The bottom plate is finished!

Last Friday Herr Starke, from the company that lays the foundations, rang to say that they had taken longer than planned digging for the ice wall (see below) because the ground was so solid. The result will be additional costs :-( but the delay was only one working day. Anyway, here's how things progressed:

First of all we had the bottom plate finely plotted on the layer of split (marked by the wooden posts).

 

The picture two above shows that the excavation company had some additional work to do because they hadn't left enough room between the edge of the house and the slope.

The next step was the digging work for the ice wall (a 1 metre deep wall of concrete around the perimeter of the bottom plate) which was cast last Friday. Note layers of steel mesh and pipes ready to be laid for the plate.

And this is the ice wall:

Then today at 4pm "all hell broke loose", or so it seemed - a concrete pump and two lorries with concrete turned up all at the same time and work got started laying the concrete into the mould.

First of all the mould:

Then every wee boy's dream: big lorries!

 

Pouring the porridge...

 

 

Et Voilà! The finished product:

 

 

 

The next post will contain pictures from the factory where we will be going to see the house being "built".