News from Griffner

Griffner have come back about the boarding and they can do the plain tongue and groove. They have sent on a detail of their standard monopitch overhang detail which looks OK to me. They will send on the revised one for review early next week. The builder has got the steel and is forming the cages. I hope to have some pictures later. The sun has also come out so I am feeling a lot happier than the last blog.

Ch ch ch changes....

Was on to GriffnerHaus in Austria today who have bought out Griffner Coillte here in Ireland, with the result that our windows, which took 9 weeks to arrive from Austria have now been shipped back to Austria again. They want to make changes to the roof overhangs by cladding them in metal. They say it will be a better detail and they will bear the cost. Mentioned in passing is the fact that the overhangs will have to reduce in size. I wasn't too happy with this at this late stage when the building has been signed off. They are to send me on a drawing for review.
Also they say that the ceiling boarding will have to be tongued and grooved and veed
and not plain tongued and grooved like I asked for and was given a price for

They have said they will check this and get back to me, but as far as I am concerned this was finalised 3 months ago. Grrrrrr.......

Steel

Got the steel schedule today so the contractor can order up the steel. The ground was a lot better than the engineer thought it was going to be so there is a lot less steel in the raft. Hope fully we will have the steel by next Monday and be ready to pour the week after that..

Shuttering up and some stories about cats...

Last night I got a letter from one of the neighbours who was concerned that the shed had been moved and wanted us to relocate it. I rang her this morning and arranged to meet up with her over lunch; over the course of lunchtime I assuaged her fears and she is now fine with the location of the shed. This is mighty good as otherwise we might have had to move it and our super expensive pipes (€92 per m)

We also spoke of cats as she likes cats a lot, and she told me a story about the maddest of all our mad dogs, Bran. Bran used to make a great show of barking at and chasing the cats from our garden when we were kids. We all knew it was an act, but everybody was happy to believe the lie. This neighbour says she once say Bran barking at one of her cats who was asleep in our garden. He couldn't wake the cat up by barking so he went over and nudged it awake with his nose. He then proceeded to chase the cat up and down the garden for a bit. Then the cat chased Bran up and down the garden for a bit. I knew that dog was weird but until today had no idea of the full extent of his oddness...
You can also see the shuttering in place for the rafts and the mounds of hardcore to form the base of the raft. Some of the pipes are in place to take in services and take away waste.



I now have to get the engineer and Griffner's insurance people out to check the accuracy of the raft setout. Once that's done we can pour the raft and start production in the factory.
Lastly Orla has reminded me to give a big Shout out to Finn who is celebrating his Birthday today, coincidentally Bran was the favourite hound of Fionn mac Cumhall, leader of the Fianna. Some info here and here

Drains passed, hardcore and ducting in.

Drainage engineer came today and is happy that we are not going to break his drain by putting our house on top of it. This is good as it means we don't have to divert the sewer (mucho €) However we will have to make the shed smaller which means my bouldering wall instead of looking like this will end up looking like this.

These are a couple of views of the hole for the soakaway.

I will be filling this up over the weekend and counting how long it takes to drain away. Don't you wish you were me...

Site with hardcore in place. Red pipe is for our special zero heat loss heating pipes to come from the shed to the house.

Drains and good news...

Actually I'm not going to fix those photos as I can't find them and you all know what a digger looks like.

The hardcore is down and should be tamped tomorrow.

Slit trench to locate Main drain
Met with the drainage engineer this morning. If the main drain was under the house we would have to divert it (expensive). The builder dug a slit trench to locate it and it does not pass under the house and is far enough away not to require redirection of the drain. (Hooray!) The shed is close to the pipe but its a lot lighter and can be moved a bit. I will talk to the drainage engineer tomorrow to let him know.

This is the slit trench showing the drain. The water is probably settled around the gravel used to bed the drain in.

This is the line of pipe, imaginatively marked PIPE.
Other good news, The drainage engineer has said that we can put the surface water into a soakaway pit at the back of the site pending a hydrologists report on the location, this will save us having to open up the road to the front with the attendant disruption and cost.
Click on soakaway above for an explanation for what it is if you don't know. This website is also an excellent source of information about all forms of paving

Oops...

Oops... just noticed that some pictures are missing. I will fix this on Tuesday. They are mostly of the big digger so if you would like to look at a similar big digger click here

BIG digger

Hooray, the big digger is here and has taken the ground down for the raft.

The Structural Engineer has come and said the ground is good so we can start to bring in the hardcore base

We also need to talk to the geo-thermal people about their trenches. It may be better to put them in now.

I am also meeting with the drainage engineer on Tuesday about the sewers and connection