OMG...it's TECHNOpor!

One of the days I really wasn't looking forward to finally arrived.... 28 bags (over 7tons) worth of Technopor arrived in an artic from Germany! Well it wasn't that we didn't want it, it was just the logistics of a huge lorry (they wouldn't supply on a smaller one) which clearly was never going to make it up the small narrow private road to our site.

So......a very unorthodox method ensued. Not entirely my idea, but clearly my inexperience certainly didn't help. However, it is a product with very high green credentials (highly insulative crushed re-cycled glass), negating the need for a concrete infill in the foundations, which has been used in Europe for years, but not in this country very much at all.....and certainly not for small domestic self-builds!! And so.....

A neighbouring wide, quiet (well was before we arrived)...road..

..no fortlift (the far too sensible option) Let's go for the 'make large bags fall over and play catch with  poor Barry's transit option instead'.....Yes 28 bags, 2 at a time....work it out...

 Well it worked amazingly well for 12 trips back and forward to site. Barry and his guys getting superbly efficient at unloading and returning speedily for more until........the bags thought they'd all be better falling over. Uh oh......Thin, loosely tied bags, falling over = mess of small pumice like stones all over the road, van and lorry......(well at least they're relatively light and clean)

The good news is with a bit of hands on help from a large German lorry driver, a suited German Commercial Director and his English colleague, my Dad, me and Barry (what a bizarre bunch of people to be scrabbling around in lorries)....got the last bags on......
.....just....
.....leaving only just the merest hint of light grey dust that we were ever there........ (for about 2hours!)

Possibly they won't suggest this method again!! Yet another notch into the hands of experience for us all!

Barry's digger made a far better job of whisking them off the transit

For speed they never quite made it down near the house...

...but they were beautifully lined up the drive

Phew. Stage 1 of Technopor complete....more to come....

Blockwork

The house finally begins to rise up out of the ground.....

We can finally start to see the shape of the ground floor..

Roxy 'the dog' stands proudly at her front door

Marcie considers if the brickies are up to her high Lego standards?

Gabions - Part 2

Due to overwhelming popularity and success....We love building them so much we got building them cagey walls again...

Only problem was the sun didn't shine this time..   :(

peepo!

If I could just carefully balance this plank....

Phil & Mef kindly added some well needed muscle to the wet proceedings...however.....enough was enough for a rainy Easter Monday!

Seriously serious retaining wall

So this is what a wall's structure looks like when the structural engineer does a drawing for a retaining wall but hasn't seen the (solid chalk white cliffs of Dover) ground conditions! A huge 14m trench is dug by the side of the, to be garage, and steel bars are painstakingly bent (in seriously hot temperatures for late March in a white reflective sun trap) by Jason and Gary.

Marcie oversees by standing sideways?!

The white cliffs of Dover

 Marcie proves that it's tough building by proudly displaying her wounded hand.

This wall ain't going anywhere....

  

              

The blocks for the foundations arrive

The surface water soakaway at the end of the garden

 The surface water drainiage pipes are laid and covered over and the huge soakaway is now filled in. Too late for burying any bodies now. You've all missed ya chance - I'm still here!