Olof, from Sweden, had arrived to oversee insulation and the pouring and levelling of the slab—apparently this method of construction is far more common there than here. Ready for pouring the slab. The concrete pump returns.
Again a stream of concrete bowsers arrive (though not quite as readily this time, so there’s a certain amount of standing around). Using a length of drain pipe, blocked off with some polystyrene at each end, and attached to a broom handle, the surface is smoothed and levelled. These laser level gauges are magic. Later, when the concrete has set and after some rain, I find that the “worst” puddle is less than 5mm deep.
Christmas.
Klargester sewage system
They don’t take much time off and are back on the Wednesday. The piles of earth are smoothed out – but more holes are dug for the Klargester package sewage system (the main sewer is too far away to allow an economic connection) and all the external drainage for both foul water and rain water are dug all round the slab.
The garage foundations are dug while the digger is still on hire. These are, in almost everyone’s opinion, ridiculously deep. Do you really need 1.5 m foundations for a car? But it would seem that no structural engineer dares do anything else, in case it does, after all, move in some way. We now wait for the frame.
A few days peace.