Week 12 - Part 1 - Ground floor walls

Wow, what a busy few days! With the arrival of Bob the Builder (yes, he is called Bob), things have started moving at a real pace. Bob and his bricky mate Ryan finished off all of the plinth brickwork in about 5 hours. We reckon these guys are capable of laying a thousand bricks a day, which is probably typical of most brickies working as a 2+1 (2 brick layers and a labourer).

Bob might actually be Father Christmas doing odd jobs during the summer months...

The finished brick plinth.

With the arrival of labourer Andy (or Horse as Bob and Ryan call him), the team blasted through 2 meters of inner leaf in the first propper day. You're allowed to do this many courses of block all at once in Celcon because it's light enough not to squash out the wet mortar lower down.
This photo was taken at lunchtime on Monday, and by the end of the day they had made a start on the outer leaf dense blocks as well. Poor Andy get's worked like a dog trying to keep up with the other two amid constant banter and shouts for "MORE MUCK, MORE BLOCKS". It's all very entertaining.

By Tuesday the outer leafhas caught up. You can just see the Celotex insulation within the cavity. Decorative stone window cills are in and covered to protect them.

Also the internal walls are half way there.

Gaps in the outer leaf for the electricity and gas meter boxes. The builders use compressed concrete bricks for all the fiddly areas in the outer leaf, rather than messing around cutting blocks to size. They lay about 600 blocks in a pretty normal 9hour day which is exceptional, most 2+1s will lay between 300-400 a day. Despite the fact that these guys work quickly, the quality of their work and attention to detail is spot on - or Bob-on as we call it. They think through all the coursing and block lengths, so there's hardly any waste from cut blocks. They're also incredibly tidy and clean up thoroughly at the end of every day.

By half way through Wednesday the internal walls were complete, and Bob's team had run out of work to do until they can work off the scaffolding.
Looking from the kitchen towards the front of the house.

Wednesday evening the scaffolders erected the first 6foot lift. The site is getting very tight on space, and we have deliveries of floor joists and loads more materials in the next couple of days! It's tough keeping up with Bob!

Completed internal walls.