The work has finally started!
Bloody hell – 3 months late but it feels good. The builders started around 9 in the morning and worked till lunchtime, when they went off to find a replacement drill and didn’t come back! Jac wasn’t too keen on the noise and vibrations from the drilling but he got used to it after an hour or so.
To be fair to them, they’ve made some good progress and have finished the equivalent of the ground floor storey with insulation. They drill holding screws into the brick, with pads over the insulation boards which hold the boards in place. These are also supported on metal tray brackets which are also fixed to the wall. They’ll then apply a mesh over this then render onto that.
To be fair to them (again), I was convinced by the 3 guys. I went out there for 10 minutes to talk to them about the corner detail at the front. We have a gate there and also wanted the render set back from the front. As we were talking, the 1st one said that the rotten wooden frame (which was partially set into the wall) was drawing water into the wall, the 2nd said we had to be careful to leave enough space to get the wheelie bin through the space and the 3rd said we could always fix the gate to the other side of the opening to widen the gap! All very logical points and it showed they knew what they were on about. Earlier, one of them had also suggested putting the power cable through the cat flap instead of the door, to keep the heat in.
So, we’re setting the render back from the front by a brick depth, to keep the facade character independent of the render part. The work they’ve done so far looks solid. More progress soon (I hope).
out
b l o g . m a t t 