The Picture History

East aspect prior to the start of work but with windows and doors already removed.

Montage of west aspect prior to the start of work

To accommodate the garage contents a temporary garage was ordered.

DAY 1 Wednesday 5th January 2005

The builders arrive on site before 8am and soon start demolition

By Lunchtime the roof and east wall are removed

Soon the internal walls are removed and the old air-raid shelter exposed

The following morning the previous days work can clearly be seen stacked on the garage area. This allowed jack hammers and acetylene cutters to be used to remove the remains of the air raid shelter.

DAY 2 Thursday 6th January 2005

A succession of large lorries allowed the majority of the site to be cleared and levels for sub floors established.

And work on digging out the foundation trenches could begin.

DAY 3 Friday 7th January 2005

By the end of day 3 the trenches for the new foundations were completed. However gales and heavy rain took their toll and the trenches were flooded.

DAY 4 Monday 10th January 2005

Application of a pump and some baling and the water problem was solved allowing the concrete to footing to be poured by mid morning..

DAY 5 Tuesday 11th January 2005

With the concrete set the foundations could be laid out ready for delivery of the blocks.

DAYs 6-8 Wednesday 12th to Friday 14th January 2005

The delivery lorry for the blocks was delayed as more high winds had closed the Forth Bridge necessitating a detour. With more blocks on site the foundations could be built up above final floor level. With floor levels confirmed and a mini JCB levels were set and  with 20 tons of hardcore being delivered on Thursday the sub floors could be established.

DAY 9 Monday 17th January

The day was drainage day and the mini JCB started digging out for rainwater and sewage drainage. The back yard now looked like a World War One battlefield. progress was not helped when one of our existing waterpipes was dug through.

DAY 10 Tuesday 18th January

A bit of Scottish weather stopped work for the day.

DAY 11 Wednesday 19th January

With concrete due for delivery on Thursday work concentrated on the subfloors which were compacted and finished with a layer of sand. Deliveries of steel mesh and insulation slab arrived for Thursday.

DAY 12 Thursday 20th January

Firstly levels were checked

Then the dampproof membrane and insulation were laid

Then it was wellies on for the concrete pour

Then once levelled it was lunch time and the concrete could start to cure....

DAY 13 Friday 21st January

Yesterdays concrete had hardened and the shuttering was removed ready for the second days concrete pour which completed the utility area and the garage.

The ground anchors were located and the shuttering for the bike lift pit constructed.

The onsite mix concrete mixing lorry arrived and started to generate the 8cubic metres of concrete necessary for the job. A dumper truck was hired for the day to transport the material to the building.

With concrete being generated it was all hands to the job to get everything in place.

DAY 13.5 Saturday 22nd January

An early morning visit by Stuart and Stevie found the concrete at just the correct consistency to be skimmed.

DAY 14 Monday 24th January

A big day - the rainwater and foul drains were signed off by the building inspector. This allowed all the drainage trenches to be backfilled and the site levelled. {No longer did it look like a scene from World War 1).

DAY 15 Tuesday 25th January

With level ground and some more fair weather the walls continued to rise.

DAYs 16 & 17 Wednesday  26th & Thursday 27th January

More good weather permitted good progress which was hampered only by the absence of scaffolding which was due for delivery on Wednesday but still had not arrived by the end of Thursday. Problems at the steel fabricator had also delayed the steelwork delivery to Saturday.

DAY 18 Friday 28th January

With still no scaffolding delivered a full day was lost.

DAY 18.5 Saturday 29th January

Finally the scaffolders are on site and start erecting the scaffolding.

And Ewen's steel fabricators arrived with the heavy steelwork.

Who put that scaffold in the way?????

And with the drains now completed we could start re-building the shrubbery.

DAYs  19 & 20 Monday 31st January and Tuesday 1st February

Four weeks into the job and the new west wall was nearing completion with the garage lintels and internal steel beam in place. This allowed attention to be turned to re-building the east wall section which had been damaged during the demolitions and increasing the height of the door opening.

The Velux windows arrived on site along with a skip for the rubble from the wall re-build.

 

 

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