House foundation done.

There have been so much happening with the house that I have had no time writing on the blog. But here is a update on what is happening at the building site. 

The status yesterday evening looked like this (but cleaner when we left because Helenas parents helped us clean):

Groundwork is done and all the rough planing of the garden is done. The excavator has left the site and should be done. The edge elements are in place and the Styrofoam insulation is also in place. The reinforcement is going forward and should be done in the end of the week. All the plumbing that will be in the concrete slab is in place. So we are getting closer to order the concrete truck and pour the the concrete slab.

To get this far have we been forced to work on the site and help the builders. When we took the decision that we need a piled foundation for the house was there allot more than just put the  piles in the ground. The concrete slab needs to be much more reinforced and and have more reinforcement bars. Here is where the problem came. The company that usually makes the reinforcement cages for HM-house had to much to do. So it was up to the building team to make all the reinforcements and bend the reinforcement irons. I heard that this will cost us more money because it takes allot of time. So I and Helena and my dad set to work to bend 411 U-shaped frames and 225 V-shaped frames for hand. But we had the time and I am glad that I can help the builders and speed up the process. I am also glad that I do not have a gym-card because that would be a wast now. I get more then enough exercise from this work.

Step 1: Cut the reinforcement bar in 6 pieces.

Bend it to the right shape. Total of 4 bends/frame

10hours and 411 frames later 

I have also helped the excavator build the stone wall around the entrance and the car-parking. I am very pleased with the result. It shapes the entrance and we get a good surface for guests to park there cars. Here are some pictures.

The sewage system is also finished and put down in the ground. No I need to fill it with pup and see if it works properly. It not much that is visible after the builders have done there work. Then we will add some plants to hide the big white box.

Next thing that will happen is the big pour of concrete and that will take place in the beginning of next week and after that will they start to rise the outer walls and the roof. So if we are lucky will the outer frame be done before the summer vacation. But I do not believe that before I see it.

The House got legs

Hello all.

It has been a bit silent from my side for a few weeks, it has it´s reason. As you know have the built start going forward and the digging is on going. When the reached the depth for the house where there some problems. Every one you speak to about the soil condition and it it will be hard to get a solid ground said that it is mostly sand and it is dry. That is true for the first meter of soil is it nice coarse sand. But bellow that is is very fin grid sand that. So when they dug out roughly 1-1,5meters the saw this very fin sand. The sand it self is good material but when you mix it with water it becomes a liquid which is not good to place a house on.

So our option was to give the house legs that rest on the rock or the correct therm piles. This is a big change on the slab for the house it has to be reinforced and the piles need to be calculated for the correct position. I have to thank HM-hus and Svenning Ritkontor for there fast work with the drawings and planing. Also we need to get a guy  how can put the piles in the ground on short notice. Luckily did HM-hus have a good contact that help us out yesterday evening, thanks Pålbilen!

The biggest problem with piling is that you pay for the meter piles they put in to the ground. Our house is fairly complex and needed 30 piles which is allot. So it is 30piles x depth to rock => meter of piles. It is very hard to know how deep it is to the rock. I can be honest and say that this cause me some bad nights with little sleep. So yesterday was the big day when we would found out how deep it was to the rock. I think we can call our self lucky under the circumstances because it was an average of 7 meters.  I sleep well this night my worst fears was that it would be 20meters or more and that is allot of piles and the cost would fast grow. So now can the build continue again.

Here are some pictures of the piling work.

The diggers have also started with the sewer system. Because the house is on the country side is there no municipal sewers so we have our own small wast treatment system. It is to big cylinders that have some chemical flocking and a after chamber for reducing the remaining nitrogen. The water coming out of the plant will probably be cleaner then the water in the stream that we will release it in.

The big DIG has started

The ground contractors have started there work on the building site.  According to locals have they been there roughly 5 hours and already is the old house foundation removed and the car entrance is started. I am glad to see that the base material in the soil is nearly 100% sand + allot of big round rocks. it is only 15-20cm of dirt on top of the sand. This is good because they do not need to dig deeper and fill back with gravel for the new house foundation.

If you have looked at the future garden plans do you see that we have planed for a stone wall on one of the lots edges. Similar to this one:

We are planing to use the stones from the ground that is revealed when they dig out for the new foundation. So I stared moving stone after stone. I can tell that there is no need for any gym-card after this weekend. For a nice stone wall do you want big round stones so it will be heavy. But I think it will blend in nice with the current country side.

Off coarse did we take some pictures of the new hole. 

Before:

After 5 hours of digging with a 14ton´s excavator:

We will go to the building sight alot now and carry stones for the stonewall.