Project Diary August 2016

Issue number two of my real time Project Diary. Make sure you have read the first issue to catch up on the background of the project.

The bore hole has been drilled and went down below ground 140 metres in the end!

The drill company drilled through dense clay and eventually found a soluble rock formation at approx. 100M. The idea is that they go through the rock seam and down below it to form a sump. Therefore in theory, the bore hole is always full of water to a depth of 100m down.

A uPVC liner is fed down the hole which is perforated from the rock depth down. The pipe is capped off in a “well head” concrete ring chamber where the surface water drainage system is fed via a silt trap chamber.

All had been calculated and designed by a Hydro Engineer, so an extreme weather water test (quite simply a huge container of water poured down the hole over a set period) was conducted.

Lid on the top with a manhole cover, backfilled and made pretty and voilà, all done.

Structural steelwork frame arrived yesterday for the barn/cookery school, and erecting work commenced which will take three days.

This is quite a complicated curved roof portal structure that has required extensive coordination at design stage with Structural engineer, timber frame manufacturer and steel manufacturer. The steels are all fabricated off site but brought together in component form, bolted together and erected with a crane on site. Since the steel columns are sat in pockets in the foundation and there is a specific relationship with the timber frame superstructure and footing, all has to be millimetre perfect. The timber frame is already in manufacture and is due to site next week, so again everyone has to be singing from the same sheet as far as dimensions are concerned. In the mean time we will have to erect the scaffold, which since we are using timber frame is erected entirely beforehand.

All of the steel is structural, so since it will be fully exposed within the building needs to be fireproofed with Intumescent paint to give 60 minutes protection.

Again, this has to be carefully coordinated with the steel and timber frame program so fire-proof sprayers are due on Monday.

As you can imagine, all of the above requires calm experienced programing and integration which is where my experience kicks in. It is tempting to introduce safe time buffers to ensure that all runs smoothly, but I created a program of works some time ago (with small allowances for any possible inclement weather), and see no reason for it to change.

Both the main house and barn are being heated by two Biomass pellet boilers which are sited in a plant room adjacent to the barn. An insulated heat main pipe duct then runs the 25M or so from the plant room to the house.

Since the works to the main house are at finishing stage and heating needs to be fired up, the boilers and their associated myriad of equipment are currently being installed. A room has been constructed alongside for the wood-pellet storage which will be delivered in bulk.

Elsewhere within the main farmhouse, the kitchen is being fitted and the finishing carpentry, plumbing and electrical items are well under way.

Now that the bore hole and sewer treatment plant are underground, general landscaping works have commenced.

As I said previously, a busy time on this site.