Yesterday the builder came and started demolishing our extension, I can hardly believe it, it's finally happening.
Yesterday they stripped the roof of tiles and stacked them neatly for re-use. Today the guys turned up again and got to work. This morning I took the kids to soft play and when I got back there was all sorts of banging going on. At one point the house shook when they pushed part of one of the walls down! The doors that lead from the house to the extension have been screwed shut and had insulation board stuck on internally to keep us a little bit warm. The heating is disconnected so we have lit the fire tonight to make up for the extra draughts.
When digging out the steps at the weekend we found a manhole cover underneath. Undertake cover was a huge water tank, full to the brim with water. We used a pump to empty it out and it's about 10 foot deep by about 10 foot square. It is right next to where the new rear extension footings need to be so it's slightly worrying. I guess we'll have to wait for the building inspector to tell us what we have to do about it.
Today the builder found a second tank at the front of the house. We had always presumed that the manhole cover was covering a land drain but low and behold it was another smaller water tank. We were told when we bought the house that it didn't used to be on mains water and this must have been where the water was stored. They are both linked to the guttering down pipes and have an overflow into land drains. Certainly the second tank is directly under where we need to build the extension, it could be expensive!
This week I went on my company national meeting, it was at a beautiful country manor house. I even stayed in a room where William Shakespeare slept, amazing! It was lots of fun and I had a little too much to drink on the Tuesday night, I must confess to feeling a little worse for wear on Wednesday morning.
Anyway here are some before and after photos from this week.
Before...
Day two...
Exciting and scary all at once.
Yes it is an ugly extension, exciting changes taking place, I hope it all goes well for you, dont worry about the dust it will get everywhere but will be worth it
ReplyDeleteDitto what Dawn says about dust from renovation work....it gets everywhere, so don't worry too much about trying to keep the house dust free. As for those water storage tanks...I must admit to feeling a little envious because we would like to have underground storage tanks to collect our rain water so we can reduce our water bill, but yours are very close to the house and I can understand your concern about their location. I also must admit to feeling very relieved that we have now got past the major renovation work to our property!
ReplyDeleteAh, either future rain water catchment tanks or an underground cellar - what a treat :) Hope you don't intend getting rid of both of them? I understand your worry about the one being under your extension footings and the potential expense of having to fill that in, but one or both are a veritable treasure in my book.
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