Week 14 - Phase 2 Monday 31st May

  I looks like I might get Phase #2 completed this week, the Cobbles are due on Tuesday and if all goes well will the removal of all the concrete in the hole over Monday and Tuesday the filling and finishing of the Gabion should be pretty quick. With this in mind I've given some thought to the steps and how they might be made.

There's a few issues here. Do I use cheaper softwood or a hybrid Beech/Oak wood with an expected life of 15 years as opposed to 10 years for the softwood? For the edges of the steps (Railway sleepers)? 

Another issues of the stones on the side of the existing Gabion. I'm not sure if I've used enough to allow for a low profile 'Edge of the steps' wooden wall made of the sleepers?

Anyway that's something to think about and only came to the fore once I made this diagram below. I've also found a use for some of the concrete lying around the garden. This will sit under the Gabions to give them stability. 

It may be the case that once I start making the steps I'll change the design, but for the moment it makes sense. Here's the link for the sleepers 

https://www.sure-green.com/beech-sleeper-2.4m-100mm-200mm-hardwood.html

Monday 31st A long and dusty day in the 'Hell hole' trying to dig-out and break up concrete to make it ready for the Gabion. Other than that not a lot else. The only other significant thing was moving the clay that was at the bottom of the garden to the top and out of the way. I've made the blokes blade blunt so I've ordered a exact replacement that'll arrive on Saturday and one in the short term from Screwfix to use as soon as I can. With the blade being blunt, I wont be able to do a great deal tomorrow, so hopefully the Cobbles will turn up? 

This Phase 2 is proving to be the most difficult stage yet with loads of complications and concrete that needs specialist tools like this Big old Boy. Dusty horrible work as well - hence the outfit.

This is the most problematic lump that needs to go and I've spent most of the day trying to cut it out...

1st June and Summer is here - blazing hot. Allegedly the lorry should be delivering the cobbles today, but at the moment no sign. I've emailed the company with the tracking number to see if it's going to be delivered today. If  it's not I might go and have a butchers at the local builders yard and see what the what is with scaffold boards and railway sleepers and some other stuff - prices and what have you. Other than that a trip to the dump is another option and making up the Gabion. 

Whoops I got the dates wrong, it's tomorrow and it's all systems go for a delivery tomorrow, so today some tweaking I reckon and the construction of the Gabion. 

Not a lot done today, bit of a rest day. Assembled the Gabions using Cable ties to see if it would fit in the hole and it does with relative ease. I just need to take off more of the concrete from the lump below the plinth, I'm just waiting for the new disc for the cutter/grinder. 

It looks like the Cobbles will be here tomorrow, so if I manage to get the cutting done with a bit of luck the cobbles and rubble will all be done in one day and that'll clear up a lot of the rubble and stuff that is laying around and the whole place will be a lot tidier. Then it'll be the steps... Phase 3. 

Week 13 - Commencing 24th May (Phase 2).

 So, this week I'm hoping to dig out all of the dirt from under where the ramp was and get a look at that dodgy plinth and make a decision as to how I'm going to approach it. I've got a feeling that the wall that is under it, is going to be 5 foot plus which is a lot of brick work. That combined with the fact that all of the paving slabs will need to be removed at some point means it's looking increasingly like I may have to get another lorry in to remove all the waste and left overs? 

Thinking this through - Phase 3 is going to be the replacing of the steps, and then phase 4 the patio; which means all those massive slabs have got to go up the new steps which runs the risk of damaging the new steps so I need some way of getting them up the steps easily - possibly some kind of wheeled apparatus pulled up by rope?

24/5/21

Had some further thoughts on the patio area and the need for storage space and I'm now probably going to scrap the idea of the raised bed and do something like this instead (Scaffold boards perhaps)? http://germinategardens.com/portfolio/tennyson-point/ which is basically a seat/bench that doubles up as a storage chest.

No real activity today other than tidying up a little and throwing some of the plastic waste away. 

25/5/21

Warmer today, so was able to do 2.5 hours of digging, look at the comparison of the images. That took 2.5 hours! But, keep in mind that I'm sieving the earth and separating the bigger stones and rocks. Also, the top layer 8-12" is like rock and it's full of flint and rubble and I haven't got a pick-axe and I'm having to use a crow bar and club hammer to break it up and get a start on it. As usual the dirt comes out and doubles up in size as it goes in the bags and I'm running out of them, so I need to source more of the 1 tonne bags. 

The earth I've dug out today is indicating that the concrete plinth is actually sitting on a wall, so I might have a whole walls worth of rubble to get shot of, or somehow build the gabion around the wall, but that'll potentially compromise the gabions strength? 

26/5/21

Had an email today from the suppliers of the Scottish Cobbles saying that they couldn't deliver the stones because the depot was back-logged with deliveries and they have no idea when they'd be able to get them to me. They asked what I wanted to do and said they'd refund me if I wanted. I had a look around and found another company that claims to be able to deliver the stones for this Tuesday (Same days as the previous company), so I've ordered those and asked for a refund from the other company. The images below are where I'm at tonight...

(Above) I'm onto a 2nd bag of earth now, but I'm preferring putting it in these and containing them. If they have to be got rid of using a grabber lorry it'll be easier and more efficient I reckon.

(Below) this is the shady area which I reckon I'll be paving I reckon - possibly using concrete pavings slabs like those seen in the images.

Below - The image shows how many stones were left once we'd filled all the Gabions, so you can see it was pretty close.

Above - Tonight's progress, slowly getting the earth dug out, still not sure what I'm doing with the concrete plinth. I reckon somehow cut it off, so need to explore further how to cut the concrete. Below a close up, showing the progress.

27th May (Thursday)

Spring showed up at last, having been replaced by the awful weather we've had right through May. Warm and sunny today and it only got better once I got home. The main objective since the weekend has been to dig out the earth from under the ramp, so I cracked on with this one bucket at a time up the steps and tipping into the 2nd big bag.

Towards the end of the evening Ben suddenly informed me that he'd seen a Gabion left at the side of the road around the corner from us and then he showed me a picture of it and sure enough there was a 1 x 1 meter Gabion with one side missing just round the corner, so we went and had a look and then brought it back (See image below). 

As we got back to the house my Eastern European neighbor was locking his van up and he'd previously said that if I needed any tools he lend them to me. So, I asked if he had a cutter for concrete to cut the problematic plinth and he said 'Yeah sure'. I've spoken to him for years briefly and always said hello, so today was an opportunity to ask him his name and it's Valders (Hopefully spelled that correctly). He's lent me a big old cutter and the 110 volt box (See below), so now I've got a chance of cutting the plinth down.

28th (Friday) 

Had some help this evening from Ben, so got quite a bit done. The 2nd bag is now full and we needed a solution, so the bag with all the rubble in had to be emptied, so all the rubble which will go into the Phase 2 Gabion has been brought down to the bottom section of the garden freeing up the bag. So tonight I was able to dig the majority of the dirt out from the old ramp area and even remove one of the bricks see the image below. 

The next job is to take the wall down or come up with an alternative solution. I'm a little concerned about the stability of the fence if we remove the wall. I'm unsure if the wall is built into the side wall and will be problematic to dismantle. 

Saturday (Cricket)

Sunday 30th May

Busy day today... Spoke to my Neighbor Tony about the plinth on his side and it turns out he's still got the wall in place that supports it on his side meaning I could saw my plinth off (See images below). Using the big concrete cutter Valders lent me we made short work of the brick wall as well. But, once we started digging the dirt away a couple other issues cropped up. A massive lump of concrete under the plinth that sits in the way of inserting the Gabion and another bit underneath the concrete paving slab that was situated at the end of the ramp as you stepped off it. We used the concrete cutter to cut a piece of that off, but later realised that we should have cut more off, but that's no big deal and we'll do that tomorrow. The other piece of concrete is big and awkward though and needs to go as it compromises the structure of the main Gabion and wont allow it be put in place. There's a course of bricks also and more concrete at the base and back of the hole and these also need to go before we place the Gabion in and see if it fits.

This is the situation in the morning - wall in place, blue tarp on top of the paving slab that would be removed revealing the big lump of concrete. 

Here's the plinth cut off and it turns out having examined it, it's steel reinforced! The cutter made short work of it and I didn't even realise it was cutting through steel - perhaps the sparks might have given the game away?

This is the wall once it was removed revealing the earth behind it and the lump of concrete beneath what was left of the plinth. This needs to go as the main large Gabion has to sit beneath the plinth. 

This shot below shows the lump and above it the slab of concrete previously cut which was beneath the paving slab mentioned above. I need to remove the big lump below the plinth and saw another slither off the slab of rough concrete. At the bottom of the hole you can also see a course of bricks that need to come out as well. I think once that's all done the main Gabion might be able to fit in? The steps will need to be slightly narrower than previously 60cm wide down to 50cm wide.

The amount of earth and rubble coming out of this hole is ridiculous and we've filled up a new bag that was only started yesterday, but because of the amount of earth being removed I came up with a use for the cut off Gabion sections. This has allowed up to stack far more earth in a small area.

Currently I'm looking again at having a lorry come and remove all this earth, but stacking it all in these 1 tonne bags. I just need to leave gaps in between them so that the grabber can access and lift them easily. 

Notes

• Gabions steps? get 1 x 1mtr 4 or 5mm gabion sheets and form them into 8" x 8" gabion boxes, from what I can tell these are about £3.00 which sounds cheap? 
• I need to measure the floor area accurately to see if it's smaller than 19 square metres. 
• Nails out of the shady wall beam.
• Order the Juliet balcony or at least price it and check to see if it can be made cheaper than ordered?
• Decide the design of the steps. Pretty much settled on more gabions topped with 30cm deep steps made of the same material as the patio flooring. I also need to think about how the patio slab will be fixed to the Gabions so that it doesn't move around.

Week 12 - Commencing 16th May

PHASE #2 

Rain predicted for much of this week. The hope is by the weekend Ben and I will have dismantled the ramp. There's 2 massive beams (See below) marked (F)

These are going to be used to create raised beds, one at the top on the left hand side against the fence where I normally grow raspberries and Tayberries (c) and at (E) in the patio area. In this one I'm hoping to plant the Wisteria, Honeysuckle and Bourgainvilea. The dirt from under the ramp will be go in the raised beds and help level the lawn up and provide the top soil.

(A)

The Beams

(B)

Earth for

Top

soil 

Raised beds

Tomorrow if it's not raining while I'm at work I think Ben intends to unravel the Honeysuckle and try and save that to grow up the adjacent wall. We've still got a bag of small rubble and there's a fair bit of concrete that come out of this demolition and we've got 8 big paving slabs. We've also got the best part of a tonne of topsoil just to the right of this shot here that's ear-marked to level the grass off at some point.

Monday 17th - Nothing doing, rained all night Sunday and all day today, there's currently standing water on the clay area, everything is sodden. Idea contemplating using the big slabs and the slabs currently in the bottom area in the shady zone (A) to the right of the steps near the compost bin. 

Tuesday 18th - Sunnier today, but still loads of showers. Ben worked on the Honeysuckle and removed most of the fence part of the hand rail, but that's about it.

Wednesday 19th More sun than showers today and when I got home it was pretty dry so I did some work on the ramp...

First move was to crow bar the rest of the bars from the fence part of the ramp.

At this stage I was still trying to keep the Honeysuckle intact, but it was increasingly getting in the way and moved it onto the ramp. I then had a go at some of the slats to see how easy or difficult they'd be.

The top slat in this shot above was tricky because of the close proximity to the plastic of the double glazed doors, but with some fiddling and crow-baring I got it out and the rest will be easy? 

Then I decided the hand rail would come down as well so I sawed that off using a bow saw and I'll dismantle it tomorrow or some day soon.

Tomorrow if the weather is with me, I'll try and get all the slats off leaving just the massive beams to sort. Looking at the beams I can't see what it is that's holding them on the wall on the left hand side, so they may be a problem and it's these beams I'm using for the raised beds. 

The Honeysuckle was hacked back out of the way and that'll hopefully have its day next summer? No signs of any of the deliveries as yet, but that's giving me time research the patio slabs and how to prep that stage. 

20th May

Another crap day today weather-wise, grey cool, but thankfully no too much rain. The Gabions arrived when no-one was at home and the delivery company left them outside the house! They may have been there for a few hours, but thankfully no-one stole them! 

That's it, the ramp is no more. The next move that should happen is we get rid of some of the rubbish, because we can't move at the moment what with all the crap we've accumulated. The earth has got to come out now from under the ramp and I reckon I'll bag that up at the top. The top soil though I'll continue to put in the yellow bag seen in this image above. The other thing I should do is cut the massive beams down to the size they need to be and remove all the nails and put the wood into position. I need to borrow a mates circular saw to make the cutting easier, so I'll try and sort that tonight. 

Sunday 23/5/21 End of week 12.

Joe cutting off the nails and tidying up the other support beam that was a part of the ramps main structure. This is going to be a part of a raised bed at the base of the 'Sunny wall'. 

As I've done this and other people have looked at the situation some issues seem to be arising. This concrete plinth (A) is supported underneath by the breeze blocks you can see, but not only that it's a long plinth that goes through the wall and extends into my neighbors garden. Furthermore, the big beam (B) which I was hoping to take down and use elsewhere in the garden is bolted together with the neighbors beam on the other side and it appears to be an integral part of the fence, so has to stay.

So, at the moment I'm not sure how important the breeze blocks are in supporting the plinth or how far they go down? Potentially it's a 5' wall which means rubble trouble e.g. I'll have too much of it. Looking at the problem the plinth, will be inside the Gabion and will be hidden if everything works out okay. At the moment I'm thinking that we'll cut a hole in the Gabion and slide it over the plinth and then support it inside the plinth by a stack of bricks if that's needed, but it does pose a problem...

This image below show that I've spread the big concrete slabs out over the top part for the moment just to alleviate the mud issue.

The image below shows what I was doing most of the time - moving the earth/clay from under the ramp. The Topsoil is being sivved into the yellow bag for Phase 5 (The final phase).

Phase 2 is this Gabion I'm working on now; Phase 3 will be the removal and replacement of the steps; Phase 4 will be the patio stone and phase 5 the top part of the garden and the re-seeding of the grass/lawn. I suppose there may be a phase 6 with all the snagging? 

(Above) This is the 'Sunny wall' and you can see the beam which will make the 'Raised bed' edge. But Ben and Joe didn't quite cut enough off for it to fit in the gap yet. 

(Below) Everything's been moved back up to the shady end for the moment again.

The image below shows where the dirt that is currently coming out from under where the ramp was is going, this is being used to level the garden up prior to re-grassing it during phase 5. Once we have some nice weather and it dries up a bit I'll get the roller out and roll this flatter. The white bag on the right of the image is also being filled with clay and at the moment it's looking like I'm going to have excess dirt/clay which is an issue. 

The bag on the left is the excess clay bag and the one on the right is rubble and that's pretty full, but the majority of that will go in the Gabions once they're in place. 

All the wood that was in the garden is currently outside the back gate, I was hoping to take it to the municipal dump, but reading on-line they're taking of queues up to 2.5 hours long, so I'm going to leave that till the 1/2 term holiday. I reckon at that point I'll also chuck away a lot of the plant pots and stuff I've got clogging up the garden as well as the bins that I use as water butts as once this is all sorted there's no where for them to go anymore. The compost bin may also go!