No progress!
Nothing done since wednesday, went in for minor knee op and have found myself inable to do anything since, however the good news is IT'S SNOWING. So I couldn't be at the laying of bricks anyway!

The course of engineering bricks which will carry the joist hangers for the first floor is now in place, as are 2 joists.

The next stage is going to be a bit of a footer, I think, to get the hangers in the right place I will need to fit the joists as I go. The hangers are slightly wider than the joists so to get a reasonably tight I will need to either pull them together with cable ties or nail them to the ends of the joists.
I will give it some thought!

Latest.... Jewson lorry has just been with floor joists and I have just carried them all in from the street!

Progress! More insulation in, now up to first floor window height.
Also the batton is fitted to the existing house wall to carry the floor joists for the upstairs rooms. With the help of Barrie we set pads on the wall at the right height to make it easier to hold the 195x45 timber up agaonst it. Next day with the help of Colin and Barrie agsin the batypn ent up first with hammer in fixings then resin anchors.
now need to work out the height of the joist hangers on the other side which course in with the block work on a row of bricks. We felt that the blocks would be too soft and would wear if there was any expansion and contraction of the metal hangers.

Slow progress slow due to recent poor weather but progress nonetheless! The outside walls are now this height,

Only 2 courses away from fitting the next batch of insulation, got the kids to load up 100 bricks! Nothing like a bit of child labour!

Hopefully Monday will be dry and I can put the bricks down and get the insulation ordered along with a couple of lintles for above the windows!

The photos I forgot to add! Here they are just to jeep it a true and accurate record!

Wall starter strip in place, they give you 6coach screws for 2 strips at 1.2m! I recon its nowhere near enough so bought a load of stainless steel coach screws and put 6 in each strip!

 

With the scaffolding getting higher,

It was getting a bit doddgy swinging from ladder to boards so have manufactued a landing platform with a couple of hopups and boards

Scaffolding was still a bit wobbly so went this morning and got more poles and clamps.  The trick would seem to be to make triangles, it is now significantly steadier.

Have cut a load of bricks for the corner, enough to get me to the top I think. And have built corners three courses. Will need to point one bit of the wall still over hand due to proximity to a tree.

Got the laser out to check levels and am about 5mm high at the back corner, not a bad tolerance over 12m !

Have now bricked outer skin to 150mm above the steel veam which will form the valley in the single storie roof. Have moved the scaffold platform up a peg and it has gecome quite wobbly! The solution would appear to be to build another tower to the side of the scaffolding and brace the two together.
Went and got some more scaffold legs and ledgers

No wonder my car is falling to bits!

Location of additional tower

The steel is up!

these are the 2 beams which carry the upstairs back wall, inserted into the existing house onto the pad stones. each beam bears on both pads. The hole is also bricked up though too dark to photograph it!

The pad stones which will carry the steel beams which will support the back wall of the 1st floor extension now in place. Had to cut out a corner of the house to put them in! I did it in 2 stages, first the inner skin by cutting access on both the side and back of existing building, leaving one brick of the corner intact.  Then placed pad stone and bricked up back of the house again, next day, took out the one brick at the corner thus only digging in 100mm to the corner so the outer skin pad stone could be placed. Steel is ordered and should arrive this week. Once it is in place I can get on with more bricks! Will soon need to go up another lift with the scaffolding!

two 100x150x600 pad stones installed at corner of existing building

one 100x150x900 pad stone installed on new blockwork wall.

Couple more courses up at front.  More excitingly is the steel for the roof valley on the new bit at the back is up!  It has been kicking about the site for months!  It has its own neat pad stone to spread the load over the thermal blocks.  I need now to do pad stones and steel for the upstairs back wall.

Not updated for while as not much has been happening. The brick work is progressing and I went and got a lintel to cut up to use as pad stones to bear the steels in the new block wall and the exisying house wall.
The pile of bricks in the driveway is diminishing so thats s good sign!

Block work now taking shape, almost as high as the bricks are. One more course of block and will need to consider floor joists for upper floor and a couple of steels to hold up the back wall of the upstairs of the extension.

The solution to the insulaion storage problem is so simple,  order it in 2 lots! The first ten sheets came on Friday. .... in a 44 tonne truck!

The truck had one of those handy fork lifts attached to the back but the driver and I managed to lift the sheets of by hand... in one go including the pallet!
I wonder what a journey in this thing does to the carbon foot print of a sheet of insulation?

latest exciting development is the insulation is up and block work started.

Lintel in place, now 3 courses of bricks on top of it!  one more course on lintel and 6 more on side wall then at insulation height! Have a notion to order insulation in 2 or 3 batches due to logistics of storage!

Lintel for over garage door should arrive today. Working hard to get column next to house up to lintel height.
last dayof school hols was yesterday, eventually go the kids to do something usefull, they moved some bricks from the pallet to the scaffolding and even managed to get them the right way up!
cant beat a bit of child labour!

Was home from holidays for work for a couple of days. Got 3 courses set at corner snd a wee but of pointing done.  Right hand corner now at garage door lintel hight.

Another couple of courses of bricks up today. Scaffolding also moved up a stage. Three courses to go before garage door lintel.

Only mad dogs and englishmen go out in the mid day sun!
un usual to have to rig sun shade rather than water cover!

Scaffolding now on site and up as bricks are high enough to be out of reach from the ground. Now cracking on laying more bricks.

Now 12 courses of bricks above damp proof level. Couple of questions have arisen re the insulation and the acceptable cavity gap. Hope to have this resolved soon so I can order the insulaion.

The walls are creeping up, was on a course at work for coupleof weeks and missed out on several good brick laying days! However back on the ball now and have pointed the courses of bricks on the gable wall. Pointing takes an age! I had gone about 6 courses which was a bit much, will now take to pointing every time I get 2 or 3 courses down.
It's a bit awkward around the steel at the far end as I am about 25mm out and need to cut a small bit out each brick. At least its only one storie high at that corner!
dave the architect is on holiday, Boston, lucky him! On his return we will work out the sizes for the steel ties which connect the steel frame to existing house.

Been a busy couple of weeks  at work and the weather has been a bit hit and miss so not much progress. The new laser level arrived so the steel is now plumb and level. In fact the levelling the columns made it all go square, it must be due the accuracy and quality of the fabrication, well done Murray!
Yesterday was a splendid day so managed to get grouted under the columns using a fast setting pre bagged mortar.
3 bags later and a few pounds lighter ( the stuffs not cheap!) but here we are, grouted up and not likely to move, ever!

Next thinģ is to close the walls around the columns and fill the cavity bellow dpc with concrete. Also the remaining steels to connect to the existing building need measured and made, just waiting for the architect to come back with a size below upstairs windows for the roof.