Starting to Build

While we had some cash it made sense to get a builder to start the conversion work. Our friend Steve took this on for us and installed foundations, foul drainage and a concrete ground floor slab.

The foundations consisted of 750 x 750 mm concrete pads cast one metre below external ground level, to which galvanised steel base plates were bolted, protruding 300 mm above the finished slab level. This permitted the timber frame posts to be attached without any chance of wood touching moist surfaces.

Digging the holes was relatively easy, except where they were close to external walls, where it was necessary to underpin the original stone construction - which didn't go down very deep into the sand.

Steve connected the new foul drainage system to an existing manhole in the side passage between neighbouring houses in Clifton Road - where the original sewer had ended up. The new drain also picked up a new toilet installed in the workshop to replace an outside WC which we had demolished to make way for the new front addition.

The new concrete ground floor slab sat on thick expanded polystyrene slabs to provide good insulation. We chose fibre re-inforced concrete to avoid cracking and put an expansion joint in the middle of the floor.

Having reached this point we needed to invest our remaining resources into another business venture - so the building rate slowed down, substantially.