Day 1 - Builders On Site

We've been away for two weeks, but I've now decided on a company to carry out the groundworks and take me up to DPC. I did consider hiring someone with a digger to clear the site and dig the foundations which would have saved me a good amount of money but as we've already lost a lot of time and with family commitments I decided to give the entire groundworks to someone else. 

 This is a list of the tasks I'm expecting the contractor to have completed:
  • Demolition of all out buildings.
  • Demolition of utility and kitchen saving the bricks
  • Remove all waste
  • Dig footings 600mm wide and 1000mm deep. Remove spoil.
  • Dig oversite down to required level and remove spoil including internal breakfast and dining rooms and hallway. - Dining room doesn’t require digging as it has a suspended floor with a 650mm void.
  • Supply and lay concrete foundations
  • Supply and lay concrete blocks up to DPC
  • Supply and lay all internal drainage
  • Supply and lay all storm and foul drainage.
  • Replace existing drain runs with new plastic drains.
  • Supply and lay 150mm type 1 MOT, compacted.
  • Supply and lay 50mm sand blinding, compacted
  • Supply and lay 1200 gauge DPM
  • Supply and lay 100mm concrete slab leaving 170mm below finished floor level.
  • Underpin corner with 1 cubic metre where the steel post will be situated 
The demolition of the out-buildings was already done by myself.
The builders are on-site today starting to clear the site. Machinery arrived on Monday, but Tuesday was a washout so today is the first day of work.

Machinery on site

Within a couple of hours the remaining part of the garage and out buildings were removed and cleared. This is looking from the front of the house where the garage and side access stood.

Looking from the back of the house towards the front.


The utility room has been knocked down, you can see the water cylinder and wall hung boiler. The gas pipe has been capped and the meter removed.

This shows the view from the back of the house, the utility room and the toilet has been removed. One of the team has the job of trying to salvage the bricks.


Garden has become a temporary rubbish tip.

Location: United Kingdom

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