sdh2903
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| posted on 1/2/16 at 07:05 PM |
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Is the building trade mega busy?
Finally after 12 months of emails, letters and phonecalls I have all the permissions in place to get my new garage built. Now I plan on doing a lot of
the work myself but I wanted to get the ground works done professionally. Its nothing fancy, 6.5 m x 3.5m, dig down 400mm, 150 mm hardcore and a 230mm
slab which I'd like power floating. And remove all waste.
Now I had a guy lined up but he's had to back out on health grounds so I'm back getting quotes from local groundworkers and to be honest
it's like they don't want to know. Is the trade that busy at present? Most aren't answering to emails and voice mails I've
left, several haven't turned up to take a look and the 1 who did bother has quoted me £6400 +vat!!
Looks like I'll have to brush up on my mini digger driving skills
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perksy
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| posted on 1/2/16 at 07:38 PM |
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Everybody I know is busy
Some will quote high as they don't really need it but don't want folks thinking they aren't quoting
Some will look but if the jobs not worth 'X' number of quid, won't quote it
Good job you don't want a plasterer....
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Shooter63
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| posted on 1/2/16 at 07:54 PM |
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I'm in the trade and yes everybody is very busy down in the London area, but I didn't think the whole country was, we are employing quite
a few northern guys at the moment because work is slack in there local area.
Your problem may be the size of the job you want done, try and find a local small builder, you may get a better price.
It sounds like you are going to use some form of raft footing, I would think that a weekend with a shovel, a hired mini mixer and a couple of cube of
concrete would get the job done.
Shooter
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sdh2903
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| posted on 1/2/16 at 08:00 PM |
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Yes its a timber framed structure on a slab/raft. It's a bit heavy duty due to a sewer running beneath. I'm not averse to doing it myself
but it's a fairly big slab at 5 cubes and Ive never done anything that big and no clue about power floating apart from the youtube vids
I've seen.
[Edited on 1/2/16 by sdh2903]
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cliftyhanger
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| posted on 1/2/16 at 08:03 PM |
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Find a mini digger with driver. I have done for a few jobs here, and the cost is OK.
In fact, get the hole dug, grab lorry to take the spoil. Book the grab for late afternoon when the digger is still there. Total sub £500 (depending
how far the garage is from the road etc)
Lorry to deliver the sub-base, you can sort that bit. Then get mixamate or similar. I found one who for £40 supplied a tracked/manned power
wheelbarrow. Yes, a bit more expensive than mixing your own, but zero effort and a very even mix. Plus you can get the fibre strands added to
reinforce it.
The only tricky bit is the power floating.
What about footings? Or are you just building up off the slab?
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sdh2903
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| posted on 1/2/16 at 08:11 PM |
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Building up off the slab. I'm happy with organising everything separately. It's just getting the concrete poured and smooth enough as
it's along side the house so can only get to 3 sides to tamp it, so will have to be tamped end to end 6.5m. And I don't want to feck it
up by making an arse of the power floating.
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mark chandler
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| posted on 1/2/16 at 08:26 PM |
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I mixed my own slab year before last as did not want a lorry ripping up my drive, 5 yards in a little mixer is hard going when you are not used to it,
my other half prepared the water in a bucket, lined stuff up etc, it was very satisfying to do.
To keep this moving mixed plastizer in deminishing qunitities.
I pourered footings around 450"" deep then built up with engineering bricks to make a trough to ground level, scrapped it out, 200mm of
type 1 then wacked it down (wacker was £150 off eBay), bit of sand then put some suspended mesh across the void and filled to the top of the bricks
with concrete, I guess it is a 6-8" thick slab.
Just used a long bit of wood to tamp down working backwards walking along the bricks.
Cost more than expected in the end, maybe £1,200 for a 6m X 4m slab, having purchased a house with a 4m X 4m slab before that cracked I did not want
to repeat their mistake!
If you want flat once done get someone to lay a screed on top and finish a couple of inches lower down.
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hkp57
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| posted on 2/2/16 at 08:12 AM |
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Try Rab Stewart, he does all my ground work at reasonable costs.
http://www.rslandscapingandconstruction.co.uk/index.html
Fleet
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nick205
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| posted on 2/2/16 at 08:42 AM |
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I'd work on recommendation and find a local builder to do it for you. Ideally someone small who will appreciate the job and work hard at it.
Larger firms want bigger jobs and more money so may pass over what they see as small jobs.
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Sam_68
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| posted on 2/2/16 at 09:02 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by sdh2903
Yes its a timber framed structure on a slab/raft.
Is it a stick build, or are you getting the timber frame panels manufactured for you?
Particularly if the latter, bear in mind that you need everything to be quite accurate (+/-10mm on line; +/-5mm on diagonals and soleplate
level).
U2U me if you'd like a copy of a siteworks checklist for timber frame erection.
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sdh2903
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| posted on 2/2/16 at 09:59 AM |
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U2ud sam. It's a stick build as you call it.
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