The GTE's new home

[tonyo]

Well, it has to start somewhere..

This was the house this morning..


This afternoon, little change, but the Vectra is looking a bit worried..


After careful investigation..


Its older brother isn't there.. It's four doors up the road under a waterproof car cover..

The builders start in the morning, and the first thing will be demolition of the garage.

[GTE 16v]

mmm, looks to me that you have room there for a double width garage, am I correct?

[tonyo]

Originally, yes, that 1 1/2 wide garage was going to become 2 1/2 wide..

Then 'we' decided that if it slid out by a car's width, then it could still be a 1 1/2 garage, with an extra reception room, and second bathroom, meaning that the silly little cloakroom in the utility could be removed, making the utility bigger..

Of course, the public sewer under the proposed garage and current conservatory put paid to my inspection pit as well..

[Kev_G]

please keep this up to date with build pics and comments as these are bloody great threads

[Benn]

Christ for a sec i thought Dave had sold his GTE then, Tony, that i a lovely big garage.

[GTE 16v]

Christ for a sec i thought Dave had sold his GTE then,

confused.com

[tonyo]

What greeted me this morning when it got light..



Builder can't beleive the construction of the roof, basically, the old flat roof was left in situ, and had a tiled roof built over the top. He's quite surprised that the original construction of the garage roof took the extra weight of the pitched.



Apparently the mini digger is turning up today to pull down the structure of the garage, and break up the floor.

I have a very ecited 2 1/2 year old at home with his mum today..

[Astra Dan]

Hum. That's exactly what I was thinking of doing to the flat roof extension that is my kitchen. Build a wooden frame over it and tile at my leisure without worrying about rain etc. whilst the felt is in good condition.

[tonyo]

Hum. That's exactly what I was thinking of doing to the flat roof extension that is my kitchen. Build a wooden frame over it and tile at my leisure without worrying about rain etc. whilst the felt is in good condition.

TBH, the utility roof (the last photo) was done like that, and it didn't seem too bad because the flat roof was supported on top of the walls. The garage was a bigger issue. When it was originally built, it had the flat roof laid on the joists, and the joists were supported by a 2by4 nailed (yes, Nailed!) to the outer wall of the house. Fine, for a flat roof, but the builder was surprised that it hadn't given way when they loaded it with a complete pitched structure, and a couple of tons of Clay Tiles.

This is what I found tonight when I got in..

[tonyo]

Christ for a sec i thought Dave had sold his GTE then, Tony, that i a lovely big garage.

Wasn't too bad.. Although it had shelving for food, the freezer, and all my DiY stuff racked around the place. The replacement is going to be about 50cm narrower, however the need to clear the garage gave me an excuse to move the Oil Tank, and put in an 8x6 Shed for all the DiY stuff, and the bigger utility means that Kelly gets more room to store food, a tumble drier, a full size dishwasher, and, If I'm really clever, somewhere to put the Freezer. This means that the garage will purely have the GTE and Car tools in it, all hanging on a couple tool boards. Hopefully I should have slightly more working room then. Of course, as I mentioned, the sewer issue put an end to the inspection pit plan, but a Compressor is still on the cards. Windy tools rock!

[Benn]

Nice nice. Good plans dude.

[Kev_G]

brilliant work there

[tonyo]

brilliant work there

Can't take any credit at the moment, my involvement comes when the plumbing and electrics need doing. I'm just glad to have found a Builder that:

1) Has turned up and started when he said he would,
2) Works hard for a full day
3) Seems to be doing a good job without cutting corners.

TBH the reason he got the job was because he didnt fake interest and then overquote, or just not bother to quote at all.

[tonyo]

This is the support that was holding up the entire flat and tiled roof of the garage.


Held up by about 20 nails..

[Pitstoppete]

o dear.

[Tom Williams]

Awesome.

[tonyo]

Someone was really happy that the digger arrived, so the obligatory photo opportunity..


Those of you who know the trouble I've gone to regarding the 6inch sewer that runs under the proposed garage know the structural engineers and Wessex water designed a re-enforced steel foundation for the garage. This supposedly puts no bearing on a 6 inch pipe that is over 2m (10ft) down..

Here's the re-bar in place for the footings..



For a garage?!?

The builder commented that he built a 3 floor house on foundations like that a while back..

[Benn]

No pigs will blow that down....

[Astra Dan]

Sheet.

[tonyo]

Top layer of the rebar went on last Thursday..



Then the big pour so on Friday so that it cured over the weekend.



In all, 16 Tons of concrete for the garage slab!

This morning took a quick photo, they appear to have got to DPC level ready for the 'room' slab..



Today whilst at work, I had a call, with a very excited Alex on the other end..



That was the most exciting thing in his little world at the minute, despite me taking him to see Concorde last weekend!

Will get out with the camera tomorrow morning, there's a slab and half a wall in already.

[Benn]

Coming along very well.

[crombievts]

that floor isnt going anywhere lol

[Kev_G]

thats a heafty build lol

[tonyo]

Yeah, the floor is a bit hefty. Unfortunately, there is a sewer 10ft down, under the base, so the water board wouldn't let me build over without structural design.

The only alternative to that sort of slab construction was to dig to below the level of the pipe, and bridge the crossing points from a set distance either side of the intersection. Because of the way the pipe cuts under the slab, that would have meant 3m long lintels on foundations that were (minimum) 11ft down.

Anyone who deals with underground 'stuff' (I'm a trained Appointed Person - Confined Space), will tell you, the H&S implications of going that deep on a small build like this aren't small, let alone with what would effectively have been an unsupported trench. Add to that, the increase in plant size to get a digger needed to dig that deep, and the conclusion was that this, although overly engineered, was going to be the most cost effective solution.

[tonyo]

Lots of progress this week..



Beginning to make the footprint of the house look rather large..



Had a visit from the garage door people. I'm pretty sold on a roller door, they have a better seal - which is good at the bottom of a slope, and you can park right up to the door and not worry about opening. Also, the rolled up door should pretty much fit right up into the eaves, so I get maximum headroom. Lets see what price they can do, the GTE keyring may soon have another remote fob for the door!

Next week the front wall of the conservatory is coming off, so that the back wall of the garage can be built, and hopefully we'll have lintels and ceiling rafters by the weekend..