Pipes are in the ground (almost)

The channel is about 25m long

Today, Stefan (from Moosburg) arrived at about 10:30 with a digger. It wasn't a typical "mini-digger" - it was the next size up. It turned out to be exactly the right machine for the job. The job was to dig the channel between both houses (Harting 8 and Harting 10) - basically across the yard. The heating pipe and the empty pipe to carry network and electric cables were due to be dropped into the channel.

By about 13:30 the channel was finished. Uli and I had already bored a hole in the wall under Harting 8 so the pipes could go through the wall/foundation and up to where they are needed. We were relatively lucky that there was a hole in the foundation - else we would have been kept busy for much longer. We managed to get the pipes in with a lot of pulling and shoving - the heating pipe was extremely stiff and so it was hard to bend it around corners.

By about 17:00, Stefan had filled most of the channel back in again. The pipes are now covered with 1.3 metres of clay and gravel, so they should be fine in case of frost.

The silo walls are broken through

When Stefan left, I started digging the last bit of the channel - i.e. the bit from the end of the channel that Stefan dug to Harting 10. In a straight line this would have been about four metres. However, we need the pipe to hit the wall at 90° - meaning we have to take a big loop out to the right first. The minimum bending radius of the pipe is one metre - and to keep to this, we needed to almost go under the chickens. As it turned out, most of the digging was ok. There was an old silo buried under the ground and this had been filled up with old buckets, bits of blocks and steel. It was not easy to dig through. The concrete silo walls had to be broken through as well. That was about an hour's work. The next step is now to organise a "core boring drill" - which is a drill which can drill a 20cm hole through a 24cm concrete foundation. The reason for the 20cm hole is because of the special kind of wall "collar" that Niedermaier brought. The 130mm pipe goes through the collar and the collar seals the  place where the pipe goes through the wall. We'll also need a 80mm hole for the pipe carrying the network and electric cables. Sounds like it will take about three or four hours in total. Below are a couple of photos from the groundworks.

The channel is 1.3m deep

The digger was able to get right in next to the wall

The channel had to go around the side of Harting 10

Daniel had a go driving

...and managed not to knock the house

Luckily there was a hole in the concrete - otherwise we'd still be hammering away at it

Provisional rain capture

Stefan filled in most of the channel once the pipe was in

We had to leave about two metres for fitting the pipe through the wall

The channel had to go around in a curve so as to hit the wall of Harting 10 at 90°

At the bottom of the photo you can see the first intersection of the channel with the old silo wall

This is where we have to bore through the wall

The first intersection of the channel with the silo wall (looking south)

The thick pipe is the heating pipe. The other one carries electric and network cables

Pipes arrived

Things have started to move faster - incidentally meaning that things have started to get more expensive - but that was to be expected. As I wrote last time, it looks as though the roof will be started on May 6th. As that means that a scaffolding will be going up then, it makes good sense to do any outstanding groundwork before that. The only real outstanding groundwork is the installation of the heating pipe (district heating I believe it is called) 1.3m under the ground across the yard. I called up Heribert Niedermaier to come and measure exactly how long the pipe has to be. He ordered a 30m pipe - which was delivered this morning at 08:00. Daniel organised a digger for Saturday at 10:30, so it looks like we'll be able to put in that pipe (as well as a another 75mm pipe for electrical and network cables) and fill the trench back in again too. We might even be able to dig the foundations for the balcony support girders.

Other than that, the metal grid cage is installed - meaning we can now fill the casing with concrete and be done with it. The engineer sent back the signed Baubeginnsanzeige this morning - which means we are pretty much good to go. The next steps are coordinating the roof, the window installation, the plastering and the internal partitioning and flooring.

Casing had to be reopened to allow fitting the cage

The R188 cage sits perfectly in the casing

M20 Leerrohr for Cat7 network in our room

A wire to pull the network cable through the Leerrohr

M20 Leerrohr will run in the same slot as the heating pipes

New idea - a balcony

When Johannes Stuckenberger and Rupert Grasser came on Wednesday (10th April) they set out measuring for the steps up to the front door. While measuring, the idea came about that we could relatively easily (and hopefully without substantial additional costs) put in a balcony. That would mean that we'd have to move the front door a bit to the left (in the south elevation) so we could fit the steps to the right. The steps kind of come back on themselves to save space. To the left of the front door we had intended putting in a window. This would now have to be a full height (2200mm - up to the wallplate) balcony door - well, two doors really, as the width of the opening is 1500mm. Below are two excerpts from the plan showing the plan and the cross section...

Mühldorf

Today I picked up the reinforcing steel for the concrete casing over the bedroom door. Inn-Stahl in Mühldorf was not particularly hard to find, but roadworks meant I had to take a detour through the town at just after eight in the morning. This meant a fairly long delay. Anyhow, after handing over €20 I got the steel. It was surprisingly light and short enough to easily fit in the boot of the car. They had originally made it too long (2.5m) but they shortened it down to 1.36 for me on the spot.

After collecting the steel I paid a visit to Globus (a big supermarket with an attached big building supplies) in Mühldorf. By chance I saw yesterday that they had a Kärcher vacuum cleaner on offer for €60 (down from €99). These Kärcher machines are not really for use in a house - more for a building site or workshop or garage. Anyhow, I managed to get one before the place was swamped with people. Another (even better) offer was for indoor paint. "Alpina" is a well known brand of paint - usually 10L of their paint sells at about €38. Today, it was on offer at €16.99. Apparently 10L is enough for 60 square metres - though they probably based their estimate on really ideal work surfaces. I bought seven containers (70L - theoretically enough for 420 square metres) of it. I'm not sure if that will do all the house or if it might even be too much. If it's too much, Globus in Mühldorf will take back unopened containers.

Kind of like what the living room should look like

While looking through an online catalog (for plaster and slabs) I saw this photo. It looks kind of like what we are planning for the living room (the exposed beams, I mean).

Slavery

Today was pure slavery. First, the sand (five tonnes) I ordered was delivered yesterday but the driver wouldn't listen to good advice and ended up tipping the lot right next to the wall. I wouldn't usually have a problem with that, but we have to put up scaffolding on the wall within the next couple of weeks. I rang Johannes Stuckenberger (the roofer) and asked him what clearance his scaffolding would need. He said at least 110cm - better 120cm. With a shovel I spend half an hour moving about a third of the heap. Pity the driver wasn't still around. If he had to do it he'd listen to me next time.

After finishing the sand, I had to get to work removing a concrete platform outside the house. This was about 7-8cm thick and was mixed quite richly when it went in. It had to go because we need to put down 80cm deep concrete feet for the steps and for the vertical supports for the roof overhang. I cut the platform in near the wall with a diamond disk flex first of all. This was to allow me to belt away with the sledgehammer without having to worry about causing damage inside (the platform continues inside - it will actually be ideal to build from because the door you can see in the photograph will be blocked up. After a couple of hours of work it was all broken and half of it was loaded onto the bucket on the back of the tractor, ready to be taken off to one of the neighbours (who is building a stable and needs filling).

I wrote yesterday that we put up a chipboard wind/rain block in the big window in the west wall. Here is a photo of it from the inside. It probably wouldn't comply with the DIN regulations but as long as it stays put where it is for the next couple of weeks, that's fine by me. When the roof is done, the big window (triple glazed) can go in pretty much straight away. The engineer still has to return the calculations for the house in general and for this wall in particular. When the calculations are there we can get moving on it.

Below is a picture of the next job ahead - the cement mixer will have to be brought out to see the light of day again.

Updates: casing the doorframe, preparing the outside walls, spraying

It's been awhile since I posted an update here. The last time I wrote, I gave details on the concrete casing that has to be installed about the doorframe in the bedroom. The reason for the reinforced concrete casing (rather than standard lentils) is that there is considerable weight bearing down on the opening due to two 18x15cm ceiling joists. The engineer calculated the force bearing down to be in the order of 5-10 Kilonewtons. To the left you can see a sketch that the engineer prepared which shows how the concrete needs to be reinforced to properly take the weight of the joists. Instead of simple steel rods, a steel case is proposed. This has to be made of a steel grid/mesh which is bent numerous times. I had a bit of trouble sourcing this. The steel grid was quite easy to find - R188 is a fairly standard grid size and many building suppliers have it. Getting it bent properly was not so easy. It didn't look like a DIY job. I finally found http://www.inn-stahl.de in Mühldorf. They will provide the steel and bend it for €23,80 - which sounds quite reasonable to me. I have to pick up the steel cage on Monday at 08:00.

Giving that it looks like the roofer will be able to start in the next couple of weeks (providing the engineer signs the Baubeginnsanzeige and providing that the weather is favourable), we now have to start making preparations for the scaffolding. You might remember from some of the photos I posted a while back, that there are a number of timber "features" attached to the outside of the house. The main one, and the one causing most concern at the moment, is the large door/gate/bay on the west side. This door hangs on rails and can be pulled down to open it. It has two heavy buckets (full of concrete) as counterweights. In order to build up the scaffolding properly, all of these will have to go (otherwise it won't be possible to get the scaffolding close to the wall). However, it isn't as simple as just getting rid of the timber on the outside. Once we take off the counterweights, the door will fall (it is already badly rotted). Thus, we will need to remove the door too. Yesterday, Uli and myself put up a provisional windstop in the big window. We bolted timber on the left and right reveal of the window opening and screwed three chipboard (2000x600mm) boards onto these. This leaves a triangular opening at the top, which lets wind and rain in, but (i) this is temporary and (ii) the existing (rotted) door did not stop much wind and/or rain anyway.

I'm pretty much finished spraying the timber for woodworm now. It took three full days and I didn't do up to the ridge in the living room area because the scaffolding I had didn't reach up that far. I expect that it will be ok(ish) though. The advantage of doing all the spraying was that I got a good look at all the timber. The rafters are in (surprisingly) good condition. I didn't find a single one with evidence of either woodworm or rot - in either the exposed living room area or in the existing house attic. One thing I did find in the existing house attic was severe woodworm in the ridge - which is problematic. It was actually by complete accident that I discovered the damage at all - I was swinging a hammer, aiming for something else, when I hit the ridge and promptly tore out a piece. From the outside, the ridge looked fine. It is, however, absolutely riddled with woodworm and will have to be replaced.

There are a couple of other things being done concurrently - I need to remove a concrete plate on the ground so that proper concrete feet (800mm deep) can be poured for the feet of the outside steps and for the supporting poles for the roof overhang on the south side. Also, yesterday (2013-04-03) the Vermessungsamt came to measure the property so it can be divided.