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.