A self build house project diary
by Oliver Cannell

Time to get this show on the road (footpath)

Time was tight, but we've finished the footpath and re-opened it again to the public.

Yesterday I put in a few hours hard labour in, on the building site, to help the guys get the public path ready for re-surfacing today.

They had already back-filled behind the retaining wall with dirt from the site and compacted that down - but another layer had to sit on top of that, for the tarmac to be laid onto.

Early in the morning yesterday, 10 tons of Type 1 crushed ballast/stone (sort of a pinkish looking crushed powder and rock) was delivered. This had to be manually loaded into wheel barrows and poured into the long hole along the public footpath.

I think in total I must have shovelled about 7 tons of it myself and I can feel it in my body today! It was great to be actually put some hard work into the build... something physical rather than just talking about stuff all the time. The weather was hot and but I was happy to outside for a change instead of stuck behind a desk. But it will be even better when it's for something actually on my side of the wall, rather than on public land.

Anyway, the guys compacted all the ballast down using a Wacker and it ended up looking like it does in these photos. I was slightly concerned that all vibration and applied forces would crack or damage our new wall, but I couldn't see anything on the other side of the wall - thankfully. Wince!

Today the tarmac guys arrived and spent a good 5 hours or so resurfacing the footpath. I've got to say they have done a cracking job. It looks very smart and it's so nice to have it open to the public again. Now we can focus of finishing building the brick wall and the main groundworks on site.

Now everyone walking down the footpath can have a proper look at what's happening on site. Nosey neighbours!

Next entry: Going down some more, before anything can up (Thursday 19th June 2014)

Previous entry: Getting connected… the old fashioned way (Monday 9th June 2014)

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