New Tractor Shed

[awemawson]

Well at last just a tiny weenie little bit of progress. Final absolute location now fixed - we've moved it a bit over to the south and squared it up to the yard, as although this reduces the little patch of grass to something approaching zero, it means importing far less infill.

Net result is that of the eleven RSJ uprights comprising the frame, nine will sit on concrete pads poured into excavated holes, and two will sit on concrete pads poured in form work and sitting on the remains of the original base of the tank. So for these last two I've made a pair of 750 mm square by 1 metre deep shuttering boxes. When they've been filled and the concrete set, the form work will be removed and the resulting concrete blocks will be buried in hardcore.

(The other nine pads will be the same 1 metre deep by 750 square, but poured into excavated holes)

[Spurry]

Andrew
Do you not have to account for the retaining bolts when you pour the feet? Or will they just be drilled afterwards. Perhaps you have a bit better ground than we had, as our cubes had to be 1m sided.
Pete

[mattinker]

Andrew, do you have a pallet banding set up? It might be a good idea to band top middle and bottom to reinforce!

Cheers, Matthew.

[awemawson]

Yes Matthew that had occurred to me as there will be lots of spreading force 

[Pete.]

1300kg of concrete in those boxes. On site they would be framed by 3 rows of 4x2 on the outside, top, middle and bottom. Also need fixing down.

[awemawson]

Pete is of course quite right, and rather than risk them blowing out I sacrificed a pile of cribbing timber, slicing it up on the Dominion saw bench and fitted braces.

I suspect that if the concrete was reasonably dry it would have been fine, but better safe than sorry

[awemawson]

Well at LONG LAST work has started late today. Should have been first cock crow yesterday but the ground plan got lost in the post  Should have been first thing this morning but Darren got called away to an emergency repair 

... But today at about 4 pm he turned up with his six ton digger and started shifting earth to get some levels and work out how much the land needs building up. Quick panic series of phone calls when we work out we need an extra three eight wheeler 'roll on roll off' lorries full of fill before putting down the 300 mm of hardcore that will be under the 150 mm of concrete That's a BIG pile of fill, but as luck would have it, a friend was working on a site where they are pulling it out and could bring it in tomorrow - phew (if it all works out)

Tomorrow Darren has to repair a bale crusher on his way over here but expects to get a fair bit done - me, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed 

[DaveS]

Good to see things underway,  I've got a couple of barrow loads of rubble, but I'm not going to push them all the way to you even with a following wind
Do the pigs stress out with the noise or just carry on eating?

[awemawson]

Dave I need a few million of your wheelbarrow fulls !

So its mid afternoon day 2 and so far only one load of subsoil, and that was a grab lorry not a ro-ro  Getting desperate for sub soil - have put feelers out but no more bites yet. I did chat up the grab lorry driver and he brought a load of top soil which we will stockpile on the field ready for finishing off, and he's bringing me another load (16 cu M ) of top soil on Monday - but until we can find some subsoil things are going to slow down.

I went off and bought 42 metres of 110 mm underground drain pipe. A bit will actually be used as drains, but the majority is duct work under the building for water and electrics, and also a run side to side to give me a cable duct for internal wiring .

We pulled out the original 6" cast iron pipe that brought water in to the tank that was previously where we're building - blooming heavy - about 24 foot of it now cut in two to be slightly more manageable.

[awemawson]

Well much against my expectations I got another load of sub soil in this afternoon, and this time a very nicely packed Ro-Ro, the driver reckoned he was a good 5 ton over weight 

Slightly bigger pile than last time. But it'll be next week before any more comes in I think

[DMIOM]

......I went off and bought 42 metres of 110 mm underground drain pipe. A bit will actually be used as drains, but the majority is duct work under the building for water and electrics, and also a run side to side to give me a cable duct for internal wiring........

Andrew,

Not sure if its relevant, but I have a run of 4" plastic field drain as a conduit, it's the sort where they punched rectangular slots (and left some 'hanging chads' inside). The problem is that it leaves lots of sharp bits/edges - not too bad if its a straight run, or you're pulling a decently armoured cable; but if it is a curved run, it can chafe insulation (e.g. on co-ax) and I found my draw-rope - twisted blue polyprop - really did catch.

Dave

[awemawson]

This is your standard brown drain pipe Dave that you might have taking the outfall from your loo, so smooth as a babies bottom inside 👍

I've been promised another two loads of subsoil Saturday morning, so things are looking up 

[awemawson]

So sure enough two more eight wheeler grab lorries of subsoil (dry clay and sand stone mainly) came in this morning creating a small mountain range with the one load that came in late yesterday afternoon.

A quick phone call to Darren got him back out to spread it and track it in - nice steel tracks on that digger of his 

But this shows just how much more is going to be needed - probably at least another six wagon loads  Scrabbling about to find it at the moment. I have tracked a chap down who has an accumulated pile in his yard that he wants rid of, but his lorry is off the road until Tuesday at the earliest with a bust gearbox 

[Pete.]

It's cleaned that area up nicely

[awemawson]

Yes Pete it's beginning to take shape, but a huge amount of fill still needs to go in to bring the site up level before any construction can take place

[SwarfnStuff]

I suppose you considered digging the high end and plonking that at the low end? Bit late now I guess and perhaps that would put the entry into your (eventual) new workshop either down a ramp, or up a ramp.
   Seems I have just answered my own suggestion, the way you are proceeding should have the entry level with the existing land. 
Good luck finding the fill.
John B

[awemawson]

Can't do that John, as the high end is the level of the farm yard, so if we scraped off there there would be a drop into the shed 

[SwarfnStuff]

Yes Andrew,
          I did actually work that out during typing my brainwave and thought I had commented accordingly. (Maybe not clearly though.) 
      Guess you will need a fair amount of consolidation of the fill as well or you could get subsidence in the floor.
   Anyway, it will all be good eventually. You do seem to have an interesting time with all that has happened up to now.
Regards,
John B

[awemawson]

Another day and not a huge amount happening. One load of rather mixed 'subsoil' came in and was actually a good third bits of concrete. This had to be strategically placed so not to be where we are digging holes for the stanchion pads, and then Darren tracked it in - a little bit of progress but not much.

We also pulled out an old broken down fence run (in the distance in the first picture) where undergrowth has taken over a bit and there was a good eight or ten foot of 'lost ground' between what will be the back of the shed and the bank of the stream that had been lost over the years. I've arranged for Beau (boyfriend of one of my ground tenants) to come in some time in the next day or two to cut back the scrub and underwood, and we'll then have a bit more room to manoeuvre while building,

Also had another eight wheeler load of 'topsoil' in - this time quite a bit of brick in it - so that makes four darn great mounds in the field awaiting landscaping when the barn is finished. (it looks like three loads in the picture due to the camera angle)

Hopefully they resume digging sub soil tomorrow and we'll get a few more loads in - they've been pouring concrete today on that site so lorry movements were banned.

[awemawson]

Major frustration today.

 Yesterday I found a new source of subsoil quite locally and arranged for a series of loads to come in.

Overnight it's been teeming down with rain, it's still going hard now and I'm going to have to cancel the lorries or everything will get churned up. 

(Up early as we had a power cut at 5 am )

[awemawson]

And to add to my joy it seems that the power cut continues - total loss of two phases and the third phase down to 80 volts  (Should be 245 for our American friends who might think 115 V )

It seems that quite a bit of stuff like my internet router and most of the hubs are limping on, but the electric gate is now in override mode. Kitchen LED lights, half are working and the other aren't ! Nor is the private sewage system that continuously has a motor churning away, so legs crossed for a bit !

[PekkaNF]

Loss of phase is a bugger...no motors then and the ones are on might burn (latest on next start).

Did you have a generator? And a outhouse? Must have BU!

Hope the power is sorted out ASAP.

Pekka

[awemawson]

Just had a call from UK Power Networks to say they are temporarily switching 120 customers to another HV feed - and sure enough the 80 supply went off, then back on at 230 volts 

All PC's seem to have survived - critical ones are on UPS's - and even the sewage plant and front gate don't seem to have suffered

We have two couples in the holiday cottages and hopefully they've been oblivious to all this.

... still raining though !

Of course when they find the overhead cable fault and fix it, they will switch us back . . let's hope that flicker goes smoothly 

[chipenter]

 My friend mesured 1/2" of rain on his weather station last hight hear in Ashford .

[awemawson]

Today after the power cut excitement I'd had three small loads of hardcore in, and we now have pretty well enough, although another couple are expected tomorrow.

Well the end of a stressful day brought another Ro-Ro eight wheeler lorry full of subsoil 

Only problem was it wouldn't slide out of the skip - just sat there. Apparently the skip was delivered yesterday, got a fair amount of water in it, and although the dug subsoil was fairly dry the bottom layer stuck fast. 'Badger' the Ro-Ro driver used every trick in his arsenal jerking the body of the skip this way and that to try and move it, but it stuck fast. Trouble is these things are far from stable side to side when in the up position 

Fortunately Darren wasn't too far away and was able to come in and rescue the situation with his six ton excavator

Having got the Ro-Ro out of the claggy, Darren went on to spread the one load about and track it in, and sink a few beers with me 

Weather looking slightly better tomorrow and a few more loads of subsoil are expected