Laying the foundation

We woke up to a beautiful day on Monday 8th March (well it was still dark when we woke up!) but when we started work at 7.30 am it was sunny, cloudless but there was a bitter wind. We were eager to get on knowing that we were working to a strict time table to beat the weather.

One final check of the levels and we were underway. We used a "step strip foundation" system to overcome the slope of the ground. With the rains we had had deteriorating the initial bottom of the trenches we had to dig down another 10 cm to ensure the ground was solid. This meant in places we were pouring almost 1/2 metre deep of concrete.

As we had had the materials delivered to our courtyard the work was backbreaking! During the two and a half days of continuous moving, mixing and pouring I had moved 12 tonnes of sand and gravel 4 buckets at a time to the site and Tony had lifted, mixed, poured and damped down.

12 tonnes of materials 3 buckets at a time!

Finally, time for a long glass of wine at the end of 3 very long days!