Barn Floor Installed!

Today Kevin organised the delivery and installation of 14 cubic metres of self-levelling concrete - that's 120 square metres of floor in total.

We brought the concrete in through the doors and a window.

 

 

 

Kevin supervises the chute positioning

The first of eight cubic metres of concrete is delivered into the main barn

Delivery Lorry in position

All hands to the pump to rake out the concrete - From left Kevin, Tim, Keith and Adam

Adam performs the final float levelling of the cement

The finished floor is poured and level

Barn Floor Construction

The barn floor - having been excavated down to its base level - has now had the first and second stages of the new floor added. The sub-floor is called a herisson in French; confusingly this also translates as hedgehog. The herisson at La Basse Cour comprises a layer of 14-20mm stones which have been washed to remove any sand or clay. The purpose of the herisson is to ensure that the floor underneath the concrete block is ventilated and moisture has a way to be routed away. To ensure that the moisture gets away a drain system was put into the floor comprising a network of perforated pipes, these are the yellow pipes in the pictures.

Herisson drain pipes in the living room area

Fionula - the other partner in Team Furniss - and Adam start adding the herisson stones

All the exit pipes in the barn go out through the same corner ...

Kevin loads the herissonage into the lean-to

Lucky we took the roof off the lean-to :o)

Dropping the herissonage into the lean-to

The lean-to partly finished

The herisson stone fully laid in the barn and compacted down

The next stage is to lay a protective matting layer over the stones and put down a DPM (Damp Proof Membrane) sheet on top of that ready to receive the concrete.

The Geotextile protection layer is installed

Unrolling the DPM in the main barn floor area

DPM down in lean-to

And in the main barn

Tomorrow 14 cubic metres of flooring cement will be poured into the barn floor, there will be two deliveries. Wish us luck!!

More things you don't see every day

The ibis arrived last week en route from somewhere cold to somewhere warmer, nineteen landed in the field at the bottom of our land, very elegant birds.

Last winter a group of 12 decided that between us and the bird sanctuary at Le Guerno there wasn't much point in going further south.

Busy Week!

We've had a busy week - lots has been achieved and the barn interior has been transformed as Kevin has excavated the floor of the barn down to a level base, the support wall for the step in the barn floor has been laid, the lean-to floor has been excavated and we've installed another concrete wall support in the lean to. The fosse is finished and waiting for connection and sign-off.

The drainage pipes and gravel beds for the fosse are installed

Finished drainage bed

Adam has finished rebuilding the new lintels and stonework for the lean-to

Kevin Furniss excavating the barn floor

We found that most of the barn floor is composed of hard compacted sand which has some mica crystals apparent - good news as this is relatively hard and stable and well-drained.

Adam contemplates the shuttering for the step foundation

Kevin brought in a special micro digger to excavate the lean-to that could get in through the door

Adam starts work on the new hole in the wall to carry the drains running out of the barn

Kevin Furniss unloads the excavated material from the lean-to

Checking levels - again

The final part of the old concrete floor is lifted

.... and loaded out of the barn

Adam checks the level on the second wall support beam - this one's in the lean-to

The walls in the lean-to seem to have been built at different times, the side ones are older than the one along the back - this seems to have been built directly onto the soil hence our decision to support the walls in this area.

Checking levels for the lean-to wall support

The foundation is cast for the step in the floor

A bit of modern help for the Barn

Here's how the new concrete wall support looks when it was finished (see blog post12th November):

We've used natural materials throughout the build where appropriate but in this situation had no hesitation in using concrete and steel to support the foundations.

Heavy Works II

Having a new Fosse installed for the barn involves putting a new 3000L tank into the ground and connecting it up to the outlets from the barn and running the outlet across the field and into a new drainage bed. Here's what that looks like:

Kevin (driving the JCB) starts the excavation of the fosse

Lifting the fosse into position

Starting work on the drainage bed

A new beast is spotted at La Basse Cour

Things you don't see everyday

Kevin Furniss has put 40 tonnes of gravel into our new drainage bed for the Fosse, this came in two deliveries and each time the eight wheel truck had to reverse a hundred metres down our drive avoiding our car, the barn, our electricity supply and Barbara's bonsai pots.

And on both deliveries the truck was driven by a petite blond girl who positioned her huge forty tonne lorry and load exactly where Kevin wanted it attracting the respect of everyone on site.

"Not everyday you see that is it" as Keith said to me.