Good Omen for New House

 Its traditional to mark the floor infront of the entrance to a new house. The most productive week since starting on site.

The blockwork walls will start to go up next week

 Concrete slab gets laid only 5 weeks after starting on site, with 3 days of that programme lost due to bad weather

 The boys take a well deserved lunch break before the slabs go down and a litre of Spanish beer

 Every floor level,which is at a different levels has to be laid at different stages so that the slabs overlap

 Elecrical ducts and in ground services laid before the floor slab is cast

 Props and supports installed to start the basement roof and ground floor of the bedrooms

 Blocwork is laid onto the new footings,providing the divisions between the different floor levels

 A different type of concrete was poured and laid on the basement floor which has an additive to help dampcourse and water ingress

 2 layers of plastic sheeting laid ontop of crushed sand and coral which is packed down first and then metal mesh installed, lifted off the plastic sheet on small packers

Footings completed by 4.00 pm

 1 man poured all the foundations on his own !!!!

All the cages made up previously were dropped into the footings,packed up off the capping concrete base and tied with connecting bars

Start of week 5

A massive pump was hired to lay the concrete footings.In total 12 large concrete lorrys delivered all of the fast setting concrete and this was laid by 1 man in just under 4 hours

Special plastic protection added to the outer walls as back filling is taking place

All the footings and cages are now installed and concrete is due to be poured for the main finca construction to tie into the basement

Back filling started around the basement

4 Weeks of programme under a full moon

A copper earthing wire is installed around the perimeter of the building incase lightning strikes

A second water bar is installed on the vertical face of the basement wall prior to the floor slab being installed

Drainage pipes and supplies set up before main basement floor screed installed

External tanking applied to the basement walls

The shutters were struck and removed after 24hrs leaving a superb basement space and also the foundations for the 2 floors above

 The pouring of the basement walls start on the 7th November 2011

Week 3 of Contract

Work starts again after the unbelievably bad weather clears up

Heavy rain for 4 days stops work on site and puts the programme back

Two shutters are completed ready for pouring 30 cm think concrete walls, with Sika additive to help with water protection 

Artist Impression of our Dream Finca

By April 2012 this is what our Finca should look like

Plan layout of FINCA

Elevation of FINCA

Elevations of FINCA

A water bar detail is installed before the second skin shutter is installed and the concrete poured. This will provide a barrier which swells if water comes into contact with the product, if there is ever any flooding that occurs at low level

An outer steel box is created giving a real feel of the size the basement area

Outer skin installed first,locked onto dowel pins drilled into footings

Shuttering craned into position to start the basement wall erection

Position bars for the metal shuttering carefully marked out and placed into concrete footings  

Both layers of caging now completed and ready for the concrete shuttering

First outer layer of caging installed

Footing cages finished,now ready for vertical cages

Vertical tie bars are installed ready to take the caging which creates the basement vertical walls

A good first week. After week 1, we are on programme and the Spanish builders have performed very well.The owner of the concrete company is on site twice a day and is taking a real interest and pride in what he is doing.

Cage footings are then all craned into position in the basement

A MOMENTOUS MILESTONE !!!!!!

After 6 years of planning battles,purchasing the land and finding a contractor we at last lay our first piece of concrete

The gruer arrives to pour the concrete cap in the footings

Structural cages all lined up awaiting the crane to lift them into place

Basement footings marked out ready to be dug

All of the cages are made up ready to drop into the basement footings

Site boards designed by my talented sister

Trying different site set ups, rock wall camoflage could be a good option for rental period so it doesn't look to much like a building site

Digger creates a ramp to allow access into the basement area

The basement dig had to go though 3 different stratas of rock and took four times longer than we anticipated