Finishing foundations

Finishing the block work: We carried on where Ric left off in July. I learned how to lay blockwork and finished off all the short stretches. I was slow and messy, but the end result was quite acceptable. I used the level to get the inner-leaf heights right for finished slab level and used the angle grinder to cut the blocks. Once Ric was back up, we worked on the blockwork for the inner foundations, measuring up pretty accurately against the plans to make sure that they snaked exactly where they should – to support stairs and structural timber for roof trusses & garage.

More concreting: We needed to pour concrete around the blockwork to finish the foundations off. Those for windows have the two leaves of blockwork. We filled the gap with weak concrete (half the cement compared to the C35 foundation mix). For doors and windows, we then filled the inside edges to 30cm from finished slab level – they will directly support the slab. We filled the outside edges  of the door foundations to slightly below finished ground level, to support doorsteps.

Having got the short stretches done, we tackled the gable-end foundation. Deeper and wider than we wanted, because of the rough going digging it, it was a comparatively big job. We filled up to the level of the openings for drains. Once it had gone off, we blocked and lintelled the openings, then topped the concrete up to final level.

The internal foundations were fairly quick, just levelling up either side of the block work to the 30cm below finished slab level.

Finishing the foundations was a definite achievement – the first visible signs that we are heading upwards.

Foundation blockwork

We had to go back down south, leaving Ric to work on blockwork for the foundations. As a parting present we had lugged the blocks to where he would need them, we also bought a number of 100mm x 75mm concrete lintels that will cover the openings in the blockwork, for drains to leave the building.

He started on the gable-end foundation because it was the most complex. He sculpted enough blocks to lay either side of the field drain, removed the temporary guttering, laid a modern 110mm clay drain pipe and caulked it in place. He put gravel over the pipe, set lintels over the whole lot and then proceeded to lay outer & inner leaves of blockwork around the structure, along the trench, round the corner and to the other end of the trench. He left holes in the blockwork, with lintels at the base,  to make a channel to run two drain pipes through from what would be a bathroom. The upper surface of the opening had to wait until we started filling the gap between the blocks with the weak concrete.

He moved on to the front door foundation, drained the trench and laid a single leaf of blocks, again leaving a hole, with a single lintel above, where the drain from one of the upstairs en-suites would run out of the building. Then the foundation to what would be the main bathroom window, with a pipe running from the bathroom and the other upstairs en-suite. Being a window foundation, this was again two leaves of blockwork.

He worked on some of the smaller, simpler, trenches before he ran out of time and had to head back to Cornwall.