It’s been a while since my last update. The past eight weeks have been extremely frustrating, although we’re relieved that we paused when we did.
Not long after the foundations were poured at the end of January, we invited some bricklayers round to quote for the next stage. One could start almost immediately, and we were pleased at the prospect of making progress. Even so, both Marina and I felt strongly prompted to wait a couple of weeks before starting the blockwork for the footings.
A problem with the structural design
While reviewing the drawings and calculations before ordering materials, I had a question about the compressive strength of the concrete blocks. I emailed the structural engineer for clarification, and he said he would look over the drawings again.
The structural design had been signed off in June 2020, and the building inspector had received the drawings and calculations in July. A few days after my email, the engineer clarified the block specification, and we began getting quotes.
Then, on a Saturday afternoon, he phoned in a panic to ask whether we had ordered the structural steel beams for the window and door openings. Fortunately, we hadn’t—we were still at foundation level.
In revisiting the calculations, he had discovered a serious error in the beam sizing. He needed to review the whole design before we could proceed. The revised design required additional vertical steel supports, known as windposts, fixed to the foundations and tied into the inner leaf of the cavity wall.
Waiting for the windposts
We asked the engineer to obtain quotes for the steelwork. The first company took four weeks to respond, and its quote was horribly expensive. We asked him to approach other manufacturers, which took another couple of weeks.
We’ve now received a quote at half the original price, placed the order and hope the windposts will arrive within the next couple of weeks.
It’s frustrating that we haven’t been able to move the build forward, but such a relief that we listened to those promptings to pause and contacted the engineer before starting the blockwork. Otherwise, we might have continued without knowing about the error in the calculations.
Making use of the time
While waiting, we’ve tackled jobs we had planned to do later. We dug a new seven-metre trench for an outside tap and drain, ordered the blocks for the footings and the floor insulation, and moved everything into the back garden.
Despite the delays, we’re still roughly where we expected to be by now. The cold weather would have slowed us down in any case.
We’ll now start the blockwork in preparation for the steelwork arriving. We’ve bought a cement mixer and plan to do the work ourselves, at least up to damp course level.
The pause also gave me time to almost finish the inside of the log cabin. It now has a double sofa bed, and we spent a couple of nights sleeping there with the kids over Easter!