Advice on Lean Too Construction.
Discussion
Well it's started! I managed to get a "working from home" day and so caught a train yesterday. I managed to get most things done by early afternoon and so started to clear the patio about 1530 hrs and then lifted the first slab and started to dig. Im really glad that fhe rain didnt stop and the clay was really claggy! The top of the foundation was a little lower than I had anticipated but I now have a wide trench leveled round ready for me to sink the foundation trench into. I am going to use a 300mm wide and 500mm deep foundation to support the, now 6, courses of engineering brick up to the DPC. The Woodford he stud walls and roc arrives on a on Monday, all £500 worth, and I have a window is being delivered tomorrow afternoon. I did take a couple of photos on the phone before I covered it over for the night and will post them once I get them online. I think that I'll have to order some ready mix concrete for the foundation as I don't fancy trying to mix over a cube by hand!
I'm now slightly concerned about the floor as the patio slabs are not as level as I remember and I am now thinking that I ought to lift them all and do something else. I know that the proper way would be to excavate and lay a concrete slab then insulate and for over that but I don't have either the energy or cash to do that. Especially as it only has to last about 5 years and it is really only a boot room / dog drying space / space for the freezer. I was thinking that I might lift the slabs and level the clay then use a bag of sand and a thwacker-plate to level it all before putting the DPC sheet down and the insulation over that. What is the PH view on this as a plan?
More to follow as I finish the foundation trench and pour concrete, hopefully tomorrow.
I'm now slightly concerned about the floor as the patio slabs are not as level as I remember and I am now thinking that I ought to lift them all and do something else. I know that the proper way would be to excavate and lay a concrete slab then insulate and for over that but I don't have either the energy or cash to do that. Especially as it only has to last about 5 years and it is really only a boot room / dog drying space / space for the freezer. I was thinking that I might lift the slabs and level the clay then use a bag of sand and a thwacker-plate to level it all before putting the DPC sheet down and the insulation over that. What is the PH view on this as a plan?
More to follow as I finish the foundation trench and pour concrete, hopefully tomorrow.
So that's digging finished for today. I've managed to sink the foundation trench down the side but not managed to turn the corner back to the house. I guess that will have to wait for tomorrow morning. I had to break to deal with kids and dogs and a trip to B&Q as I now find that no-one will deliver readymix on a Sunday and so it will all have to be made the old fashioned way, by hand! Oh well I've got to go back now as I couldn't get enough sand and cement in the car all at once. As before I've taken a quick snap on the phone and will post when I get the chance to upload them.
OK so update time again. First off I have uploaded some photos so here goes:
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This is the overview of the end of day one. I have lifted the slabs that run along the proposed walls and dug round to the level of the existing foundations.
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A side view of the trench facing back towards the house and this will be the wall with a window in it.
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This is the other wall and will be the front with the door in it.
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This is at the end of day 2 with the wall trench having been dug down 500mm and 300mm wide to create the foundation tgrench. As you can see the water table is a little higher than i remembered, or it is just wetter, so digging was interesting, albeit Somme like!
Detail of where I got to in the corner. The different levels are quite clear here.
This one is less clear but it does show the existing house foundation and the level that the new foundation will come too.
End of day 3 and the foudation trench is finished. I have managed to borrow a cement mixer for tomorrow so will start pouring concrete then.
I used two boards to check the depth and width so I am confident that it is 300mm wide all round and down to the bottom of the trench and the depth is at least 500mm as that is the water table and the trench is all under water!
It's also worth remembering that there is lots of spoil, normally more than there should be, and it all has to go somewhere!
Anyone need some soil?
So that's where I am today. I have over a ton of aggregate, sand and cement on the patio waiting for a mixer and some water to become concrete and the wood will all be delivered tomorrow so lots to do.
[/url]This is the overview of the end of day one. I have lifted the slabs that run along the proposed walls and dug round to the level of the existing foundations.
[/url]A side view of the trench facing back towards the house and this will be the wall with a window in it.
[/url]This is the other wall and will be the front with the door in it.
[/url]This is at the end of day 2 with the wall trench having been dug down 500mm and 300mm wide to create the foundation tgrench. As you can see the water table is a little higher than i remembered, or it is just wetter, so digging was interesting, albeit Somme like!
Detail of where I got to in the corner. The different levels are quite clear here.
This one is less clear but it does show the existing house foundation and the level that the new foundation will come too.
End of day 3 and the foudation trench is finished. I have managed to borrow a cement mixer for tomorrow so will start pouring concrete then.
I used two boards to check the depth and width so I am confident that it is 300mm wide all round and down to the bottom of the trench and the depth is at least 500mm as that is the water table and the trench is all under water!
It's also worth remembering that there is lots of spoil, normally more than there should be, and it all has to go somewhere!
Anyone need some soil?
So that's where I am today. I have over a ton of aggregate, sand and cement on the patio waiting for a mixer and some water to become concrete and the wood will all be delivered tomorrow so lots to do.
bimsb6]ption click said:
When I built my lean-to, I attached a ledger board to the house and hung the joists of that, in pretty much the same way that you'd do decking (except 12ft up from the ground)
From this:
I only saw this pic at first and thought wtf is this guy doing giving building advise lol i thought this was the final build .
I was thinking exactly the same thing!From this:
I only saw this pic at first and thought wtf is this guy doing giving building advise lol i thought this was the final build .
Well feeling a little frustrated this morning. The mate with the concrete mixer promised that he'd drop it off last night or this morning, and sofar nothing, and I've rung the wood yard and they tell me that they don't even load the waggons until after lunch and I'm likely to be towards the end of the delivery route so no wood until late afternoon. This leaves me with nothing to do and possibly the best day of the week staring at me through the window. Not happy at the moment.
So as there's nothing else to do I thought I'd start a table of costs.
||Timber Merchant|| ||6x2 c16 timber 4.2m long X 5|| ||£3.28/m|| ||£68.80|| ||£239.37||
| Store | Item | Unit Cost | Item Total | Running Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timber Merchant | 4th External Plywood Sheet X 4 | £10.32 | £41.28 | £41.28 | ||||
| Timber Merchant | 18mm OS Sheet X 6 | £18.60 | £111.60 | £152.88 | ||||
| Timber Merchant | 6X2 c16 timber 5.4m long X 1 | £3.28/m | £17.69 | £170.57 |
||Timber Merchant|| ||6x2 c16 timber 4.2m long X 5|| ||£3.28/m|| ||£68.80|| ||£239.37||
Looks like my table formatting could use some help! I'll try and sort that out later. So friend with concrete mixer apparently forgot to drop it off this morning so I've been hand mixing concrete in a wheelbarrow all day, well bar a trip back to the reclaim yard to source another 150 bricks (as there are 6 courses under the DPC not 2 as I thought, an external door and another window for the long wall. So far I've managed to mix and pour 600kg of concrete and the foundation trench is just under half full. I'm hoping that the mixer turns up tonight and so I can use it tomorrow to finish off. The wood also arrived at about 1600hrs so, hopefully, I now have all the materials to get the structure built. As ever photos to follow.
I'll try and sort that out later. So friend with concrete mixer apparently forgot to drop it off this morning so I've been hand mixing concrete in a wheelbarrow all day, well bar a trip back to the reclaim yard to source another 150 bricks (as there are 6 courses under the DPC not 2 as I thought, an external door and another window for the long wall. So far I've managed to mix and pour 600kg of concrete and the foundation trench is just under half full. I'm hoping that the mixer turns up tonight and so I can use it tomorrow to finish off. The wood also arrived at about 1600hrs so, hopefully, I now have all the materials to get the structure built. As ever photos to follow. So photos of todays efforts.
End of morning session with about 375kg of concrete mixed and poured. This is the front wall foundation and is, slightly, higher than the side wall, hence no water.
End of morning session and the side wall view. As you can see this side is slightly lower and so the standing water has covered the initial pour.
End of day with 600kg of concrete poured. I've tried to keep the level more even with this pour and the water is very thinly spread over the entire trench. I'm hopeful that it will all be gone by tomrrow morning.
Other wall.
The wood was delivered and this is what £500 buys you today!
End of morning session with about 375kg of concrete mixed and poured. This is the front wall foundation and is, slightly, higher than the side wall, hence no water.
End of morning session and the side wall view. As you can see this side is slightly lower and so the standing water has covered the initial pour.
End of day with 600kg of concrete poured. I've tried to keep the level more even with this pour and the water is very thinly spread over the entire trench. I'm hopeful that it will all be gone by tomrrow morning.
Other wall.
The wood was delivered and this is what £500 buys you today!
So last night SWMBO and I decided that we were not going to go through another day of hand mixing concrete so a problem, an was hatched to hire one. Because I'd done this "mate with mixer" turned up at 0730hrs today and dropped off his. Still this meant that I managed to mix another 700kg in about 3 hours and finished the foundations. I have then turned my hand to turning some of the wood into walls. I've managed to create the end wall with the door in and cut most of the side wall, but not constructed it as the light had gone by then. Unfortunately the weather forecast is rain tomorrow so I don't think I will get to lay any bricks, or probably build any more walls. I'm hoping to catch a break and miss the worst of the weather so I can actually do something but I'm not really that hopeful. The only thing I am now worrying about, other than running out of time, is laying the bricks. It is one thing that I have not done before and I am slightly nervous about tackling it for the first time! As ever photos to follow.
Well rain stopped work for the majority of the day but we, SWMBO and I, did give up and simply head out after lunch and get wet! The foundations look great and I started to lay bricks in the drizzle. I've decided that I will never get a job laying bricks but at least the wall is strength, level and vertical even if it took me a long time and isn't the prettiest thing in the world. I'm not to worried as most of it will be underground and the rest will be half covered the shiplap anyway. If I had any advice to give I've it would be that everything takes twice as long as you think! As ever I'll post ph otoscope when I get round to uploading them.
So today is over and another day completed. The weather was good today and so we got quite a bit done. I had a helper, well two as the first had to go after lunch, and managed to get the brickwork complete. The DPC is now in place and covered over for the night. Hopefully I'll manage to get the walls up tomorrow.
Jonleeper said:
So today is over and another day completed. The weather was good today and so we got quite a bit done. I had a helper, well two as the first had to go after lunch, and managed to get the brickwork complete. The DPC is now in place and covered over for the night. Hopefully I'll manage to get the walls up tomorrow.
Did you manage to get the walls up? 
I'm considering something similar but all timber and minimal groundwork, tossing a coin between an openish car port or something more sealed from the elements...
ScotHill said:
Jonleeper said:
So today is over and another day completed. The weather was good today and so we got quite a bit done. I had a helper, well two as the first had to go after lunch, and managed to get the brickwork complete. The DPC is now in place and covered over for the night. Hopefully I'll manage to get the walls up tomorrow.
Did you manage to get the walls up? I'm considering something similar but all timber and minimal groundwork, tossing a coin between an openish car port or something more sealed from the elements...
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