House not in the right spot

I was thrilled to receive a phone call from my concreters on Tuesday advising me that they had drilled and poured the piers that day. The concrete piers had to go down to the reddish coloured subsoil. The concreters had encountered some unusual metal and other rubbish in the location of the old swimming pool, but the piers have gone down to the subsoil beneath. They then started on the set out and formwork. My concreteres called me about an issue with the house set out not matching the plan and I gave then the surveyors details so they could contact the surveyors directly. Wednesday and Thursday my plumber came in and put in all the waste pipes that will go under the slab.

Plumbing in

I was on site late Thursday and was woken Friday morning around 7.30am by the concreters arriving. Before I had a chance to have breakfast I was struggling with issues of part of the set out of the house being incorrect and the front section of the house having to be moved 20cm away from the boundary and 20cm towards the front of the block. The problem with the peg having to be being moved to match up with the rest of the house, was that it was the one spot from which I had located the whole house on the block. This was very annoying as I had spent many hours working on the plans and carefully locating the house on the block and designing it within the set back requirements.

On site first thing Friday morning

 After the surveyors pegged out the house I was sent an original drawing showing the locations of the pegs and the set offs for the house. But I was contacted by the surveyors before I even received that drawing to be advised to ignore it as it was incorrect. I was then e-mailed and posted what the surveyors told me was the correct drawing. A day later while the excavator was on site the surveyors came out to check the survey again. In retrospect I wonder if they thought something was wrong, because even after all this the surveyors still got it wrong. At least my concreters could do their maths and got it right.   

The problem was that the piers had been done for the whole house based on the peg out done by the surveyors which was incorrect. The front section was pegged out in the right spot but the middle and back sections were incorrect. However, after all the piers were done it was less difficulty and expense to move the smaller front section rather than the larger middle and back sections of the house.

I designed the house to go the whole way across the block to make best use of solar access, so I was worried that by moving the house in one direction, the setbacks would be too close in another direction. Some further measuring and checking on the computer CAD drawings showed that this was, thankfully, not the case and I could calm down and have some breakfast.

The change to the location of the front section of the house meant that more piers had to be bored and concreted, meaning further cost to me after paying for surveyors to peg out the house, which they did incorrectly.

Filling with concrete

Pier holes bored

The concreters then continued putting up the formwork, which was now checked and double checked and as I had the CAD drawings of the house on my on computer I was able to give them accurate dimensions to check diagonals across the different sections of the house.

Even in May I still had an afternoon swim at the beach. Refreshing after a day of moving more timber.

Culburra Beach late afternoon in May

Saturday morning I carefully checked the house formwork dimensions. The concreters were very accurate, mostly to the millimetre. Impressive given that it was all done with stakes and timber, and a relief given the earlier set out issues. At least the house will be correctly set out within itself, even if it in a slightly different spot on the block to where it was intended. Next week the concrete pour.

Formwork from the front of the block

And formwork from the back of the block

Preparation, Excavation and a Semi load of timber

Tuesday the surveyor pegged out the building. A slightly more difficult job than normal due to the odd shape of the building.

Friday the excavator arrived and began to cut and level the building site. Unfortunately he could not finish Friday as some large tree roots were found that needed a larger machine to remove them. Hopefully he will be able to finish on Monday. Another unfortunate surprise was the concrete foundations for a wall around the old pool. The excavator easily removed them, but they now need to be disposed of.

Removing the grass

Unexpected concrete

Checking the levels

Almost done

 Tuesday afternoon also saw a semi trailer load of recycled timber arrive. It was unloaded in my absence so I got quite a shock when I saw it. I bought the timber on e-bay for $10 (transport cost an extra $120) as I wanted the OSB for formwork for my hemp masonry walls and a little bit of pine would also be useful for forming up the walls. But I think I have more pine than I need. At least I am making good use of a product that would otherwise be thrown out.

A semi load of timber

A lot of timber

I asked them to unload it at the back of the block, near the garage but away from the survey pegs. Unfortunately I arrived on site Thursday night and saw one of the pegs surrounded by timber. I started work moving, sorting and stacking the timber, working to 10pm and starting again the following morning at 6.30am. Working throughout the day I moved enough timber to access the, previously surrounded, peg and allow the excavator to clear and cut the site. By half way through Saturday I had moved about 1/3 of the timber.

Before

After

Stacked pine

Stacked OSB