Attenuation Tank Tedium

This for me is very very dull but I feel obliged to write about it briefly as it's been quite a big annoying issue for us;
During the design stage, planning and working with our code assessor no mention was ever made to us that we would need an attenuation tank to reduce the flow of rain water into the public sewers. It was not included in the plans, costed or quoted for but when our builder met with our code assessor it was brought up as being a mandatory requirement! Why it was never mentioned by our architect I don't think we'll ever know - during the design stage we had paid for a report to be done to calculate the rain water run off and apparently this tank is necessary for the one in one hundred year storm so that our house doesn't cause excessive strain on the the sewers.
The short of it is we now have to set a tank in the garden approx 4 metres long by 1metre deep. sounds simple but in fact it necessitates extra drains and quite serious digging, layers of various materials etc etc- yes I feel like going to sleep talking about it too!!!
We've been quoted £11k for this very dull thing - money I would have much preferred to spend elsewhere on something I can actually see and enjoy - as if we haven't sunk enough money in the ground already.

Due to the mammoth cost our builders are now trying to get quotes from specialist drainage companies to see if they can do it any cheaper - watch this space!!!!!

Catch Up

Last time I posted I think that we were having problems with the ring beam due to the layer of cellcore being missed out and highlighted by the NHBC inspector. After a bit of argy bargy about who hadn't read the drawings correctly the ground works team were forced to re-do the beam which was completed just before the end of November. As you can see in the photo, the rest of the ground is just a mud bath - when we come off site we're a couple of inches taller with all the clay that clings to your wellies!

Ring Beam

So on to site with the brick layers.... The picture below shows the beginnings of the walls as it was left just before Christmas and before the snows and bad weather came.

Site Before Christmas

We did much mooching about on the site in that strange time between Christmas & New Year and came to the conclusion that the the work done by the brick layers was not of a very good standard - we're not builders but even a lay man can see when there's gaps and messy cement left all over the walls. We kept passing the site and nothing had moved on, We were patient as the weather was freezing but eventually called the builder to ask what's going on....... he'd sacked the brick layers as he wasn't happy with their work or attitude!!

We were okay with him getting rid of bad brickies but anxious to get things moving. By mid February a new lot were on site and woking well. The decision had been made to remove the original brick work and start anew and also to leave the garage to later as access will be tight to the back of the house once the garage is up.

Here are some photos of our lovely new walls going up to damp proof course level 

Looking up towards living room and next level up of hallway & utility

Retaining wall at back of the kitchen and under the utility room

looking down site towards the North

Section of curved wall

The Start of an exciting New Year Ahead

I can't say that I'll be sorry to say goodbye to 2012 with all the stresses of planning the build from the initial work with the architect through planning permission to choosing a builder and raising the funds (though some of it's been fun) but I'm very excited about the New Year to come!!

As you can see from the photo we have the small beginnings of the walls so we can only go upwards from here.... We'll be in our new home for 2013!! WHOHOO!!

Ring Beam

After the piling the ring beam is built which joins all the piles together and forms a strong base on which to start building.

Lots of rainy weather but Graham and his gang of youths got on with it, digging, lining with the yellow stuff and inserting the rebar ready for the concrete to be poured. It all looked so lovely .........but then the NHBC inspector arrived on site and he said NO STOP!!!

He wanted the foundation dug 50ml deeper, a layer of sand put on the bottom and then a layer of cellcore (as you can see in my cool picture below) to allow for heave before the yellow stuff etc is laid.

So a great upheaval ensued. So annoying, but we obviously have to keep all these people happy. Even though building control and our structural engineer were satisfied with it as it was we won't get our NHBC certificate or our mortgage unless we conform to all the NHBC demands.

Next time we were on site it looked like vandals had been rampaging........

How depressing was that!!

Good Bye to the Piling Rig.... Phew!!!

After all the problems we had while they were on site we were very glad to see the back of these guys.....Byeeeee!!

Two Weeks in One Major Problem

You would think that plotting out the site would be not too difficult but when everyone seems to be working from a different angle it's not plain sailing!
One thing that Will and I have always been ultra aware and worried about has been the drain on the East side of the plot and Southern Water's stipulation that any building has to be at least 3 metres from it (leaving a pretty useless strip of land between us and the neighbour on the wrong side of the house) but when Will visited the plot during said plotting out what did he find? Of course, they've marked the house out within the 3 metre restriction area!!
That rectified, the pilers got on with the plotting out and wasted no time before they started drilling ...... unfortunately a little too soon - 3 piles are in the wrong place. All went on hold while we established what had gone wrong and how to put it right. The pile layout was provided by our structural engineer but apparently one coordinate was incorrect, only one mind, but unfortunately the pilers used this coordinate to work from. They could have worked perfectly well from the measurements and then we wouldn't have had a problem but hey ho it's done.
Will & the builders had various calls with the structural engineer and eventually got him to make some calculations and he made some alterations to the ring beam in order to carry the load in the small area of the 3 offending piles. We had a few anxious days but now on to getting on!!

Foundations begin with Piling

We have to have piled foundations due to both the soil type on the plot which is a dense London clay and the sloping nature of the site. This doesn't come cheap so unfortunately a lot of our costs are going deep into the ground never to be seen again. 

We are having 22 piles which support the ring beam on which the house will be built. Our piles have to be friction piles as opposed to bearing piles. Bearing piles are driven down through soft soil until they reach a firm base on which to support the load but friction piles rely on creating friction between the pile and the surrounding soil so the load is transferred downward and laterally into the soil.

Friction Piling

You can see a very big drill bit stuck in the earth here!

The 30mm wide holes are drilled deep into the ground, then a ReBar is sunk into the tunnel like hole which is filled with concrete thus creating an incredibly strong concrete and steel column....... ta da, there's a little lesson and that's as much as I know (and probably will ever need to know) about piling.

It wasn't completely known how deep the piles would have to be until the rig started drilling - in the end the deepest piles are 17 metres deep and shortest 11 metres - our house isn't going anywhere, I'm guessing if we had a landslide we'd still be sitting pretty in our house on stilts!!