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.
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..
Yeah, its really nice to have a builder that turns up, does the work, and doesn't disappear for days on end on other jobs. I suppose it's because he's a small family builder, all the work so far has been done totally by him and his son, and the best thing is he's local (in the next village) which is a plus for me..
That CB cement truck looked brilliant.. I didn't realise that they delivered concrete like that.. Great idea though, turning up and mixing it on site means no wasted loads, and they can mix just the amount you need rather than having 1/2 a truckload left over and dumped..
I'm looking at my options on the floor.. Left it as a standard brushed finish so that I can do what I want when its back in my custody..
Bit of progress made. The roof was taken off of the utility, and the shell of the new bedroom is nearly done.
You can just about make it out behind the scaffolding..
Unfortunately, the conservatory roof fell victim to some thermalite blocks coming off the second floor platform in the recent winds..
The new garage looks deceptively small. Its because the door is most of the width of the space, the garage is actually approx 3.1m (10ft2) , and the door is 2.5m (8ft3)wide.
Apparently all of the roof trusses and timber is due to arrive tomorrow morning, hopefully we should be getting sealed back up by the end of the week..
The New garage door is going to be about 3 weeks (automatic roller door ), and I guess it'll take me a while to get the tools and floor sorted out - I've got another 2 rooms, a utility and a bathroom to sort, so I guess the Garage will be quite low on the list..
How does it repay me? Well bringing it back down the road, I thought "that's running a bit rich", pulling onto the drive.. "Hmm a bit petrol-y".. Park in garage, turn off engine, have a good look under the now stinking engine bay.. Nothing to see here.. Start it again, have another look, and see what appears to be a small stream of petrol running out from the bottom of the hose going to the injector rail..
B**ch.. I build it a nice new garage, and it Pishes all over the floor as soon as I drive it in.. :face:
Try owning an XE. petrol will be the least of your worries.
What are you doing with the floor then? Tiles would be nice. might be a bit slippy though so maybe just paint it light grey.
The polyurethene paint is very good, and providing you buy it from a good source is cheap. Wicks want like £25 for 5ltrs, but you can get 25ltrs for that price online, and its good stuff.
ditto the grey paint thing.
all of mine came from Bursledon car boot at about a fifth the price of the diy joints. pva floor, pour on paint, roll about, leave overnight so the cats can walk all over it, refit car.
Ta Ben, I'm hoping that once I get it finished off inside, It'll be a nice place to work.. I just think what it would have been like if 'we' had'nt made the decision on the new rooms and it was a 2 & 1/2 garage.. I'd have had room for the GTE AND the Cav Sri I went to look at with Petorr a while back..
Craig, It's definitely getting tiles - Porcelain (Ceramic too soft, Granite too expensive). I'm also planning to buy some of those 'drive over lights' made for sinking in driveways, and set them in the floor, so that when I'm working underneath, I don't have to faff with lead lights or head torches. That'll sort of make up for the lack of pit. After Pete's question about a two post lift I did look at those as well, but TBH the roof is too low, its a lot of cash for not a lot of gain (I'd only have about 1m lift).
The door as mentioned will be an insulated roller door, and I'm planning to put celotex insulation board between the rafters. I was adamant that it had proper cavity walls, not single skin, and also made sure that they were insulated to the same spec as the rest of the house. I'm hoping that it'll make it a pleasant and warm(ish) place to work all year around..
As I said though, it's all going to have to wait a bit, once the plasterer has been, I've got a new bedroom (including a ceiling suspended railway - not for me!), extra front room, and shower room (including underfloor heating) to do. I've got to totally re-build the utility room, once the ceiling has been done, and most of the back and side garden to sort..
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