Moving to rock solid

We now have a new plynth for the tank.  It took most of Tuesday.  Big thanks go to the Veveri, Mowgli and Akela. 

I stood on the slab this afternoon and its looking good.  we should be able to remove the wooden shuttering later in the week.

The gas cage took some coaxing back into place (over the top of wet concrete). 

Between cage and tank we now have space for storage of our BBQ's and other iron work.

Hard labour

The skip was picked up this morning.  Full of earth plus my old faithful wheelbarrow, its back broken by the strain.

Shuttering is now in position for a slab pour tomorrow.  We have the free loan of a concrete mixer and the materials have been ordered to arrive tomorrow morning.  When you dont order or lay concrete, arriving at the right amounts can be fraught (thanks to Baggy for use of his worry beads).

The stage has been cleared of kit, with the bulk of the equipment placed in racks in the loft.  This was no mean feat.  I admit that this did include a trip to the local 'civic amenity site' (the rubbish tip).

Thanks to Mowgli for his help (part repaid by taking him out to lunch).

Tomorrow will be a heavy day and given one cubic metre of concrete is 2.2 tonnes, we will have our work cut out moving 325kg of cement and three bags of balast (we need 1850kg, but I had to order more than we need), we can expect the day to be hard one.

19:40 Update:  Just been and bought another wheelbarrow.  My last one died as Mowgli dumped earth in the skip.  I feel justified getting a new one, as the old one was much loved.  RIP Ronny the wheelbarrow.

Balast down and shuttering up

We used the blocks we removed yesterday as balast and employed some gash wood the Veveri pulled from his garage as shuttering.  We have a small amount of shuttering left to put in place and then its out with the worry beads and decide which concrete to order.

Clearing and digging

I am a broken man!  Today started at 07:50 with me looking to intercept delivery and pay for a skip.  The skip was already there (I had coned off the area the evening before).  The morning saw Mowgli, the Veveri and Akela attack the mess of concrete in prep for a new tank base.

We had just stopped (Akela's wheel barrow died and after a moving ceremony was placed in the skip) when Steve G pitched up.  He worked like a trojan and Akela re-joined him.  Martin Farmer pitched up and he attacked the job viciously.  Frank joined us and by ten to six in the evening, we are ready for hard core to be placed.

We need to buy some shuttering for the sides of the hole, but progress today has been massive.  A big thank you to all who helped.

At the start of the day, Dan and Akela placed significant amounts of clobber (that had been in the Scout garage) from the stage, into the loft.

I hurt.  I am not used to this kind of hammering, but I can say that we have made significant progress towards getting the heating back on-line.

Heating and Buffs

Akela put up a new notice board in the hall.  Its a minor job but we needed somewhere to post our PRS certificate and adverts from hall users.

Yesterday evening, I was presented with a cheque for £500 in support of our work on the hall.  The cheque came from the ROAB (Buffs).  This is a lot of cash from such a small charitable group, but they can see what we have done with the hall and are keen to support us.

A skip arrives tomorrow (Saturday) to enable us to remove rubble in preparation for cleaning up the area around the oil tank.Working parties are in play from Saturday afternoon, also on Monday and Tuesday.

A revisit of the guttering estimate (forced by seeing rotten and damaged wood and moving to new gluttering and boards) has seen an increase in cost, but the work should start late next week.

Sunday, Sunday looks good to me

Sunday morning saw a sorry working party of two struggle with cleaning up the side of the hall.  It became clear that we need a mini digger and a skip...  After arriving at this understanding, we went up into the loft and adjusted the size of the racks (grinding wheel in play) and added shelves. 

The stage has started to see a reduction in the volume of kit on show and we will soon be back to seeing the stage curtains in full glory.

First aid and racking

New hall first aid kit placed in kitchen (we were using our camp kit, but since this is used on camp, we needed another one).  New cuts and burns kit, plus face mask mounted on first aid cupboard.

Loft cleaned out.  Racking placed in the loft and part assembled.

All toilets bleached and sinks and urinals treated with Dettol.