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16th to 22nd February 2004

After last week this one was much more uneventful - just as I like it.

Monday and Tuesday saw final blockwork, reinforcement mesh installation and tidying up.  We also placed a fillet of waterproofing concentrate (Xypex) along the conctruction joints between the slab and the walls, along with a slurry coating of the concentrate in the cavities.  The aim of this is to ensure the bond between the Xypex treated slab and the Xypex concrete in the cavities bond well and produce a 100% waterproof joint.  A bit of a fiddle to get in but still easier than many of the other systems I've investigated.

Once this was done there was not a lot else to do as we're leaving the blocks to set until next Monday when we'll pump in 3 courses of concrete in the cavities - it may be a case of shutting the stable door but after last week we'll take no chances on the blocks being set nor in how much concrete we pour into the cavities at any one time.

We also got the invoice for the BCO inspections - this was higher then we expected and higher than NHBC would have charged - a couple of gentle phone calls later and the local authority agreed to charge us what NHBC would have charged - a nice result.

At the end of the week we had deliveries of sand, cement, 140mm blocks for internal walls and we spent some time setting out blocks to make laying on Monday as quick as possible.