Get cracking Monday

Monday 1 July

Work is getting to stage where we need to get some concrete poured and get some more stone and bricks delivered, some of today was spent organising quotes for the supply of materials. One of the benefits of our cabin is that it provides space for this sort of job, it's more of the work that gets done in the background to keep the flow of materials coming in so that progress isn't held up.

Nigel finished removing the headers from the north wall of the up side of the culvert, the design has been done for the incorporation of the cess drain exit at this end. Alastair spent the day mixing mortar and cleaning bricks while Roger continued the rebuild of the down side north wall. Stuart tackled the job of removing the taper bricks from the invert at the inlet end, this area will be concreted after the gabion baskets have been installed. The recovered tapers will be used to rebuild the up side end of the brick arch. 

That about sums it up then, the weather was cooler and more comfortable for working. While talking about comfortable for working, it was noticed that there was quite a bit of sitting down on the job today 😉

Roger at his desk
(Photo: Alastair) 

Nigel perches on the wall
(Photo: Alastair) 

The starting point today looked like this:
  

Down side before work 

Up side first thing 

We had assumed that the brick channel didn't run back towards the fence, so it was a bit of surprise to find the invert under the bit of inlet pipe that was removed. The blue tapers are being recovered to use for the repair to the up side end of the brick arch. Some look to be beyond any useful recycling, but we should manage to get enough to finish the job. 

Taper bricks being removed
from the channel invert 

Down side, north wall starting to grow 

Roger and Alastair looking for a special brick 😊

The 'mix on site' concrete truck only has a 5 metre chute, our measurement shows that it's unlikely to reach the trench where the concrete needs to go. We may need to get a concrete pump in as well.   

Measuring for a concrete delivery 

Nigel removing up side headers 

Down side, some of the blue tapers
the reds might be left in place 

Up side, north wall new headers going on 

By the end of the day, the pile of bricks that need to go back on has grown somewhat. 

Up side end of day 

Down side end of day 

Here's the design for the up side end of the channel to incorporate the up side cess outflow that was mentioned earlier. It's just to show that it's not all pencil on the back of a dirty envelope 😉