Towards the end of October the garage was finally taking shape, and ready for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we'd built a monument to it in our garden.
The shuttering used for the walls was a heavy duty system using pre-made panels that are bolted together in position, which can be used multiple times. The German-made Meva panels give the garage its pre-cast panellised look. They cost a fortune apparently, so every night while they lay in a pile waiting to be erected, Julian would leave the site locked up with the digger and dumper arranged in complicated ways so the precious panels were locked into place under the digger bucket. The garage walls were poured in two parts rather than the whole lot done in one go, with panels held into place using bars bolted into the garage slab, and bolts holding each side together. More water bar was threaded up each concrete "seam". Scaffolding was added in place around the top to allow someone to walk round the top and direct the concrete pump nozzle. It seemed a lot to create an effective mould, but considering the weight of all that concrete you'd want to be on the safe side.
The concrete deliveries were fun to watch. The concrete pump guy would arrive first, park up the drive and get setup, and we'd stand chatting whilst waiting for Cemex to arrive. They'd appear in the concrete truck and reverse up the drive, the concrete being mixed and sliding down a chute into the pump wagon, which would then squirt the concrete up its long trunk-like pipe, controlled with a remote control device by concrete pump guy. Julian's sidekick would then direct the pump between the steels and squirt in the concrete, and Julian would follow with a special vibrating poker to stir the concrete and remove air bubbles. Once all filled up it didn't take long for the concrete to go off, and the panels only needed to be up for another day or so.
Finally the panels were all done with and could be whisked off to be stored safely, and we were left with our C-shaped wall. A land drain was added around the perimeter - a continuous pipe with perforations on top, sitting on a bed of shingle and wrapped in geo textile membrane. Any water seeping down the outer walls underground would thus collect in the pipe and be directed to the drainage in the drive (yet to be constructed).
One that was in place though the site could now be cleared up a bit and piles of earth moved about. All that rain though had meant the ground was softer than it had been in September, making moving plant round the site somewhat more cumbersome, so a load of it was backfilled around the garage, some more moved about and some taken off site.
Now a break while we wait the delivery of the pre-cast concrete roof beams - and time to get back to the house at last!
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