spot on shings,but easy here with this
http://www.cemex.ie/ps/ps_ac_ca.html

 

I know mate - I've just got my work head on now, I'm one of those rare people - I actually enjoy doing my job.

 

THats cheating and the easy way LOL.....

The maths is easy, its getting the correct figures to pump into the calculator.

If you measure from the external perimeter of the trench you get too much, if you measure from the internal perimeter too little so you have to work out the 'Centre Line' of the trench.

Its not complicated on something like this but gets more complicated when you're working out the centre of the trench, the cavity, the internal block work, external block work and so on... because you need to do that as well to get accurate measurements for bricks and blocks.

GOD I AM SAD TONIGHT

 

try this one aswell
http://www.cemex.ie/se/se_pc.html

 

no, MOT, as thats what the builder has asked for.


maybe if the setup allows the space, and as for cars, only the one.

we do have a conifer, we have gone to 1.2meters around it, and the root is clear.

 

sweet...I'd love something like that...nice one...

 

At what concrete depth Jake? Because if its only 225mm deep concrete then it would have only needed 4.59m3 Surely you have calculated for a mass fill at .900 deep which would be too much mass fill! It needs to finish at least 150mm below F.G.L.

Perimeter of 10+10+7+7 = 34m
34m x .600 x .225 = 4.59m3 of concrete!

 

Ah right must be the different areas call it different stuff Department of transport round here

 

Youre correct in what you say about the centre line Jake But its a typical it will work on paper theory and never on site one. Stick to the outer line for the perimeter measurement in reality as it gives you a little more for the discrepencies in the dig

 

It does surprise me when people give Lee grife he is a builder after all so should have a pretty good idea what he is doing,

Looks cool Mark l am doing my garden at the moment and had great fun with the digger

Mike

 

I spoke to the concrete company and estimated at 5m3 for the founds and 12m3 for the base - di you get somewhere near that ?

 

Sorry Mark that was for that other guy on here who jake replied to

Personally for your founds id be looking at 6m3 as like i said i always use the outer perimeter measurement. That will give you 225mm of concrete depth. If theres some left over it wont hurt to put that in too, as you wont be working to a set gauge depth with it being an independant building. More the merrier so to speak

 

I dont mind getting a bit of stick mate I can be patronising sometimes i guess
But, people with valuble knowledge like Karl Norris who used to give out free advice left this site because of issues like this! So we all miss out now

 

Totally agree, I do paper- I dont build hence what I said further up - I've done my calcs based on what has been provided so 900 deep for foundations and slab 150 deep (6 inches) inside the foundations, but you could do foundations to 750 deep and slab 150 to the extremes of the reduced level and it would work out the same - just two different lots to order.

I've not taken an allowance for any in fill at the bottom of the trench.

Re you're comment about Karl - the prob with Karl was always people challengine his knowledge and advice, if someone had come along and said I do x because of x then x but Karls method will also work then he would prob still be around.

Unft Karl was a target - I never saw any bonefide tuning businesses argueing with him.

Jake

 

Did you work it out to pour it in one then Jake? As in fill the strip founds and the base at the same time?

 

Yeh - I've sent Mark a sheet with 3 calcs on it.

First one assuming same pour

Second one assuming two pours so found to 750 deep and slab over the whole 10x8 area.
(Both obv same amount in total but two different orders)

Third one taking your advice of using the external perm. but I coloured one of the cells and advised how to adjust it in case I'd misunderstood where the 900 went to and also for any hardcore/sand at the bottom of the trench.

I assumed 900 was to the top of the existing ground level rather than the reduced level of the slab base.

Jake

 

thanks for all the help, and Jake for the calcs, makes sence

I think this is the plan (though im only summising as th ebuilds not here till tomorrow !)

MOT in to a certain level, wackered, then concrete in (maybe 250mm?) then foundation block and build up to DPC sounds like what i would do anyway

 

I dont see the point in the MOT before the concrete??? I would want concrete galore in there, straight onto the earth?

 

That would be about right.

Either foundation blocks or Engineering bricks (obv more expensive to lay bricks as more of them per m2, but look nicer?) to the equivilent of 2-3 courses above finished ground level externally then DPC on top. At least thats the theory - for a garage I would question whether you'd need a DPC as engineers should suffice - again in theory.

Glad the calcs etc made sense, whatever depth is left after the MOT goes in and is wackered is the adjustment in the yellow box on the sheet ( I.E from the top of compacted MOT to where you want the foundation level to be)

If you only use 250mm deep of concrete for the foundations that obviously reduces the amount you need, without checking probably to somewhere near what Lee said earlier in the thread.

 

No way does stone go in the foundations prior to concrete Mark. Ive never come across someone doing that before!
Concrete in the strip foundations at 225 deep. Then build off the concrete with footing blocks to 150mm below FGL. Then lay 2 course of facing bricks up to FGL/slab level. Fill in the foundations with stone, prepare the slab with 200m of rolled stone to 170mm below FFL, 20mm sand blinding, layer of visqueen and then concrete!

I know different areas do things different but to put stone into a strip foundations then concrete over is madness imo!

 

Incidently...

with a foundation of 225 (rounded to 230) deep thats 5.69m3 at my centre line
with a foundation of 225 (rounded to 230) deep with Lees suggestion of external perimeter its 6.21m3

I did think it was a lot of foundation at 900mm deep...

Lee your design sounds about right - but then you'd know that being a builder lol.

 

quite right - thats why im paying someone else to deal with this concrete should be in first by wed afternoon once the inspectors been

6 m3 going in tomorrow afternoon

 

Out of interest Mark how did you find the builder? Do you know him or has he come recomended etc? Is he busy? Whats the trade like around your way now?

 

I found this guy from the yellow pages - lives not too far from me anyway, and there are two of them as partners, young lads, but have no problems offering inspections of their previous work.

the first hurdle they crossed was the 'ok i'll be there tomorrow at 6.00pm' they actually turned up for a start.

The trade round here - i couldnt say, as i have contacted some 12 plus builders, half of them turned up, a 1/4 of them turned up on time, the rest didnt bother.

Out of the ones that turned up, they all took over three weeks to get me a rough quote (apart from the lads im using-they did it in a few days)

After asking a timescale for the quote, the scale ranged from a couple of days to 'by the end of the week' im still waiting for some of them some 8 weeks later,

Im pretty good when it comes to pricing jobs, im pretty clued up in most trades to have an idea of rough pricing, some of the quotes (2 of them) where double what its costing to do

Of the ones i have spoken to and came to look at the job, all of them said they wanted the work as the job was and i quote " the quietest its been for 15 years"

yet the guy who said that, im still waiting for his ' couple of days quote' some 4 weeks later

So, you would have to draw your own conclusions, i think if you work hard, to make a wage in a recession, then you will survive, I think if you quote high or lazy then you will never be in work for any length of time,

The two guys (plus labourers they have) have just finished an extension, and have one waiting to do after mine, (mine is a two part job - garage then house) so I think they will go and do the next one then come back to me.
Sound busy enough if you ask me.

 

Thats shocking tbh with the quoting especially like you say it being a quiet period! Youd think they would have had the quote there within a week!
Do they do the full service or are they a pair of brickies?

 

What as in oil filter/air filter and fuel filter ? dont think so

They will do the lot, they have organized and sorted the dig, all im doing really is supplying the materials, they do the rest, I have alot of friends in other parts and people who I have used for years who I always give my work to, just never had any brick/blockwork done for years so had to find a new contact.

 

Well good luck with it, hate to hear horror stories in the trade so hope all goes well

We recently lost an extension that were were highly recommended for, i can only assume we were massivley undercut. Good god, you should see the state of it

 

Looks really good.

Keep it updated with pictures

 

I cannot understand the variation in prices in the building trade, and we are talking all aspects of the building trade. How one person can double anothers price for the same job i do not know a differance of near Ł14,000, how much of a differant job can you do for an extra Ł14k?

i can understand maybe a couple of K, but not 10's of thousands.

one guy quoted me over Ł10k to put a roof on this build 4 RSJ's and 850 marley moderns - fookin 10k - i just laughed him of my property

 

sounds good to me,thats exactly how i would do it lee.

 

We're getting under cut all the time at the mo and we're quite cheap for what we do and have a very good reputation. When we do win a job the contract terms are really difficult to work under and loads of risk so our margins are close to 2% profit and generally we just break even - we have no idea how people undercut us as we all buy the same stuff and pay the same rates for people.

Not nice out there at the mo.

With private building I am sure theres a certain element of chancing your arm and praying on the potentially unwary.

J

 

my brother in law has been a builder for some 15+ years; he recently got a phone call to go and price for a leaking roof on an extension

when he arrived at the property the owner looked a bit sheepish; it soon dawned on him that he had been to the property before. It turned out my bro in law had priced for the extension but was undercut, the company who done it has now gone bust and left this bloke with a very bad extension and a leaking roof......

sorry, slightly off topic!

 

im a QS for a drylining and ceiling firm, and the prices that we are having to put in to be competitive for tenders is ridiculous. fixers rates, materials rates have all been slashed, and we are down to a very low profit percentage, and we are factoring in all material rebates into prices. We are not at the stage of pricing at cost yet, but i can see that coming soon.

i work in construction and still cant believe the attitude that some private builders have. Im renovating my house at the moment, and the amount of people that try it on with prices and time scales etc is rediculous, hence why I am doing the majority of the work myself, and only using people i use at work for materials. when i did my driveway, i got 5 quotes, 4 of them took 2 weeks to come, and the one who supplied me it the day after i asked for it, was Ł2k dearer than anyone else. But if i was going to get someone to do the work i would have gone for him, because it is true, you get what you pay for.

 

thats crap mate, generally how things pan out with cheap jobs

 

5.5m3 went into the strip foundations today ! blocks to build up to DPC in now and then
weather permitting the slab should be in by next weekend

 

Mark I dont know why you didn't see this coming when you typed your reply.



PICS OR STFU


Jake


( works when ever someones on about some fit bird or a fast car )

 

my garden currently looks like this ....



and there are another 600 block to come yet



Should be in garage projects or something this post perhaps?

but then again there is more than enough shite on GD, one more thread aint gonna do any harm

 

i hated it when the garage at my house was getting built, bricks,shite etc...everywhere.

looks good now its all finished though.

 

Awesome pics, interesting to see the progress. Threads like this should be more common with forum users helping one another out. In 6 years on here, I don't think I have seen this many offers of assistance in one thread, good work.

LOL @ the tags for Lee although the title does say Builders and that is what Lee is as far as I know

 

Getting there.

I remember the state of my garden at that stage and I also had my very own stone henge.

Mind you, it doesn't look much better now.