Trench Warfare

They say that the two areas where money is made or lost when building is getting out of the ground and internal finishes.  You have far more control over the latter by simply compromising on the luxury items such as the100" Plasma TV you've always dreamed of, the grand staircase, the antique oak flooring, the granite worktops etc.

BUT the one thing you cannot compromise on is the foundation work.  Once you have committed spade to soil and start digging the footings (the trenches that will take the foundation walls) you have to solve every problem mother earth throws at you...it becomes a war...you have to get out of the ground otherwise you can't built your dream home.

Of course you can buy all sorts of fancy professional services that will assess likely problems before you encounter them - mining reports, contamination reports, percolation tests, drill-holes to locate depth to solid ground.  The list goes on and they are not cheap - you can literally spend thousands trying to mitigate the risk but the bottom line is you have to commit at some point - it's often a bit of a leap of faith.

Fortunately lady luck was on our side when Derek and his team started digging the footings - oh and the weather has been fantastic - long may it last!

Within a short space of time we had hit relatively solid clay-based soil and a quick assessment from the Building Inspector and NHBC Inspector confirmed that they had reached acceptable sub-soil depth and could continue excavating per the house footing plans.

The whole process was made real easy with the machinery.  The bucket on the mini-digger was set at the right trench width, the mini-dumper was nimble enough to shoot around the site dispersing yet more muck whilst James ensured the trench bottom was nice and level.

Amazingly by the end of the day all trenches were completed ready for the concrete pour.

I had only been working in London for two days and by the time I got back 2 loads of concrete had been shot into the trenches, laser-levelled, foundation blocks ordered and the site cleared ready for Monday to start walling the foundation blocks on which the entire house will sit.

There's no messing with Derek - he runs a slick and tidy building site and my lawn still resembles a lawn (for now).  He keeps telling me it's all in the preparation and planning and with a site this large it costs money constantly moving materials around so he likes to have everything exactly where it needs to be when it's needed.

 How neat is that!!!