A bit of manual Labour
 

Thought I'd have a go at a bit of manual labour, to work off a few calories on the run up to Christmas.

Got the offer of a Conservatory at a good price, the downside was I needed to prepare for it's arrival at the onset of winter.

Never seriously laid a brick before in my life...but hey the internet's great.
Watched a few YouTube clips and thought how hard could it be......

Late September/Early October
A bit of digging out of the old Patio for some footings.
Lots of old concrete found underneath existing patio. Looked to be original patio groundwork, in some places about 6 inches thick
Smashed through to soil using heavy solid iron bar.
Wrists suffered a bit of RSI for the following weeks (should of hired a Kango).

Dug down approx 22 inches accross Patio and between 22 inches and 18 inches accross front lawn.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...T/IMG_0990.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...T/IMG_0988.jpg

Early October
Borrowed a mixer of RobEvo5 (thanks Rob) and spent a whole day shifting 2 Tonnes of Ballast, Mixing and pouring into trench accross front Lawn.
Couldn't beleive it took all day.

Following weekend, spent another whole day shiftng, mixing and pouring another 2 Tonnes into remaining stepped trenches.

Mid/Late October
Concrete footings set and started Block work upto Damp Course (Block work will be rendered over once complete).

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Early November
Hardcore Backfill
1 Tonne (50mm depth) of Building sand levelled and compacted
Waterproof Membrane
50mm Celotex Floor insulation
Waterproof Membrane
2 tonnes of 100mm Concrete Slab poured and levelled upto floor level

'WARNING' wet concrete burns if exposed too, for long periods.
I was mixing, pouring and leveling from 0830 until 1500, non stop. Getting wet from the concrete and also the drizzle.
Clothes and gloves got soaked and I ended up with alkaline/acid burns to hands and knee's.
This stopped all work for 1 week and very painful.

Mid November
Commenced Brickwork, matched too house. 8 courses required in Total
Commenced inner Block Wall/Cavity Wall
(pics to follow)

nice work, just dont forget to cover it all up, last thing you want is water flooding the footings, forecasts not good for the rest of the week,

Looks nice and tidy Scott:five:

Yep don't forget to cover, hessian and plastic with air space between:wink:

Is the pile of rubble going to be feature then? :whistle:

Thats staying and Scott going to make a replica Nurburgring track. :yeah:





Bet he hasnt told the Mrs yet though.:wife::whistle::whistle:

LOL....Rubble was put into hole between edge of old patio and lawn, and used to backfill. Turned out to be just the right amount to bring it up to 200mm below the damp course.

added 50mm of sand on top to level and protect waterproof membrane followed by 50mm Insulation and 100mm Concrete Slab.

Took today off as weather for the end of the week looks shocking....so cracked on and finished outer coarses of brick and the last 2 inner coarses.

Started at 0800, finished laying at 1500. Pointed up outer coarse as it started raining.

All covered up now and ready for the snow !!!!!!

1st thing this morning :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...T/IMG_0461.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...T/IMG_0462.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...T/IMG_0464.jpg

Last Photo of the day, before gets too dark.....just the final run along one edge onthe inner wall to complete the job (which was done after the photo).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...T/IMG_0465.jpg
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Job Done.
Total Cost in Materials £1200
Total Time 9 weeks, approx 1-1.5 days per week.

Very satisfied with result....just need to take down and re-assemble the neighbours Conservatory now !!!!!!!

Good bit of work again Scott:10:

Hope the dismanteling and re-assembling goes ok:nod: and the weather misses you:ok:

Cheers mate...only trouble is it shows up the dodgey brickwork on the house now.....noticed a couple of joints on the house that only have about a 1mm mortar gap.......!!!!! Never looked at it that close before.

We need a brick and flint wall built for our new conservatory in France,would you like to give us a price?????

Going back to my concrete studies an uni, ... Nah, let's not.
Basically, cement is made of clinker/calsfication of limestone...
Lime
It reminds me of that awesome scene in Fight Club when Edward Norton and the imaginary Brad Pit preface making soap...
Anyway, I guess that I am trying to make is: SH!T THAT SMARTS.
I'm not laughing. Honest.
Ouch.! But were you out of suncream?!
(Been there btw!) I sympathise.

Apologies for any implied racial or prejudicial inferrals.

No suncream but plenty of savlon and E45. 1st couple of days were the worst, thought I was going to have plenty of scars on my inner fingers, but they have healed up well quite quickly.

Looked a bit like this in-between most fingers on my right hand :
http://www.pavingexpert.com/images/concrete/burns01.jpg

After reading it is basically a high alkaline PH and Alkaline/Acid burn effect, I actually went to the pharmacy to see if they could provide some kind of PH Nutralising cream. WhenI mentioned how it occured the Pharmacy gave me a ......Concrete burns, what are you talking about look onhis face

When i was in the burns unit they had pictures of concrete burns ......... not good

silly question mode...

how did you get the same type/colour of bricks? they look identical.

Quite a common brick. Looking at bricks online doesn't help, so I just asked my neighbour who extended his conservatory last year.

They are LBC (London Brick Company) Tudor's : http://www.building-supplies-online....0pk-1353-p.asp

The only difference between the new bricks and the ones from the house (which i found under the patio) are they are stamped London Brick, instead of LBC.

Got all my materials from the above online and highly recommend there service.
Bricks were alot cheaper then local build centres, but all materials actually came from Travis Perkins :D:D

If you need a few Tone, I have some left.

Bl**dy he'll mate, those burns are very bad. I feel bad for making fun of it.