Bye Bye Building Site

No more noise, no more dust, no more heavy machinery and gallopita gallopita machines running through the night. It has been fascinating watching this site in action though. Part of me will miss it. Not the part that likes peace and quiet. Not the part that likes to sleep through the night. And not the part that objects to the clouds of dust and debris which meant keeping the windows closed.

So they defrosted the building site about a month ago...

It was slow going at first, a few men a couple of diggers...then they demolished the shed and built it again somewhere else on the site. We couldn't quite work out why but as the site came slowly back to life it became very obvious.

We move out in about 3 weeks, they are likely to have the first couple of floors poured by then at this rate.

Shed visible in the fading daylight to the right just before construction stopped

...and it's gone...the site wakes...

there it is rebuilt...

looks like more underground carparking

keep making that rebar construction girls

we are going to need it

foundations of the next block being laid

and for the carpark

rebar in place wooden frame fixed time for the concrete

and here it comes

from there

to there

Add caption

and start the rebar knitting for the next level

and so it grows

The building that is!

A couple of weeks ago the dug the foundations, and filled it full of water to level it, then marked the level with string, drained it and poured the concrete. Simple but effective I guess.

Then they began the rebar and wooden frame building.

This last week I've been trapped in the flat with the nastiest case of sinusitis so had plenty of time to watch the developments.

First empty the ice out of the water tank (that's it on the ground on the right) then fill the tank.

Check all the rebar stitching and polystyrene is in place and build a pipe line from the cement pump to the pour area.

Take a lunch time nap on the polystyrene in the sun.

Cover the entire area with a tarp framework and move in the heaters.

Seal it all up, turn on the heaters and bring in the cement trucks, now why they don't mix this on site I don't know, they mix some of the cement here.

What a great job, watching cement pour.

Then walk away and leave it. 

They needed the covers and the heaters.

It snowed, the first snow that settled at our level.

 Brrrr!

And then pull off all the wooden holding plates to reveal a solid concrete structure poured in one go!

That's got to meet UK building regs right?

Honestly it's becoming an obsession!

The building that keeps us up at night with its gallopidaa gallopidaa machines, the banging, the shouts, and the straining of huge diesel engines as earth movements continue through the night in an effort, we think, to complete the concrete part of the construction before it gets too cold to do pour anything liquid.
It continues to grow and the more we watch the less plausible it all seems.

the ladies tie the rebar construction by hand

polystyrene insulation in place the concrete hose is brought into place 

while the final sections of rebar are hand knitted on top of the polystyrene

It's definitely labour intensive. If they are pouring concrete low down then it seems to be made on site but if it needs hoisting up to the upper levels then the concrete arrives by the truck load.

But it would seem the best pouring time is at night. 

don't stand still for too long dude or you'll be there for all time 

keep moving! 

and then in the cold light of day it all quietens down again.

...and spends the next 2 days under blankets which get watered if it gets too dry. Not a problem today as hail fell.
But then they mess with your head by drawing crop circles in the dirt. Or is it really the design for the next layer of low level construction, quite literally drawn in (or with the) the sand.

thank the lord for gift of ear plugs! Can't wait for the cold to shut them down, assuming of course that shipment ever gets here and we get some clothes to keep out the cold.