We move on with the build without final drawings
We move on with the build, even though we don't have the exact drawings with measurements, only hand drawn ones produced by the architect.
Its two pieces of paper stuck together with sellotape. Not bad when you consider we have paid the architect over £6,000. The problem being that he farms his CAD drawing out a a lady who is now on holiday. Although why the details and measurements are not already included in the machine l do not know.
One outstanding job is to paint the steel. Three coats. It soon ran out, and we only had completed a third of the steel. Neil the fabricator came to our rescue and gave us two tins of what looks like Dessert Storm camouflage yellow. But it still does the same job. Another two 20L tins are on order.
Before we could get the solum in, we needed the gabion baskets. But we were let down by the local builders merchant Cowal. They should have been with us on Monday, but by Wednesday they phoned to say they would be a further two weeks. Cancelled and went to my original supplier, but had to pay £250 for a swift delivery. So it all worked out in the end. Sure l mentioned this in the last blog.
18th June - the first layer of steel has been put up by the fabricators and we have made up the Gabion baskets and started to fill them. It takes forever because the stone is mixed with dirt and small stones, which isn't conducive to a speedy fill. In fact its slow and very hard going.
22nd June
And Billy starts leveling the ground under the steel. The Solum, or cellar as we would call it. The smaller digger is lifted from section to section to enable this to be done. Then the damp proof membrane is fitted just prior to the concrete being delivered.
Once Billy has managed to get the area level we get prepared ready for the following day.
23rd June
Hire Stevie to assist tamp the earth down with the vibrator. Fortunately the concrete company, Bonnar have been able to organise a delivery in the afternoon. So its all go.
Lots of hard work, moving concrete around, raking and leveling, but the three of us manage. Judith, Stevie and myself humping the stuff around, whilst Billy transports it in his big digger. Swinging the load from the road to the site. He cant quite reach to the back, so he fills our barrow up and we man handle it into position. Its not too bad as its only 50mm thick.
We end up with 1/2 cube left over, so we finish of the pad for one of the uprights which was left due to a shortage previously.
We had to crack on with the gabions, so Billy moved everything nearer to the baskets.
What a mess, and so labour intensive.
Nevertheless, we did manage to use up all the stone. But we only did the 2m high baskets, which was quite sufficient for between the upper and lower sections.
Up to know we have used 127 ton of stone at £21 per ton. Nearly £3,000 plus vat. We have calculated that each 1m cube holds nearly two ton of stone.
Eventually complained and the owner came over to see the problem for himself. Agreed and we managed to get a 20% discount on all the stone we had purchased. So some compensation, but we still used more labour than necessary to fill the baskets.
Also have found that the 3mm wire isnt that strong, especially if the larger stones hit the centre wire or the edges, they just crumple. You also have to ensure that the edges are tied together securely, otherwise stones push out. Then you have to empty the basket to release the weight and re due. Fortunately it only happened once.
If wet and damp without wind you have to start seeing in green. Those little black dots have massive teeth.
Midges are tiny flying insects with a wingspan of only 2-3mm. There are over 35 different species of biting midge in Scotland, but it is Culicoides impunctatus, otherwise known as the Highland Midge that earns its place as Scotland’s most ferocious foe.
You’ll be an all-you-can-eat buffet for their miniature scissor-like jaws if you foolishly venture out in ‘midge weather’ without your insect repellent.
But fear not, the Scots are as inventive as they are hardy. After years of scientific research, Dr MacFurson come Parker, one of the world’s leading midge experts has found the answer and put it in a bottle. K-line-midge is the UK’s No. 1 midge repellent. Its only £45 a bottle and works on 2% of the population. Send your cheque to Philip Parker with a stamped address envelope for you bottle today.
Back to the build and away from the little buggers. Realistically they have only been a bother on a few occasions when its been damp and with a breeze.
Still finding it difficult to get up to date drawings with measurements. Weeks have gone by but still nothing. The CAD operator is back, but there is silence.
Eventually get the reason behind the silence. The measurements are out and none of the floors seem to line up. The architect advises me that they have been struggling to marry up the measurements, there seem to be discrepancies.
This is very worrying, as we are building the ground floor steel to settings out provided by the architect. PLUS we cant send anything to the kit home company, delaying the delivery.
Just another hiccup.
Even though we get on a ferry to reach Innellan, we don't need to, Argyll is not an island, its part of the mainland of Scotland.
But companies either charge a premium for delivering to you or they just will not deliver at all.
But there are anomalies. We find a timber merchant in Oban. 2 hours drive away, 80 miles on a twisty road. Yet they are cheaper than many big national companies only 5 miles away. But then again, they have to pay the ferry fare, which isn't cheap.
The steel merchant and many other suppliers come over every week and only add a few pence onto the cost. Screwfix deliver FOC, although it does take two days to reach us.
We received quotes for the concrete beams from two companies. But the first one doubled the price due to the engineers specification of doubled up beams.
So we moved to the Cambrian company.
Their quote seemed too good to be true. It was, they had the measurement wrong. So they recalculated. But it then doubled in price. Eventually managed to get the correct measurements sorted. Then they said we needed two deliveries, so the price shot up a further £600.
After a week of tooing and throwing we came to an agreement. They had found a cheaper haulier. Brilliant. He was also going to see if we could get the 10% back hander Jewsons were gong to get for doing nothing. But it didn't materialise.
He then emailed me a revised quote, but it was too cheap and it was not on their normal headed paper. Phoned the salesman up, but could not get hold of him. Kept getting messages to say he will get back to me.
Ultimately at 4.45 on Friday, they said he had left for the day.
On Monday, called to speak to the sales manager, only to be told he had left the company.
Back to square one. Started all again with a new person. But they turned it all around fairly quickly, although what was going to be £5k was now £7k. But we had added a complete floor. Although we also needed a further 800 blocks at the increased cost of 88p each. The 66p quote was over in Greenock. And they wanted £400 for delivering said items. ( did find another supplier in Oban who would sell them for 70p, but we needed to be able to accept an articulated lorry which we cant, only a trailer and drag and we also needed to have a pallet lifter to get them off, which we didn't)
On closer inspection we found that the company had not followed the engineers plan. Yet another call, only to be told that the engineers calculations were over engineered. Only problem, the engineer has to sign it off. So another five days pass by until the engineer agrees with the new calculations. In fact that's not totally true. He in fact accepts to transfer the responsibility to the manufacturer.
Then behold, the company change their mind and double up on the longest span.And the price goes up again.They also had removed the slip bricks. Fortunately, they rescinded and gave me the 180 FOC.
Met the driver on the seafront late in the evening whilst the wind blew a gale and the sea lashed the shore. He parked up for the evening and l agreed to collect him and show him up at 7am the following morning.
All goes well, but the journey up the hill was a little nerve racking, it was tight, and cars were parked indiscriminately on either side the steep slope. After a tentative climb and the odd wheel spin on the tight right hander he was ready to offload on site. This took four long and arduous hours.
The following week was managed in half the time, and he arrived in the afternoon, a day ahead of his expected delivery day. Some positives.
Its two pieces of paper stuck together with sellotape. Not bad when you consider we have paid the architect over £6,000. The problem being that he farms his CAD drawing out a a lady who is now on holiday. Although why the details and measurements are not already included in the machine l do not know.
One outstanding job is to paint the steel. Three coats. It soon ran out, and we only had completed a third of the steel. Neil the fabricator came to our rescue and gave us two tins of what looks like Dessert Storm camouflage yellow. But it still does the same job. Another two 20L tins are on order.
Before we could get the solum in, we needed the gabion baskets. But we were let down by the local builders merchant Cowal. They should have been with us on Monday, but by Wednesday they phoned to say they would be a further two weeks. Cancelled and went to my original supplier, but had to pay £250 for a swift delivery. So it all worked out in the end. Sure l mentioned this in the last blog.
And Billy starts leveling the ground under the steel. The Solum, or cellar as we would call it. The smaller digger is lifted from section to section to enable this to be done. Then the damp proof membrane is fitted just prior to the concrete being delivered.
 | ||
| poor quality gabion stone |
Once Billy has managed to get the area level we get prepared ready for the following day.
23rd June
Hire Stevie to assist tamp the earth down with the vibrator. Fortunately the concrete company, Bonnar have been able to organise a delivery in the afternoon. So its all go.
We end up with 1/2 cube left over, so we finish of the pad for one of the uprights which was left due to a shortage previously.
We had to crack on with the gabions, so Billy moved everything nearer to the baskets.
What a mess, and so labour intensive.
Nevertheless, we did manage to use up all the stone. But we only did the 2m high baskets, which was quite sufficient for between the upper and lower sections.
Up to know we have used 127 ton of stone at £21 per ton. Nearly £3,000 plus vat. We have calculated that each 1m cube holds nearly two ton of stone.
Eventually complained and the owner came over to see the problem for himself. Agreed and we managed to get a 20% discount on all the stone we had purchased. So some compensation, but we still used more labour than necessary to fill the baskets.
Also have found that the 3mm wire isnt that strong, especially if the larger stones hit the centre wire or the edges, they just crumple. You also have to ensure that the edges are tied together securely, otherwise stones push out. Then you have to empty the basket to release the weight and re due. Fortunately it only happened once.
If wet and damp without wind you have to start seeing in green. Those little black dots have massive teeth.
Midges are tiny flying insects with a wingspan of only 2-3mm. There are over 35 different species of biting midge in Scotland, but it is Culicoides impunctatus, otherwise known as the Highland Midge that earns its place as Scotland’s most ferocious foe.
You’ll be an all-you-can-eat buffet for their miniature scissor-like jaws if you foolishly venture out in ‘midge weather’ without your insect repellent.
But fear not, the Scots are as inventive as they are hardy. After years of scientific research, Dr MacFurson come Parker, one of the world’s leading midge experts has found the answer and put it in a bottle. K-line-midge is the UK’s No. 1 midge repellent. Its only £45 a bottle and works on 2% of the population. Send your cheque to Philip Parker with a stamped address envelope for you bottle today.
Back to the build and away from the little buggers. Realistically they have only been a bother on a few occasions when its been damp and with a breeze.
Still finding it difficult to get up to date drawings with measurements. Weeks have gone by but still nothing. The CAD operator is back, but there is silence.
Eventually get the reason behind the silence. The measurements are out and none of the floors seem to line up. The architect advises me that they have been struggling to marry up the measurements, there seem to be discrepancies.
This is very worrying, as we are building the ground floor steel to settings out provided by the architect. PLUS we cant send anything to the kit home company, delaying the delivery.
Just another hiccup.
Even though we get on a ferry to reach Innellan, we don't need to, Argyll is not an island, its part of the mainland of Scotland.
But companies either charge a premium for delivering to you or they just will not deliver at all.
But there are anomalies. We find a timber merchant in Oban. 2 hours drive away, 80 miles on a twisty road. Yet they are cheaper than many big national companies only 5 miles away. But then again, they have to pay the ferry fare, which isn't cheap.
The steel merchant and many other suppliers come over every week and only add a few pence onto the cost. Screwfix deliver FOC, although it does take two days to reach us.
We received quotes for the concrete beams from two companies. But the first one doubled the price due to the engineers specification of doubled up beams.
So we moved to the Cambrian company.
Their quote seemed too good to be true. It was, they had the measurement wrong. So they recalculated. But it then doubled in price. Eventually managed to get the correct measurements sorted. Then they said we needed two deliveries, so the price shot up a further £600.
After a week of tooing and throwing we came to an agreement. They had found a cheaper haulier. Brilliant. He was also going to see if we could get the 10% back hander Jewsons were gong to get for doing nothing. But it didn't materialise.
He then emailed me a revised quote, but it was too cheap and it was not on their normal headed paper. Phoned the salesman up, but could not get hold of him. Kept getting messages to say he will get back to me.
Ultimately at 4.45 on Friday, they said he had left for the day.
On Monday, called to speak to the sales manager, only to be told he had left the company.
Back to square one. Started all again with a new person. But they turned it all around fairly quickly, although what was going to be £5k was now £7k. But we had added a complete floor. Although we also needed a further 800 blocks at the increased cost of 88p each. The 66p quote was over in Greenock. And they wanted £400 for delivering said items. ( did find another supplier in Oban who would sell them for 70p, but we needed to be able to accept an articulated lorry which we cant, only a trailer and drag and we also needed to have a pallet lifter to get them off, which we didn't)
On closer inspection we found that the company had not followed the engineers plan. Yet another call, only to be told that the engineers calculations were over engineered. Only problem, the engineer has to sign it off. So another five days pass by until the engineer agrees with the new calculations. In fact that's not totally true. He in fact accepts to transfer the responsibility to the manufacturer.
Then behold, the company change their mind and double up on the longest span.And the price goes up again.They also had removed the slip bricks. Fortunately, they rescinded and gave me the 180 FOC.
Met the driver on the seafront late in the evening whilst the wind blew a gale and the sea lashed the shore. He parked up for the evening and l agreed to collect him and show him up at 7am the following morning.
All goes well, but the journey up the hill was a little nerve racking, it was tight, and cars were parked indiscriminately on either side the steep slope. After a tentative climb and the odd wheel spin on the tight right hander he was ready to offload on site. This took four long and arduous hours.
The following week was managed in half the time, and he arrived in the afternoon, a day ahead of his expected delivery day. Some positives.
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