Ground works for me!

Groundworks is the term used to describe all the stuff builders do beneath ground level.  It's what my house will be built on so needs to be done properly.  It's a right mixed bag involving excavation, drainage, services, concreting and blockwork - a dirty job even when it's not lashing it down - but someone's got to do it.  With the advent of small machinery it's now possible to get into any site but apart from the narrow driveway the site entrance presented no problem for Andy McNair (he said make sure you get my mobile number in the photo - nuff said).

Before we can start the main groundwork activity the first job involved moving the existing private sewer that runs across the site right where the foundations should be...not only that but we also need to move the electric and water services that also run in the same trench - not a big issue - just more of a convenience right now because it means the guys can't use machinery near the services so have to excavate by hand.

First step involved preparing the new trench into which the replacement section of sewer will be placed in order to take the diversion (along with the other services that needed to be retained) around the foundations of the new house.

Until you start digging though you never know what you are going to find - I'm not talking Time Team artifacts - I'm talking pipes nobody knew existed nor which of your neighbours they serve.  Disconnect at your peril!  We found two main water pipes and through trial and error and door-to-door knocking finally solved the puzzle.  Time and money wasted but that's life.

Anyway with problem solved it was then a quick call to the Building Control Officer to ask him to inspect the excavation and proposed diversion for the sewer.  Fortunately we were very lucky and the officers were already out on a job in my area so within 20 minutes of calling hey-presto we had two officers pouring over the works.  I needn't have worried - within a short space of time they had passed the job so Andy could continue with the remaining work to divert the sewer. 

This was my first experience of the Building Control Officers and I must say they were both extremely friendly, very informative and very decisive. 

Here's hoping the rest of the scheduled inspections throughout the build go this smoothly!

So that's the end of Day 2 - the rest of the week should see the new sewer section coupled up to the existing sewer, trench filled in (bit of a hazzard right now) and the rest of the site stripped clean ready for setting out of the foundations.  We're really fortunate that our site is flat so clearance should be done by the end of the week.  There's a fair bit of top soil to get rid of - the term used is "muck away" and hopefully the good weather will hold out until we've cleared everything and got hardcore down to form a stable base on which the rest of the machinery can run on.  The unusual lack of rain is brilliant because this prevents the entire site from becoming a mud bath.