Coldest day of the year

Brrr


Paul, Dave and I crack on with plastering downstairs. After a few minor hicups with sockets we get pretty fast and get all the external walls done on one day. Thanks you guys.

Super Saturday

Clare, my sister, and I are freezing in the house but the benefit is you can't stop for anything and together we finish the ground floor electrics (including the extra branding and insulation), design the lighting and board up the house to the make the site secure. Great day Clare!

Protection for concrete floor

One layer Teram followed by Antinox. Really enjoyed putting down the woven white fabric off a 5m wide roll - beautiful job.

Lighting research

task lights


Anglepoise The original!



And the more bespoke industrial options...

Concrete floor - more information and specification

Australia seems to be a leader in providing good specification information (PDF).

Polished concrete floor 4 (powerfloating into the night)

As the concrete cures you can walk on it without marks using proprietry foam shoe padding.



In this image you can see the swirls being removed and a perfectly flat and smooth finish forming.



The last phase is when patches of sheen start showing up - that's when you know when to stop. For us it was a 2am finish mainly due to the cold weather slowing the curing down.

Polished concrete floor 3 (the powerfloat)

Power floats hired from Speedcrete in Glasgow.


And the edge done with the trowel.

Polished concrete floor 2 (the screed)

Screeding the floor to level and smooth.




Hall's amazing home made edging trowel (that didn't work).

Polished concrete floor 1 (the pour)

Start on site at 7am. Concrete arrives at 8am, out and pumped in by 10am.

Concrete our preparation

Lots of work prepping for the concrete pour led by Neil and Stewart Paisley. Wired up 16 fluorescent daylight tubes (thanks to Paul Slifer), shuttered all the edges to height including various falls and entrance "plats". Highly critical sliding door strip laid to height with the help of Alex Taylor, 3 furniture shutters for a table, kitchen worktop and single step up. Sadly too busy to take many photos. These are the last few taken the day before the pour at 10pm when we finally finished.

Strike the Scaffold

Lots of mess and a very untidy site while we prep for the ground floor pour. Lovely to have the scaffold gone though!