panel slides open), rather than doors with a slide and fold design, where both panels can be folded back fully to one side, leaving the doorway wide open to the garden if desired. That's what I'm looking for, so I had to say thank you, but no thank you.
Then came the news that the courier has "lost" the Velux roof windows in transit. Replacement windows will not be delivered until 6 September. Another delay, but this time not the builder's fault.
While all this has been going on, the guys on site have started putting up the timbers for the roof over the conservatory. A horizontal wall plate has been fixed to support the top of the rafters. Four timbers have gone up so far, two rafters and a pair of trimmers for the openings where the roof lights will be installed. The bottom of these timbers are propped up on bricks and bits of wood, so they are higher than the new wall along the boundary.
Looking at the large scale section drawing, I'm not sure that it's been done correctly. Alarm bells have started ringing in anticipation of more potential neighbour problems if they plan to raise the height of the wall along the common boundary...
I can't quite see what's happening where the first roof timber joins the rear wall of the house. This is where the end of a steel beam might protrude outside the roof structure. Even climbing up on the very wobbly scaffold didn't give a definitive view, so all I can do at this stage is flag it up with the man in charge and remind him that if the end of the steel is exposed, it will have to be covered on the outside to keep the weather out and insulated to keep the heat in...
The guy who has been doing the work today left clutching the large scale section drawing. When I asked him if there was a problem, he said that roof lights may have to be a little lower than shown on the drawing to fit into the sloping roof space. He's going to talk to his boss tonight....My concern is that lowering the rooflights might interfere with the box containing extract ducts which will run underneath the steel across the back of the house.
Back in the day when we went hot air ballooning, there was a saying "one pole leads to another pole" - a reminder to pilots to look out for poles and the lines they support when selecting a landing site. On a building project like this, the saying should be "one problem leads to another problem". There may be trouble ahead before we reach the relatively calm waters when the structure is completed and fitting out can begin....
The only other changes inside has been the arrival of some big boards and more concrete blocks in the old kitchen,
and the builders using the gallows brackets as a kind of trestle to support the box of Velux "flashing" components.
So much for carefully selecting the best finished pair of brackets for installation. They will probably both be scratched and blemished now...I do hope not!
Wednesday 29 August
I thought they had forgotten me today, but the guys eventually turned up after 9.30 am. Apparently, they had to grab some materials first thing.
They have spent the day working on the extension roof structure. The external wall now has a proper timber top, unlike the bits of wood and bricks that were supporting the rafters yesterday.
A couple more rafters have gone up, all the ends have been neatly trimmed and the top of the soil vent pipe has been cut off (but not capped yet) so that it will fit beneath the roof structure in the short term until re-routed internally.
The exposed end of the steel beam which sits outside the roof structure still needs to be sorted out, but the man in charge is coming tomorrow to review progress on site so I can point that out to him while he's here. We can also discuss the selection of garden doors and windows, now I've made a decision to go with the ultra slim aluminium framed slide and pivot doors.
The garden is still managing to survive the onslaught of being a builder store/workshop, and even flowering in between the building materials.
Inside, the hearth in the old dining room has been cleared and the rubble removed - all part of the preparation for laying drains to serve the new kitchen and WC/utility room.
The man in charge tells me that there will be a skip changeover next Monday or Tuesday (good job - the existing one is full!) I must remember to try to save a space on the street for the truck to park up in front or behind the full skip, ready for the changeover...
Work was supposed to start on the loft today, but its all quiet on that front...probably because there's no room in the skip for any more debris from stripping out upstairs.
Wednesday 30 August
I was just wondering where the builders were when there was a text from the man in charge. The big man who has been doing the bulk of the work recently is off sick, so no one will be coming today. However a team will be here to start work in the loft tomorrow.
The man in charge will by calling in around lunchtime to look at the roof of the extension (and discuss some other matters, although he doesn't know that yet...)
When he arrives, a number of concerns are cleared up
- the exposed end steel beam in the old dining room will be covered by lead flashing when the extension roof is finished
- although the roof structure is not exactly as shown on the approved drawings, the rafters are long enough to accommodate the specified Velux roof lights
- the small bore waste pipe from the loft toilet will be rerouted under the eaves of the rear wing, to connect up at high level with the new soil vent pipe to be installed on the rear house
- drainage from the first floor bathroom will be rerouted internally, along the side of the new steel beam so that it does run through my office at floor level; a new floor joist will be put back when the drainage is in place, the floorboards and carpet will be re-fixed and I can have my office back (and about time too...)
- the bathroom will be made good as soon as the drainage is rerouted (no draughts when I shower-yay!)
We measured and agreed the finished floor level internally, together with the size and detailing of the new doors and opening window to the garden, so that these can be ordered and made sooner rather than later to speed up the build, which is now three weeks behind its revised schedule.
We also itemised works to complete the installation of structural steel which still isn't finished after three weeks (it was only supposed to take three days!) and he agreed the the garden would be cleared and cleaned as soon as its no longer needed to store building materials and equipment. That will be good - I really need to do some gardening...it's out of control, there are plants in small pots that ought to be in the ground and it needs a bit of a tidy up ready for autumn.
A scaffold will be put up on Sunday at the rear of the house, ready to replace the small area of flat roof over the loft dormer which is well past its sell by date. I'm not sure if I will be around, as I have other plans...but reminded him which of his men has the spare key if i'm not here when they arrive.
So good progress in terms of sorting things out, if they are delivered. Only one thing left me with a nagging doubt, and that related to the floor which will span the whole of the ground floor at the rear of the house (the new extension and the old kitchen). The man in charge said he was going to leave an existing small area of solid floor in place and fill up to and around it....hmmm, not sure about that...need to look at the plans again, but no time to pursue at that moment as he was called away to another site to deal with a problem. I said I would email him a note of the meeting, including dimensions of the new openings so that he place an order the new garden doors and window.
The man in charge is having a long weekend in Devon. Although his wife has banned work while they are away, he said said that if there was a problem to contact him. I hope all goes well tomorrow for his sake...and his wife's!
Friday 31 August
Although he's off on a short break today, the man in charge managed to send out an invoice and valuation late last night, with a note saying "The low value unfortunately reflects the slow progress, which is very frustrating all round, but the structural work has taken longer than anticipated and we should see much quicker progress from here." Too true!
I could tell he'd done the valuation in a bit of a hurry as he'd included one item which I'd paid for already, and another which hasn't been done yet. So he's had a reply telling him how much I will transfer to the company account and why, and another email itemising the main points discussed and agreed at our meeting yesterday.
I've also asked for an updated timetable of works, as the revised 7 week programme is already 3 weeks behind schedule. Not knowing when things will happen is delaying other actions, like ordering the new kitchen. One quote I've had for the kitchen puts the installation date as mid-November! I'm beginning to wonder whether the whole lot will be finished by Christmas at this rate...
The guys have arrived today, minus the big man who apparently injured his ankle getting on and off the scaffold yesterday (i'm not surprised...its not stable, as I discovered when climbing up there to take some photos the other day). I do hope he's going to be OK....
However, instead of working in the loft today,as I was lead to believe. They have carried on working on the extension roof. In the process, they disconnected the waste pipe from the loft toilet without telling me, so when I flushed the loo they had nasty surprise standing underneath the free floating pipe!!
They have cracked on with the rafters AND put on the breathable membrane which is currently topped by plywood sheets. This progress would be good but for the fact that a scaffold will be going up through the roof some time on Sunday so it looks like some of it will have to come off again. Another example of one hand not knowing what the other is doing....
I wondered whether the scaffolders should be postponed in these circumstances. However, I don't know which scaffold company is coming and have no means of contacting them, so reluctantly decided to interrupt the man in charge on his short break after all. He will have to decide whether to postpone the scaffolders or tell them to remove part of the roof covering which has gone up today.
In response to my text, he says the scaffold should go ahead as planned. It will be interesting to see how they deal with the access issue. However, assuming I can save a space on street for the skip truck on Sunday morning ready for the skip changeover on Monday, I have other plans for the rest of the day so won't be on the spot to deal with any problems. This could be interesting....
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