Post by casesensitive on Mar 18, 2016 14:42:18 GMT
Those who follow my build may have heard me moan about losing access to my garage, so I took the step to go and build a permanent one that I won't get booted out of should the wrong family member pop their clogs (!).
Family owns a plot of off-grid land 60km from Dublin, and I got permission to build on it. Did up some designs, got some prices for groundworks, which were, to my mind, silly, so I thought I'd have a go myself.
The site is reasonably steeply sloped, and had a couple of dozen small trees that needed to be transplanted, so crucially, I lost the first half day I had my little digger and dumper simply moving or cutting down trees. Marked out my 9x7m area, got clearing and leveling.
It's harder than you'd imagine, particularly for an IT guy with no digger experience. My mates Mick (Graphic Designer, 0.5 day) and Rob (Programmer, 0.5 day) helped a bit too, but my goal of clearing, leveling, removing top soil, digging a drainage channel, laying hardcore and drainage stone in two days (in Winter) didn't pan out. Men came to take their toys back the following day, and I was left with more of a bomb crater than a set of foundations.
Rather than take another weekend at it, renting pricey gear again, I decided to hand over to the pros. Got a price, man arranged for a Monday, took time off work.
As anyone with experience will tell you, what happened between digging a hole in the ground, and a man (not) arriving to fill it with rocks, was pretty predictable..
This was what faced me when I arrived at 7am to show the lads around.
As it happens, they flaked on me anyway, making up some bull story about a van running over his ankle, A&E blah blah.
Fast forward a couple of weeks to Wed night last. I come down after work, armed with a dirty water pump from Lidl (€50), and 20m of 37.5mm flat hose and a really big light.
about half an hour later it's pitch!
I went at it till midnight, between the pump/hose getting clogged with mud and sticks. The best tip I googled while in dispair in the darkness was to place the pump on a flat brick or paving slab (which I had half a one of), and mind it carefully. I got best results by digging a hole for the slab to go in, so the pump would be lower than the surrounding mud. A few hours spent digging channels for the mud to flow into the drainage areas (I moved it a few times).
Now, if I can get my accident-prone slacker of a contracter to show up (does he hate money that badly he can blow work off so readily?), I'll have the foundations for my glorious shed!
Family owns a plot of off-grid land 60km from Dublin, and I got permission to build on it. Did up some designs, got some prices for groundworks, which were, to my mind, silly, so I thought I'd have a go myself.
The site is reasonably steeply sloped, and had a couple of dozen small trees that needed to be transplanted, so crucially, I lost the first half day I had my little digger and dumper simply moving or cutting down trees. Marked out my 9x7m area, got clearing and leveling.
It's harder than you'd imagine, particularly for an IT guy with no digger experience. My mates Mick (Graphic Designer, 0.5 day) and Rob (Programmer, 0.5 day) helped a bit too, but my goal of clearing, leveling, removing top soil, digging a drainage channel, laying hardcore and drainage stone in two days (in Winter) didn't pan out. Men came to take their toys back the following day, and I was left with more of a bomb crater than a set of foundations.
Rather than take another weekend at it, renting pricey gear again, I decided to hand over to the pros. Got a price, man arranged for a Monday, took time off work.
As anyone with experience will tell you, what happened between digging a hole in the ground, and a man (not) arriving to fill it with rocks, was pretty predictable..
This was what faced me when I arrived at 7am to show the lads around.
As it happens, they flaked on me anyway, making up some bull story about a van running over his ankle, A&E blah blah.
Fast forward a couple of weeks to Wed night last. I come down after work, armed with a dirty water pump from Lidl (€50), and 20m of 37.5mm flat hose and a really big light.
about half an hour later it's pitch!
I went at it till midnight, between the pump/hose getting clogged with mud and sticks. The best tip I googled while in dispair in the darkness was to place the pump on a flat brick or paving slab (which I had half a one of), and mind it carefully. I got best results by digging a hole for the slab to go in, so the pump would be lower than the surrounding mud. A few hours spent digging channels for the mud to flow into the drainage areas (I moved it a few times).
Now, if I can get my accident-prone slacker of a contracter to show up (does he hate money that badly he can blow work off so readily?), I'll have the foundations for my glorious shed!
