What i did on my holidays - By ian age 41 1/4

[lutonlagerlout]

looks pretty good from here Ian
only thing i can spot is that where we lap the DPM we tend to gaffer tape the joints
its a nightmare if the concrete slides underneath the joint
nice job
LLL

[IanMelb]

I tried to make sure that nothing slipped under the join, but the bit you can see is resting on top of the shutterting so can be knocked away...

[Stuarty]

Looking good Ian

[IanMelb]

Having never poured a pad before I was a little alarmed with the amount of surface water that kept appearing after each tamp - you don't see that kind of thing on Grand Designs or on one of Mr Walsh's programmes !

???

[IanMelb]

Can someone check my maths for me?

I'm going to lay 2 courses of block work (standard CMU) at the base of the building. I reckon this will be around 110-120 blocks.

According to the main site, 1200 CMUs require 1m3 of mortar. I want to lay 10% of this (120) so assume I need 0.1m3 of mortar. Now 1m3 of mortar weighs 2.1 tonnes (2100kg) so I need 210kg of mortar. The mortar calculator suggests that this is the equivalent to around 3m2 of single skin, stretcher bond brickwork and comes up with 164kg of sand and 47kg of cement.

So...

If all this checks out, I should nip along to my BM and get 2x25kg bags of cement and 7x25kg of sand (and plasticiser).

Does that seem right? Or have I overcomplicated it and messed up somewhere? ???

[lutonlagerlout]

over complicated mate ,i would get 12 bags of sand and 3 bags of dust
cheers LLL

[IanMelb]

Thanks TonyLLL, that's what I'll do then.

[IanMelb]

Just been out and removed the shuttering and checked the square for setting out. Quite pleased to find that it was no more than 5mm out of true (5800x4300)

I have noticed a couple of tears and small holes in the DPC - I was thinking of patching these with more squares of the same DPM 'glued' with silicon - does this work or is there a better solution?

Cheers, Ian

[seanandruby]

personally i would of left the mesh intact until you done your hole, that way you would have "starter bars" to tie into, save you drilling some. shouldnt be a problem taping membrane. are you using bitumen dpc, or just visqueen? all in all a good job m8.

[IanMelb]

Just Visqueen - mind you, I'd be alot more concerned about the holes if this was living rather than shedding quarters

[seanandruby]

"I'd be alot more concerned about the holes if this was living rather than shedding quarters". just wait till the other half bin bags you :laugh:

[IanMelb]

I'm now (over)planning the whole two courses of blockwork that I'm going to lay. I'd thought of laying the first course thusly:



the gaps are where I'd put in blocks cut down to the correct size.

If (and it's a big 'if') that's an ok layout, then does anyone have any thoughts on how I should go with the second course? Should I start off in each corner again but turn the starting blocks through 90 degrees (in the above diagram, I've considered the starting blocks to the 'vertical' ones in each corner).

I could then run the whole course along the length and breadth of the wall and then cut blocks to size at the end of each run (where it meets the next corner) IYSWIM...

[nelly05]

Looks ok to me fella, but then am a DIYer!!!!

I was always told get the corners right and the rest flows, so for me id get the corners in right, that sets the levels for the rest of the way.

Now you need someone to come and tell you the proper way to do it!! LOL

Regards

[lutonlagerlout]

if a square doesnt work blocks we tend to use a 3/4 and 1/4 on the corner to make it work
its not good practise putting cuts as you have shown
also the perp can vary from 8 -20 mm with blocks
cheers LLL

[IanMelb]

Ah, OK, I was trying to make all the corners as 'solid' as possible, I'll have a re-draw later. Cheers