Week 22: Phase 4 - first half of the week.

 Big decision today to change the direction of the slope of the slabs. Up till today, the decision was to have the slope towards the gabions, but considering the original slabs sloped the other way and the drainage pipe is over that side of the patio area, I'm sticking with the tried and tested method. So the levels had to be reset. I've had help from both Ben and Joe today at different times for different jobs.

Above the old slabs prior to cutting them up into 2'x 1' sections to enable getting them up to the top of the garden. For the moment they're outside the back gate, I'll put them on FB soon and see if someone wants them for hard core or something.

Ben helping with re-setting the batons used to set the levels, changing the slope bias from towards the gabions back to towards the house as the original slabs were configured.

Joe drove over to West Thurrock B&Q to get some Sandtex exterior paint and he made a start on paintin the walls while I continued with setting the levels for the MOT. 

Here if you look carefully you can see the string levels all in place. Along the line of the levels pegs have been banged into the stones/base and these have the pipe sections on top of them to prevent anyone kicking them. I've kicked one this morning while I was wearing my Crocs and I reckon I've broken my toe as it's black and painful. I've had it in ice this evening and taped the bad toe to the good toe with masking tape. I'll try and ice it at least twice a day as I want to play cricket at the weekend. 

Looking the other way with Joe painting the wall under the area where the ramp was. 

Now we're getting places. The Terram Geotextile is down and we're moving to getting the MOT type 1 down...

Joe putting down the first bucket of MOT. Joe suggested that we put a tarp over the gabions and threw the MOT down using shovels and that speeded up the process massively. 

With all three of us working, both bags of MOT were emptied by nightfall. We need at least another 2 bags possibly more, so I'll order those tomorrow. When they're delivered we'll have them placed directly in the patio area as the PGR lorry has a hiab crane that'll extend that far. So tomorrow it'll be compacting the MOT and we'll see how that works out and if it looks as though more than 2 bags are needed. The edge on the house side is a bit of an issue as I need to keep the MOT from going into the drainage edge. 

Tuesday Difficult day today. Overnight reflecting on what we'd done yesterday and having had a discussion about how much more MOT we'd need, estimates ran from 2 bags to 6 bags from Ben. Had I dug down too deep, did I need more than 2 more bags? Thinking about it more I realised that I did have some rocks that I need to get rid of and perhaps I could smash them up and integrate with the MOT? Then I remembered all the slabs that I cut up into halves and thirds that I had outside the back gate... Could I smash those up and use those? The answer was yes, but how frustrating that I'd spent time cutting them with the disc cutter and carried them all up to the top when they could have stayed in situ? To make it worse once Ben came out and I told him what I was about to do he then said that Joe and he had already suggested that idea and I'd ignored them. In my defense I had now idea how far the MOT would go, but now it's down that would have been a good idea. So today I'm bringing the slabs down, moving some of the MOT aside - putting the slab where the MOT was and then smashing it up...

Then smash up with the sledge hammer and then cover again with the MOT.

I had to look on the web to find out how to start and use the Whacker plate, seemed a bit tricky what with having to work around the depth markers. Having gone over the MOT a bit, I reckon I need another 2 bags of MOT. I'm going to order one tomorrow which hopefully will be delivered on Thursday. So today I've completely cleared the patio area ready to go over the MOT properly tomorrow.

I've almost used all of the concrete slabs and resolved the edge of the MOT issue I was concerned about as you can see above. I spent an hour cutting the slivers of concrete which will now contain the MOT and stop it from going into the drainage area along the wall. By the end of the day I'd filled the drain with the spare cobbles I've got, so I'll post a picture lower down in the Wednesday post. 

The rest of the day I spent clearing the top area up and watering the plants as they were looking a bit dry. 

Main job tomorrow will to re-check the level pegs. I feel like the best thing to do would be to remove them to work with the whacker plate. I reckon I might do that and do something different to indicate the height to work to perhaps bits of concrete sunk into the MOT to show the level required? Sounds like a feasible plan.

The whacker plate. 

Thursday - Quiet today, no deliveries till tomorrow morning (Early), so some tweaking and tidying, getting stuff that we don't need or have used in the garage. The other thing Ben did was smash the pallets up for fire wood for when we get the fire pit going. This feels like a proper building site now -where the whole place looks like chaos and then suddenly it all comes together. I'm hoping this coming week we'll see this happening? 

The starting point shot from the back wall.

A few hours later and it's looking a lot tidier and organised. 

Shot from the upstairs window after the tidy up. The Yellow bag at the bottom in the patio area is where I want the bloke to drop the next bag of MOT. I'm hoping that his Hiab will reach right over there. If I can I'll get a shot of it happening. I've ordered another bag which'll arrive on Monday. 

Week 21: Phase 4, second half of the week.

Looking to get the bottom digging and clearing finished and be working with the MOT by this Sunday. Let's see how it goes...

Here's Wednesday (22nd) progress. Another hot day, but good for drying out the pebbles. Too hot to work without the tarp up, so that went up and we got on with it. 

The final shot of the day. All that needs to be done tomorrow is the stones that you can see on the concrete slabs dried out and sieved and then shovelled into the nearest section at the bottom of the image.

Then the slabs will be removed and all the levels established using string lines and pegs.

We'll also put in 3 drainage pipes draining from right to left and then get the compactor and compact the stones before possibly laying the Geotextile fabric and possibly start putting the MOT Type one down, but that's being super optimistic. What we need to keep in mind is the fact that it's probably going to rain on Saturday and Sunday, so the more we can get done the better. 

Thursday/Friday - 

Saturday - Cricket today (We came 2nd) I bowled pretty well though with a wicket off a Leg Break. In the little bit of time during the evening I bought some wood and nailed one of the level markers to 'Marks wall', so if it doesn't rain tomorrow I'll get that done and then it'll be leveling and MOT time!

Over the latter part of the week we laid three pipes to help drain the water away from the gabions towards the 'Land drain', which has always worked well. Having put up the first of the wooden battons for the levels I've realised I've done that potentially wrong with insufficient angles to facilitate draining. I'm even contemplating the direction of the slope. General theory has it that you drain away from the house, but our house has the drainage designed to work best right next to the house with the land drain and the pipe I've photographed in the earlier blogs. 

I've now realised that I didn't dig the clay out enough when I set the gabions and at the minute when the slabs are laid - especially if the slope is lowest at the gabions draining away from the house, the clay bed the gabions are set on will be visible. So, now I'm thinking - make use of the land drain and have the higher side of the slabs on the gabion side? It's something to think about. 

Perhaps not... Sunday was spent cleaning up cat s**t from the pebbles as it seems they've designated it as a latrine. Then I had to cut up all the big paving slabs so that I could get them up the top. I then had to smash up the 3 pallets outside the back gate to make space for the concrete slabs. Other things done Sunday included getting a Karcher and starting to wash the walls before painting them. 

Week 21: Phase 4: 1st half of the week.

 This week I've got Ben helping, so a lot was done yesterday and today. The start of the day looked like this...

The plan was to get all of the stone out, cleaned and put back in to the middle section today, but with it being 29-30c in the shade, down here in the this sun trap surrounded by white walls the temperature was probably 40 plus. We made a start but it was mental, so I had to come up with a cunning plan...

I put a tarp up and this made it possible to work, so we cracked on with plenty of drinks and breaks. You can see in this image above the middle third that we were focused on. The black bucket is the bit that's been dug out with the stones moved to the area at the bottom of the image where they're dried and sieved before being piled up at back of the picture to be put back in the hole cleaned once it's dug out. The gravel you see in the image to the right of the bucket was really mixed with clay and it took ages to dig out and work with. 

In this shot you can see the pipe which is a part of the existing drainage system. This section of the pipe had holes in it and this pipe runs along the back of all the houses in our terrace and the water drains away in the direction of the wall into the next garden to the end of the terrace. 

Above; Ben sieving the stones and filling the middle section to the left of him. 

This is an end of day shot for Monday. All the dirt in the foreground in section 1 and 2 is the wetter clagged up stones that have come out of section 2 which is what we were working on today. These are laid out on the old paving slabs ready to dry tomorrow which'll enable easier cleaning and sieving. Then they'll be put in section 2 and the paving slabs will be removed.

The focus tomorrow will be to take all the stuff in the background away, either throwing it out or putting it in to the garage and then remove the final slabs and cleanse the stones before putting back into the 3rd section. 

Once that's done it'll be ready for 2 or 3 drainage pipes and the Geotextile down ready for the MOT. At the moment we're ahead of schedule.

You may have also noted the big bag of top soil has gone. That was taken up to the top. It looks like we might have too much!

Tuesday - Not many images today as we cracked on with it aware that it was going to rain in the afternoon and through the evening potentially. By midday, the dark earth above had dried out and was easily sieved...

All the stones cleansed and in their place less the mud and clay. The slabs are mostly up and we've moved all the tat that was up that end of the patio area. The rain did come suddenly and was biblical, I've never seen rain like it with hailstone clattering on the windows of our roof. But we did make decent progress and it allowed us to see how well the water drained away and it seemed to be okay. It collected to an extent on the gabion side, but then drained away over a few hours. I think I will need to have a feeder pipe or two that run from the gabion side to the drain side, so that might be something we do either tomorrow or Thursday. 

A lot more had been done than the images above suggest, so I'll do some more pictures tomorrow morning. 

Wednesday: Warm again 29-30c in the shade, down here in the sun trap 40 plus. 

The stones dried out okay over the day and we've pretty much dug out all the pure clay leaving the mixed clay and stone bit under the buckets in the image to be dug out and separated tomorrow. Then hopefully we'll move all of the old paving slabs and set the level of the pebbles raking it so that it's even and level ready for the MOT. Again what with this being a first time experience and learning on the job, I'm not sure whether we've dug too low and I'm going to end up having to order more MOT to get it up to the correct level. Things I need to do soon...

(1). Buy some pipe for drainage x 3 and bury in the stones. 

(2). Put in the leveling pegs and set the string lines accurately 

(3). Rake the pebbles so they're at the correct level and even. 

(3). Lay out the Geotextile fabric and figure out how much more I need to buy as I know I haven't got enough.

Then it'll be MOT time!

Week 20: Phase 4. 2nd half of week

 First session...

Wasn't sure about what to do about the pebbles initially after speaking to the bloke at the cricket club, but decided for this section which constitutes a 3rd of the space I'd carry on sieving the clay and dirt out of the pebbles. Then I thought - what would happen if I walked over the pebbles and twisted the pebbles underfoot - surely that would help rub all the dirt off the stones? So I gave it a go and lo and behold it worked a million times better than sieving. Combined with the fact that it's dry and warm, the dirt rubbed off easy leaving on a few shakes of the sieve before getting the stones on the sub base!

Thinking about the trench I dug last night on the Gabion side, I decided rather than pay money for gabions and the like I'd just fill it with stones, so that's what I've done - mainly because of the discussion with the bloke (Paul) at the cricket club and his question about whether it had previously flooded down there? 

This is pretty much how I've ended up after the first session before dinner. The drainage gully up against the gabions filled with stones and more stones in the prepped area, all of the stones that had been previously dug out de-dirted and put back. The dirt that came off them saved for the grass area at the top.

Below the progress up to tea time. The patio area I'm looking at in terms of being three sections, so this is the 2nd section being worked on now. All the concrete paving slabs taken up and placed in the first section out of the way. The first section will now be used as a storage area. As well as moving the slabs I've moved stuff into the garage and had a tidy up generally.

Above the view looking towards 'Tony's'. Below as it wont be too long now before I need to get working on the 3rd and final part of the patio (Far end in this image) I need to start throwing stuff away. Or, using it e.g. the 1 tonne bag of topsoil, so I've made a start (Below) of transferring the topsoil up to the top part of the garden which will eventually be grassed...

At the moment the topsoil is being put around all the tat that's up the top part of the garden. I realistically need to have a tidy up and a move around in order that I can get more of the topsoil up there. I also need to think about some of the plants and where they're going. 

The last session (After tea) Made a start on digging the clay out. What you see here equates to 6 barrows of clay. Once this first layer has been dug out another slightly lower layer needs to be dug out as well! I reckon if I get help from Ben and or Joe all of the digging might be done within the next 10 days, meaning we could be laying the patio by July 25th - so possibly the patio might be done by August? 

Week 20: Phase 4 - The Patio. First half of the week.

 This is the bit I'm a little nervous about, but to be honest not knowing what I'm doing each phase has been a bit worrying. I've done a lot of research on what not to do and how to do it, so with a bit of luck it should go OK? But I've basically got to dig a load of clay out and get the area to a certain depth below the damp proof course and then fill it with MOT and lay the tiles. Let's see how it goes...

Over the last week I realised because of all the rain there was an issue with water collecting at point where the patio meets the gabions and I've dug a trench with the idea that this may help, but with just one nights worth of rain look what has happened and over the period of a day this water didn't disappear. I may have made the situation worse by putting a tarp over the whole area directing the water to the gully rather than allowing it to permeate into the whole area. I still think I need to make a fairly big drain though of some sort to collect the water.

I've looked at a bunch of different methods now and that's concerned me further. Now I'm thinking that perhaps I should be channeling the water back towards the house to make use of the existing drainage system? It's raining again tonight, so it'll be interesting to see how much rain collects in the gully.

For the moment I'm thinking I'll make a system similar to what I had planned previously using gabion cages filled with rock, but now I'm going to have 3 pipes that will direct the water back to the original drainage soak-away system that was installed when the houses were built in the 1970's. 

Monday and Tuesday. Strewth. This bit is hard, dull and slow. I had a plan to dig out about a square yard a day and I've just about done it. I'm probably making it harder for myself for the following reasons.

Tuesday: Working with the levels and putting back the stones once they've been sieved today. The sieving is tedious and slow. I'm pleased with the use of the pegs and setting the levels as it means as I put the stones in I'm able to see how consistent the levels are. I'm not sure how deep I should go with the stones, but I need to keep in mind that they're going to be compacted and a bloke at the cricket club - Paul Singleton mentioned the fact that the bed doesn't have to be that amazing as it's only going to be walked on and wont be subjected to any real weight. so that's something to keep in mind. He also said that it's not necessary to go as far as I am with the sieving of the dirt.