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.
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