On site had arrived various bits of kit for the house, particularly insulation for under the house, and large quantities of Stepoc hollow concrete blocks for the retaining walls from which the garage was to be built.
A bit of a stooshie arose with the Council who required the tree protective fencing moved to a position 12 x DBH [diam at breast height] of the TPO trees. Unfortunately the contractor had placed the fencing at a nearer distance that was less than the relevant BS, and taken out soil. These issues take a wee while to resolve, since officers are busy people, and difficult to gather together. So fencing was moved and securely fixed and soil replaced. The bureaucratic imperative was responded to and the revised fencing position was inspected and eventually approved.
Meantime, once we had resolved the Catch22 situation above, we set to to build the gabion wall, in order to support one of the TPO trees - actually a self seeded sycamore of considerable size - perched up 3m above ground level. 3 rows of gabions were wired up, tied together, filled with stones with the front face set: the base layer 2m deep x 1m x 1m on a bed of Type1 and tilted back at 7deg; the middle layer of 1.5m x 1m x 1m stepped back 100mm, and the top layer of 1m x 1m x 1m likewise.
And soon enough we were also perched 3m above ground level, after a week of hard work tying up the gabions with wire and filling them with stones.
Things were going up,it felt like we were really under way. However we were to go down again next, since once the site had been levelled and covered with Type1, trenches were excavated for the foundations, and in particular for the 'toes' to stop the walls from sliding away under any pressure from the supported earth.
These were lined with Radon proof sheet and filled with steel cages, prior to the pouring of concrete.
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