Water, electricity,shipping containers and more!

It's that time again...

We've been pretty busy planning out the next stages of build. Craig has been working on the financials, planning out every last penny until the end of the year, identifying our forecast spend and what we have available. It very quickly adds up!

So, the highlights!

Floor support walls

We had some local guys in to build the block work support walls. All went pretty smoothly, so here's some pics.

Storage

We now have a secure storage area onsite. We purchased s brand new shipping container, which came up on the train from LIverpool and then was transports from Coatbridge rail terminal to Largs. Due to the site access, we had asked for an extended reach HIAB. The company didn't appear to charge any more for this, which was good, and it placed the container, called Elizabeth, right into the corner where the garage will one-day be built.

Electricity. 

SP Energy Networks have been in touch and arranged a date for digging the track over the field to the electricity mains, lay the cable and then a few days later, make it all live. We have booked Scottish Hydro to come and put the meter in after that. SP have been pretty good to deal with, they have a project delivery co-ordinator, so Anne is our one point of contact and is responsible for keeping it all moving.

Water

Well, where do I start? Scottish Water are a complete and utter shambles, and I do not exaggerate when I say that. For a company that only deals in water, you'd not know that they'd been doing it for years. From start to end, their processes are disjointed, there is no clear process and no-one talks to anyone in the company. not only that, for a company that professes they are 'Trusted to serve Scotland', I can safely say I wouldn't trust them to serve me a plate of chips.

I mean, how hard can it be? We dig the trench, we lay the water pipe to the connection point, we pay for everything except the man coming and joining it up. Yes, it really should be that simple, except SW screw everything up. They have a 28 day SLA for processing new connections. Call that 6 weeks - and that's WITH it escalated. Then, they miss some crucial points on the technical guidance. We ask questions about digging over the mains, thinking that they might not be happy with that- 'no problem' they said. So we dug, then got an email asking if we'd dug over the main. Yes. 'Oh, you shouldn't have done that' they said 'we should have done that'. Yes SW, so you should/ That's why I SPECIFICALLY asked about it. I didn't skirt round about it, or try be covert, I told you we'd have to dig over a mains, was that okay? So, once we dig the trench for the pipe WE pay for, they have to inspect it. 5 days for that to happen. 5 days to send a man to look at a hole and check it's deep enough. Simple? Jesus, silly you, of course not!!! It turns out, SW DID send people to look at it. Only, it wasn't ours, and not on the day they'd said. In fact, they sent THREE people, probably on the day I phoned to book, and was told 5 days. So, these three people looked at ours by accident, but didn't bother actually telling anyone the outcome. Eventually after nearly blowing a gasket, I got put through to the man himself, who said he didn't know where he was to inspect...then realise he had actually done it, and yes, we can fill it back in so no sheep get injured.

GREAT! Progress!!! - wait - nope. Because now what should happen is they send a man down and he connects it, bingo. I've not heard a peep from SW. So I'll need to chase them again, but I already know what will happen. They won't know anything about it. And so, I'll jump on the SW merry go round again for a few days, telling them what they should be telling me...then they'll proudly announce that they will schedule the connection...which will take 2 weeks....and guess what? They'll not deliver in two weeks. And not only that, they'll not join up the dots with the house behind us who is getting exactly the same thing done, to the exact same connection point. SW will, I guarantee, send one man one day to connect us, then wait a week, then send someone else down to do the other one. Why do it once when you can do it twice eh? Why send one man to look at a hole when you can send THREE? And people wonder why I don't think privatisation is a bad thing?

 Other progress

One of the tanks has never fully drained of water, probably due to a pipe being blocked. It never fully filled back up, but we needed a solution to keep it drained. Caskies guys came on site and dug right down to the bowels of the earth to the bottom of the outside of the tank and installed drainage, and then backfillled with stone and rubble. This allows the tank water to drain out, but also channel the (lots of) ground water away to the burn, which in turn should dry up the boggy corner of the site.

Caskie's also dug a trench for an electricity cable running down to the garage/shipping container, so once we have power, we can light the container.

Steel frame

The fabrication drawings have now been approved and they are currently under manufacture. They will hopefully be assembled about the same time as the floor. Within the space of a few weeks, suddenly a building will start to appear!

FINALLY we have ordered flooring. 

You'll know the fiasco we've had with flooring. Finally, we've ordered. The problem with Beam and Block is that there is too much to carry up the hill - 120beams and 2500 blocks. The problem with hollowcore is that the sections are too heavy, and would require a crane that is too big for the site. Timber suspended floor is not an option for various reasons. So we've opted for Tetris flooring - it uses concrete beams, but rather than infill with blocks, the insulation is the infill, and then a structural screed on top. This light weight option was actually the cheapest, but will also offer the best insulation, with virtually no cold bridges anywhere. It should work beautifully with the ICF walls.

So, in summary - moving along nicely, lots still to do. :)