Long term garage 'modification' - Recent update...

[Mr S]

Well, eff me, that was possibly the hardest day's work I've ever done. Me, my dad (who's 69!) and one of the concrete guys have shifted approximately 25 tonnes of concrete, and it sure as hell didn't go smoothly! lol

First of all, when the truck arrived (8am), it seemed to be a bit lopsided to the left when parked on my drive (see pic)

Turns out, there was a manhole cover under the front wheels and it's all collapsed now. Doh! So, we figured that we would empty the first 8 cubic metres of concrete into the trenches, then see if the lightened load would help it to get out. It didn't, but more of that in a minute.

All sodding morning, it absolutely hammered it down with rain, proper stair rods too!



Then the sun came out eventually which dried us off a bit, didn't make shifting the barrows any easier though.... lol

So, at about 10ish, when we'd shifted all the concrete, they tried to move the truck. It didn't work. So, I nipped round the nearby council yard and they very kindly popped round with a tractor to try and drag it out. That didn't work either. Then they got a mechanic to come round and jack the truck up to try and get it out. That didn't work. Eventually, he got his brother in law (I think.... lol) round who had a skip lorry, backed that up the drive, hooked it up to the front somehow and lifted and pulled at the same time, which finally freed the poor stricken truck!

Mmmmm, slanty!



Being recovered



Fair play to the driver though, that's a tight squeeze to get the thing down my drive!!

Anyway, when he'd refilled with aggregate and returned a while later (about 1 - 1:30ish), we only needed 2 more cubic metres of concrete, which was fortunate as we had to barrow them all the way up my drive (fits 4 big cars easily), plus the length of the new garage, so it was a fair way to push it!....

Anyway, enough writing, I'm tired and probably haven't made much sense, but here's a pic from the top floor, all concreted and levelish!



I'm a happy (tired) man this evening!

P.S. Just wanted to give a massive thumbs up to AAA Concrete (www.aaaconcrete.co.uk/) who supplied the concrete and much help and assistance throughout the day. They were barely more expensive than your basic readymix lorry who just comes and dumps the concrete out of a chute, so if anyone needs concrete, give them a shout!!

[bazzateer]

Don't tell the missus but if you dug out all the dirt from inside the concrete 'walls' you could have a swimming pool! Not that she'd want one instead of a garage of course!

[Mr S]

Hehe, you're at least the 3rd person in the last couple of days to say that! After the rain, I feared it might start to resemble one.... You have no idea how relieved and happy I am to have it filled now - no more landslides, woooohhhoooooo! lol

Anyone got a cement mixer for sale? I'm gonna need one for mixing my mortar soon.... lol

[messenjah]

yes but I'm in stevenage herts i actually know of someone throwing one out so he can get his mk2 escort in the garage if i had space i would have it lol. pm me if interested

[Mr S]

You have a PM ;D

[DutyFreeSaviour]

Good stuff - this one is a crackin shot...... he looks thoroughly pee'd off already - and reminds me of some old skool fisherman type dude. Fair play to him for mucking in.......

[Matty]

Nice garage!!! wish i had a garage full stop, never mind a MASSIVE thing like that's gonna be!! lucky guy!!

Can't wait to see more progress!

[guz]

got a petrol mixer you can borrow,
can probably sort delivery too if you want,
no stand with it but we aint found that a problem yet.

(recent respray !! )

[Mr S]

Guz, you are a top bloke!

However, at the rate I work, I'm probably going to need one for most of the summer - I wouldn't want to tie yours up for that long! (unless you've got no plans to use it for the rest of this year, in which case I'd love to borrow it and can collect it in my pickup!).

I'm taking a week or three off from the project at the minute, 'cos my elbow is a bit bolloxed, I'm letting the concrete cure for a bit before I build on it, and my Mrs has a load of jobs piled up for me to do lol

Cheers, Martin

[guz]

tbh it'll do us a favour having it out the
way for a while, i aint doing any cash-in-hand
jobs where i'll need it, i'm sure you'll look after it
so you're welcome to borrow it for summer and
like i've said before if you need another trowel hand
to get you started i can spare the odd evening, do me
good to keep my hand in.

[Mr S]

Brill mate, PM me with your number and I'll give you a bell - when's good to pick it up? Just got to empty the pickup bed of bricks and then I'm good to collect whenever

[guz]

probably easier to beg Bignut to
drop it off tbh, i don't get any phone
reception up the farm, which can be
a blessing if the missus is after me.
Bignut lives down the bottom of town
not far from Tescos.

[Mr S]

Paging bignut, you have a PM!

[guz]

typically he was up the workshop
in my absence earlier picking up a car
for delivery, might be the weekend now.

[Mr S]

That's cool Guz, I've pm'd him and he's going to grab it the next time he's passing. I've still got a load of excavating to do before I can do anything useful with it! lol

Cheers, Martin

[Mr S]

With a massive thanks to Guz and Bignut (Guz for loaning it to me and Bignut for collecting it), I'm now in posession of this beauty!



You've made my life a lot easier (and more importantly cheaper! lol), so massive thanks once again!

Digger and dumper are booked for next Thursday now, so hopefully that will see the earth that rises above the foundations in the middle will be removed ready for me to lay a course of blocks and then get the floor on. Then I'll be able to park stuff on it and pretend it's finished (and get an idea of the true size of it...!).

[guz]

happy to help, i've had Bignut busy
today, i got a ifor williams top for my caddy
dragged up from the smoke

[mrsbladerunner30]

May 8, 2008 19:04:31 GMT Mr S said:

so hopefully that will see the earth that rises above the foundations in the middle will be removed

Wow, that reads to me like the earth is going to be moving for me on Thursday! Woohoo!!
Don't tell Bladerunner but I'm a bit on the drunk side, been round my mates for a bottle of wine.
Erm, thanks for the cement mixer, that's gonna make my life easier, sure wasn't looking forward to mixing for him!

Night. :-)

[Mr S]

Another busy day in the world of muck shifting and site preparation!

Basically today we had to remove all the muck from the middle so that there would be a 6 inch or so void under the beam and block floor I will be using. So, we (me and 2002Gimp) start the day with a bit of levelling



9am



10am - that's how to get the muck shifted, followed by breakfast at the local greasy spoon.



10.45am



11:10am



12:10







13:00







14:20 and about done for the day, just a bit of sweeping up and shovelling round the edges to do.





From upstairs - it looks so much bigger now that all the earth has gone out of the middle!



And just for kicks, I figured I'd put the dumper, digger, pushbike, truck and 2002Gimp's Mazda in the shot to see if they would all fit in the garage! Bear in mind there was a good couple of foot of earth to the far side of the truck and the outer wall will be somewhere near the outer edge of the concrete footings, I reckon it's gonna be big enough



I'm a happy man again this evening!

Got to get some blocks ordered now, and the floor too, then we should be ready for some real progress! Although it might have to wait until payday! lol

[bazzateer]

Has payday arrived yet? Only it's been a week and I'm starting to get twitchy!