The Barn Project - Page 5

The month of April and first week of May has seen some transformation with the barn

After the collapse, we re-cleaned the site and installed the internal drainage. The pipes you see in the pictures relate to 3 upstair toilets (2 en-suite) and the downstairs cloakroom off of the main hallway.

These are laid at an incline of 1:40 to ensure all waste water runs into the inspection chamber located outside. This was a long job as we had to core drill 4 holes through 13" of brickwork. Due to angle of the hole and its location, the four four holes took over 5 hours to complete.

A 1200 gauge (300 micro) damp proof membrane or visqueen barrier is laid over the sandy floor and is seated into the deepened trench around the perimeter of the barn.

After raking in help from 2 of our staff at Penny Bricks and our trusted bricky, John Amies from Handmade Fireplaces of Leeds, we ordered 22 cubic metes of C35 concrete. All of which had to be laid in one afternoon!

The old wheelhouse, to be our kitchen, had its footings dug by precisely measuring and working out the angles needed for the odd shaped room. The six sided room, relates to six sides of a decagon, a ten sided room, creating internal angles of 144 degrees.

After ordering the sand, lime, cement, insulation, blocks, wall ties and our very own 2" handmade bricks, we started the building aspect of this conversion. Two months have passed and it seems we haven't got anywhere. As we are at the barn most days, you don't see the progress you make. All the 'below ground work' is now covered up and ready for the build. Looking back at pic 1 on page 1, we can see the progress and to date are ahead of schedule and under budget.

The bottom picture shows the start of the blockwork, together with the internal exposed brickwork we intend to have in various areas around the barn.