From pillar to post!

Things have gone apace since our last update. Below you can see the massive mecano set that has been delivered. All this stuff is for the steel supports to go inside the concrete. Personally I'd like huge Lego bricks.



For those who like cranes... this is the base of ours. It is all remote controlled as said earlier.
But these are the working gubbins. I was told that the crane top is left to swing with the prevailing wind for safety. That means we probably have one of the biggest weather vanes in Sussex!


The far side of the work. Not as advanced as the other side but.... you'll notice that the electrical cupboard is still there! I'm starting to wonder if it will exixt in the new building in a "Narnia" type way. When you go to the back of the cupboard you end up in the 60's??


More areas to dig out.


The ghost of the swimming pool lives on! Rain is not making work easy... but at least it's not snow! Time for a pump??

The footings are ready to be built up on. The pillar supports will be built on the steel bases that can be seen sticking out of the concrete.

There's a whole lot of checking done. Nobody wants to have to "Move the building a bit to the left" later on.

This is one of the long steel pillar supports being prepared.

Close up of the construction of the insides of the reinforcements for the concrete pillars.

The start of the upwards building.

The first row of steel reinforced pillars awaiting their concrete. This comes in big rotating lorry loads and will be poured in using a special "bucket" on the crane.

The second row of pillars under construction. These guys work FAST!

Pouring the concrete into the moulds. Once again the crane does stirling work!

And then there were three rows of pillars!

This is the cladding/mould for a "Shearing Wall". One of the men from Rok explained it to me. The pillars give vertical support. The job of a shearing wall is to give lateral strength to the structure. There will be a number of these walls in the building which will stiffen up the reinforced concrete frame.

Getting in there with a hammer!

The second "shearing" wall goes up. You can see the cladding removed from the first one.

The bricks for the lower sections of the wall foundations start to arrive.

Lots of bricks!