Romania - Clive's House and Excursions

[clivehorridge]

After the rubble reached its level, they blinded it with some pea gravel and topped it of with a coarse sand, membrane, and then some mesh reinforcement, with 100 mm of concrete...

The steps going in up the left side of the house...

And that’s as far as they’ve got so far...

On the way to the house tonight, the guy phoned Aura and told her he’d done a “trial panel” of the natural river-stone cladding that will cover both sides of the wall and we’ll have the same all over the surface of the patio. It’s natural stone about 20-25mm thick, bedded on 10mm of mortar with mortar pointing, smooth... so I took a photo of it in the dark when we arrived, and I think it’s going to look OK when it’s all done.... only one photo... for the minute...

The wall will be topped with a mosaic. They set formwork up and pour a mix of grout and 6mm crushed gravel. When set, they grind / polish the surface and create a smooth hard exposed polished aggregate finish.

We have it all around on the existing garden / boundary wall, so it will match.

Some more photos tomorrow....

Happy so far, I just hope they keep up their momentum, I want this finished before the end of July latest....

 

[Chas]

Wow, that's looking good Clive, will be seeing it in the 'flesh' soon.

 

[clivehorridge]

Wow, that's looking good Clive, will be seeing it in the 'flesh' soon.

Yep, won’t be long now Chas, I just hope it’s finished in time.

TBH, I’m more interested in getting the grass to grow back where they’ve stockpiled stone, gravel and sand.

I’ll post some more pics tomorrow, the garden looks like the battle of the Somme at the moment

 

[TALAMAN]

That is a work of art Clive! if they build a retaining wall here in Cy they just build the shuttering straight on to the existing ground - - Footings? Foundations? Membrane? --well not with my crappola builder anyway. You are lucky, I am watching with intense jealousy!

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Looking amazing there Clive. You sure have had your work cut out but credit to you and the guys for making the walls purposeful and beautiful.

Look for ward to seeing it finished and for you to feel settled and happy. Well done

 

[StarCruiser]

Looking good Clive. That ‘trial panel’ looks really good. It looks like he was pretty confident you would like it by the amount he’s done.

 

[chapel gate]

After the rubble reached its level, they blinded it with some pea gravel and topped it of with a coarse sand, membrane, and then some mesh reinforcement, with 100 mm of concrete...

View attachment 145660 View attachment 145661 View attachment 145662 View attachment 145663

The steps going in up the left side of the house...

View attachment 145664

And that’s as far as they’ve got so far...

On the way to the house tonight, the guy phoned Aura and told her he’d done a “trial panel” of the natural river-stone cladding that will cover both sides of the wall and we’ll have the same all over the surface of the patio. It’s natural stone about 20-25mm thick, bedded on 10mm of mortar with mortar pointing, smooth... so I took a photo of it in the dark when we arrived, and I think it’s going to look OK when it’s all done.... only one photo... for the minute...

View attachment 145665

The wall will be topped with a mosaic. They set formwork up and pour a mix of grout and 6mm crushed gravel. When set, they grind / polish the surface and create a smooth hard exposed polished aggregate finish.

We have it all around on the existing garden / boundary wall, so it will match.

Some more photos tomorrow....

Happy so far, I just hope they keep up their momentum, I want this finished before the end of July latest....

Thats where i left my hammer!
Looks well clive.

 

[clivehorridge]

Cheers guys.

At 7:30 this morning, the team arrived. They don’t normally work on saturdays, but because we’ve had 2 bank holidays in 3 weeks, they thought they should crack on before the day got too warm.

So it was primarily continuing with the stone cladding...

And Aura’s already changed her mind and we’re going for the capping in the same stone not mosaic. It’s my preference, but the mosaic was her idea in the first place.

These pics were taken at 11:00 am when it got a bit too warm and they called it a day.

————————-

Then this arrived...

And a cute Moggy tipper....

......and .... they set about destroying my grass....

... and did a good job of it too...

But at least this :-

has become this :-

... and I can start to think about re-growing the grass.

It didn’t help that it rained, so it became more like a pay-and-play site than my garden.

It isn’t only the spoil heap, there’s a stone and a sand stockpile, and a big pile of wood, so it will be the same story under them when they’re gone. Hey-Ho.

3 weeks he recons, and that’s to go all around the extension footings and the existing pathway all the way around, including 3 flights of steps (all with the same stone cladding) to pavement and walls.

It’s a lot of work.

And it’s still raining. June is traditionally the last rain we’ll get till September, so I really want to get some grass seed germinating ASAP.

 

[Chas]

Cheers guys.

At 7:30 this morning, the team arrived. They don’t normally work on saturdays, but because we’ve had 2 bank holidays in 3 weeks, they thought they should crack on before the day got too warm.

So it was primarily continuing with the stone cladding...

View attachment 145680 View attachment 145681 View attachment 145682

And Aura’s already changed her mind and we’re going for the capping in the same stone not mosaic. It’s my preference, but the mosaic was her idea in the first place.

These pics were taken at 11:00 am when it got a bit too warm and they called it a day.

————————-

Then this arrived...

View attachment 145684

And a cute Moggy tipper....

View attachment 145685

......and .... they set about destroying my grass....

... and did a good job of it too...

View attachment 145688

But at least this :-

View attachment 145686

has become this :-

View attachment 145687

... and I can start to think about re-growing the grass.

It didn’t help that it rained, so it became more like a pay-and-play site than my garden.

It isn’t only the spoil heap, there’s a stone and a sand stockpile, and a big pile of wood, so it will be the same story under them when they’re gone. Hey-Ho.

View attachment 145689

3 weeks he recons, and that’s to go all around the extension footings and the existing pathway all the way around, including 3 flights of steps (all with the same stone cladding) to pavement and walls.

It’s a lot of work.

And it’s still raining. June is traditionally the last rain we’ll get till September, so I really want to get some grass seed germinating ASAP.

My word that does look smart.

 

[clivehorridge]

BTW, I couldn’t resist a peek under the Moggy, these portal axles are the danglies...

Like, like, like....

 

[Chas]

Clive, have you thought about getting them to lay a hard standing for you? parking long term on grass is not good for the underside of the truck.

 

[Animal Mother]

Lovely job Clive.

 

[StarCruiser]

Clive, have you thought about getting them to lay a hard standing for you? parking long term on grass is not good for the underside of the truck.

They could put one in for Clive’s truck while they’re at it Chas.

 

[Chas]

They could put one in for Clive’s truck while they’re at it Chas.

 

[clivehorridge]

Clive, have you thought about getting them to lay a hard standing for you? parking long term on grass is not good for the underside of the truck.

Yes Chas, we’ve discussed it many times.

Despite the new concrete patio, I actually detest concrete in a domestic environment. Our garden was an orchard, and although theres still plenty of trees, I really don't want any more areas of concrete.

I appreciate the effect it may have on the truck, but TBH, the air here is much drier than the UK and as you’ll know, there’s not much rainfall and moisture all through the summer.

I’ve thought of cellular concrete blocks where grass can grow between, but truly, when the weather is hot and dry, the concrete burns the grass and it just becomes a sterile area.

I’m staying with the grass, and I think when all this work is finished, I’ll have a truck-load of topsoil delivered and pay the guys to rake it flat, then seed it.

We did this before when the extension was built. Can you imagine that up the center of our garden there was a “V” shaped water eroded channel 75 cm deep, due to piles of sand and gravel killing the grass? Water flowing down the garden after storms did a load of damage.

 

[StarCruiser]

There is plastic stabilising grid available now clove. Can be used for gravel or grass and disappears below the surface to give a stable area.

 

[clivehorridge]

There is plastic stabilising grid available now clove. Can be used for gravel or grass and disappears below the surface to give a stable area.

TBH, I dont have a problem with the truck and the grass parking area.

After re-soiling that part of the garden last time, about 6 years ago, we decided to “see how it goes” without a driveway / metalled parking, and its been fine, Rich.

 

[StarCruiser]

And Chas’s truck doesn’t leak diesel anymore so happy days.

 

[clivehorridge]

And Chas’s truck doesn’t leak diesel anymore so happy days.

I do like grass...

(Can’t resist the icon )

 

[Chas]

And Chas’s truck doesn’t leak diesel anymore so happy days.

Yes, there was a leak from the cold start device which Julian V replaced (about £300 quids worth)