The blocks arrived today, but it did not get off to a great start… The delivery driver refused to take the blocks around the back to the worksite, because he would have to drive across some grass and it had rained the night before. He also said that he would…
A number of different things have been achieved today. First of all, digger was back to level some of the spoil that was extracted from the pool. Now we have a height off the slab, we know the final patio level. We are probably going to put AstroTurf down next…
Taking advantage of a the good weather and the longer evening before the clocks go back, I prepared all of the plumbing which is to be buried when it comes to back filling. This is not all of the plumbing, as some of it will be above the natural ground…
Today I have removed the shuttering from the concreate slab, which has revealed a very nice crisp edge. I’ve done this to be able to remove some of the membrane, so water does not build up under the slab, without the possibility to drain and also to remove the wooden…
I am now back out in France again for a few weeks, with the aim to get the walls up to 1.6m in height. This will not be the finished height, but I need to pause at this level to pour the cement into the blocks and also create the…
We came down the following morning to check the slab and find that it has hardened sufficiently to go down for a closer inspection. Putting the laser level on points across the slab make me feel better about the exploits the previous day, as we are generally only 2-3mm out…
The day has finally arrived to pour the concrete slab and we went out early to check all the levels again. All appears to be fine and nothing has moved. Two pumps arrived on ahead of schedule and the drivers we both excellent and helpful. However, the self-placing (beton autoplaçant)…
Two more rows of L-Shaped rebar have been installed to accommodate the shallow end and slope. We have chosen to make single level slab for the main pool basin, which should allow us to make the block-work wall more easily than trying to create different levels, with slopes between them….
Ensuring a good connection between the slab and walls is critical for structural integrate. We have chosen to connect these two components together by 60x60cm L-Shaped 10mm reinforced steel bar (as seen in the foreground below). This has been laid at 25cm intervals all around the perimeter, which should result…
We bought a number of individual parts from various places, including the local DIY store (Bricomarche), to make up a pressure testing rig that we can use to test the connections on various plumbing parts. In the simplest of terms it is a hosepipe connector attached to a central heating…