New Tractor Shed

[awemawson]

Concrete for the footings / pads comes tomorrow so today Darren returned to dig the approximately 1 metre cube holes for the base of each pillar.

Bulk excavated by digger, then 'mandraulically' by a Darren who is far fitter than I am  Time was when I could do that sort of thing but not now sadly 

The 'Volumetric' concrete lorry carries 9 cu metres so we will probably be short and need to mix some ourselves

[Pete.]

I don't do a lot of concreting but when I do I always come up short. Luckily for me it's always temporary works so not so critical. I bet that you'll be at least 2 cubes shy and have to bring another wagon in later. Those dug shutters always seem to swallow up more concrete.

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Andrew,

The weather forecast for tomorrow for TN33 looks a bit soggy - especially the afternoon & evening.

I hope you get the concrete placed before the site gets too quagmire-ish!! 

[awemawson]

I don't do a lot of concreting but when I do I always come up short. Luckily for me it's always temporary works so not so critical. I bet that you'll be at least 2 cubes shy and have to bring another wagon in later. Those dug shutters always seem to swallow up more concrete.

Oh yes 

Mind you two of the pits landed on very solid material well before the 1 metre level so you never know ...... 

[awemawson]

Hi there, Andrew,

The weather forecast for tomorrow for TN33 looks a bit soggy - especially the afternoon & evening.

I hope you get the concrete placed before the site gets too quagmire-ish!!

Pete, so long as it holds off until we've poured it doesn't matter too much  - up till 3 pm it doesn't look too bad if Metcheck is to be believed, but so often there are last minute variations. Usually we get less than they forecast so you never know !

[awemawson]

Well the weather has been kind to me today - although a bit gloomy, we only had one heavy shower, and that was when most jobs were finished 

While waiting for the concrete lorry (that was booked for 12:00) Darren assembled the hold down bolts with their greased fibre cones and wooden spacer plate, all designed to allow a bit of movement for assembling the structural frame, after which the cones are eased out and the bolts grouted in with high strength cement grout.

[awemawson]

Then the concrete lorry arrived a good 45 minutes early 

He then proceeded to empty the entire contents of his Volumetric Concrete Lorry into our footings - best part of £1000 of concrete 

We had intended to hold back a cubic metre in the dumper truck for two of the less critical pads that we couldn't dig until the massively heavy lorry had withdrawn, for fear of collapse, but in the event we had run him dry of concrete Those remaining pads will be dug and mixed on site on Thursday (leaving a clear day for the first lot to go off) - this is no bad thing, as we need to mix some to set the 110 mm underground drain pipe that I'm using as a duct, in place before running in the hardcore for the floor.

[awemawson]

It was having done the bulk of the adjustments that we had a short downpour. Then we got a phone call to say that all the roof sheeting was on it's way and immanent.

A rather grumpy driver arrived with a massive lorry and attached fork lift with which he unloaded all the roof sheets and ridge fittings.

Ironic - we have the roof, but no floor or walls

...everything off loaded, it was fortunate that he had rear wheel steering or he would have had quite a problem turning around to escape back onto the road.

[Pete.]

... the massively heavy lorry....

Those lorries are much heavier than they look. The one we get in grosses about 40tons fully loaded.

[Spurry]

Having watched your build with great interest, it makes me feel that my jigs and set-up were ever so slightly OTT.  There was one stage where the steel erectors said the footings are not square, but when I told him they were correct to a millimetre, he quickly changed the subject and fitted the steel to suit. Hope all continues to go well for you.
Pete

[awemawson]

Heavy rain all last night and this morning left the site as a flooded pond. I started trying to dig channels with a spade but it was hopeless, so steamed up the JCB803, fitted a 9" Clay Spade and scraped around forming drainage channels, and as the level went down joining the then separate ponds into the channel system.

Most water now run off and the rain is easing - photo's after the event so none of the big pond - sorry

[Pete W.]

It's a blessing in disguise!  The concrete won't get thirsty while it's curing.          

[mattinker]

As Pete says, good for the concrete! We have an anti-cyclone forecast for the w/end, it should get to you by the beginning of next week!

[vtsteam]

Hope the main pad pour wasn't short -- sounds like it was just okay. I feel your pain Andrew, re. rain. One of the wettest years I can remember here, too. A natural result of building last year's cistern to combat that drought -- apologies to all. It's been continuously overflowing for a couple months now. And will likely see no use at all this year, unless desert conditions arrive for a month.

I also expect no power interruptions here this year, as I finally connected the Lister(oid) generator to the house with a transfer switch. Our little Generac 3600 rpm racket maker finally died -- or at least the AVR in it did. Had a 25% overvoltage situation last time I used it, popping older light bulbs and ruining the latest expensive full color spectrum LED replacements. Luckily no major appliances were hurt.

Anyway happy to have the Lister finally connected up. Praying for a (very brief) localized drought and power outtage now, in secret! 

[awemawson]

Thanks for the comments chaps 

Steve the pour was pretty much exact - we had to scrape a bit off to get the wooden bolt spacers  to the correct height by laser level which is far better than having to sink bricks in it to bring the level up 

As it's footings the spec is only "C20" but judging by it's colour, and how well it's set I reckon it's a bit more than that. One of the advantages of the 'Volumetric' lorry over the drum type is that the concrete hasn't been mixing for perhaps an hour in transit to you, so it remains workable for longer. However the downside is that the mix is not quite as consistent, as the mixing worm is relatively short.

We are supposed to be sinking a trench to put in cable ducting tomorrow, but I fear that it will still be too sticky, despite a brief bit of sun this afternoon.

[awemawson]

Well today the ground is far too sticky for trenching - work suspended until probably Monday. Then we'll have to get a shimmy on, as I heard today that the rest of the building is being delivered on Thursday of next week 

[awemawson]

At last things have dried up so we could tackle the services ducts into, across, and out of  the Tractor Shed.

The intention is that we install a short 110mm duct from the Woodwork Shop into the Tractor Shed to bring in Water (25mm MDPE), Compressed-Air (25mm MDPE), Power (4 core 6mm csa SWA rated 52 amps) and two CAT5E Cables.

Another 110mm duct will cross the shed, emerging internally to act as a cross way for any future wiring, but also emerge on the far side of the shed terminating in what is actually a Manhole, but acting as a marshalling point.  From within the Tractor Shed will come Water (which feeds troughs for the Pigs and Chicken), and also a 4 core 6mm CSA SWA cable that feeds an electricity distribution point where I have 3 phase and single phase sockets. I will also bring two CAT5E cables down this duct for possible camera points.

To facilitate this I needed a 63 mm conduit joiner and a 110 mm to 63 mm coupler. The  conduit joiner is available commercially but not in time for what we were doing, and the 110 mm to 63 mm is not available as 110 is a plumbing size, and 63 mm is an electrical size 

So - 3D print them ! Well I did, one took 7 hours and the other 10 hours over night. All fine and dandy until I realised that I'd printed them in PLA which is biodegradable    Up early hours to print some more, this time in white Pet-G which is much more durable 

[awemawson]

We started at the Woodwork Shed, enlarging the existing 100 mm flexible conduit hole to 110 mm to take standard drain pipe, then trenching to what will be inside the Tractor Shed, terminating in a long radius bend upstand.

Then we trenched across the shed at an angle to aim for where ongoing water and electrical connections need to be coupled. This duct again starts with a long radius bend upstand, crosses the shed to a 'swept Tee' with an upstand, then continues to a manhole being used as a marshalling point. The electrical duct to the Electrical Distribution Point had to be extended, hence the 3D printed joiner, and the manhole body was suitable bedded on dry mix before all was back filled.

It then just remained to excavate for the last concrete pad that was omitted when the Volumetric Truck ran out of concrete - 2.5 Jumbo bags of ballast so a generous cubic metre of concrete.

Darren will return tomorrow after haymaking to shift all the hardcore onto site and start crushing it down.

[chipenter]

What no hold downs ?

[awemawson]

No, that pad is just for the sides of the personnel door, and the stanchions will be held by chemical anchors. It's gone off nicely over night, and this morning I've cleared away all the sheep hurdles to give Darren good access to the not insignificant pile of hard core that he will be moving after lunch.

[awemawson]

Yesterday I lost Darren to haymaking - with imminent thunderstorms the hay had to be made !

However today he came equipped with even more toys - his Bobcat telehandler , and the grab for his 6 ton digger. The first job was to recover the trailer from the corner that it had been tucked into on day one - it was rather jammed in

[awemawson]

Then we could start clearing all the brush and trees that had overground a triangle of land that was bigger than the garden in my first house 

In the end three trailer loads were pulled out and stacked up in the field awaiting a bonfire at some time in the future

[awemawson]

The next task was to scrape off the surface of the built up subsoil to the correct height to allow for 300 mm of hard core. The material removed was used to build up the stream bank behind the shed. This will need considerably more filling in days to come.

[awemawson]

Then at last we could start bringing in the hardcore from the pile in the field.

I fear that I will have to start buying in more hard core  So far it's all been FOC. I do have two small loads coming in tomorrow but we'll need much more than that.

Also tomorrow comes the rest of the structure of the Tractor Shed, all on a lorry, but no idea at what time - so today I've cleared the yard of all that can be cleared so we can unload and stack it all

[awemawson]

Again, to free up space, Darren took his Fent Tractor and two trailers home - this involved some fancy loading using the Bobcat Telehandler - an impressive display of his skills