Building Work (Week 3) – Steels and an Open Plan Bathroom

The builders started attacking on multiple fronts at the same time this week – the extension, the hall and the bathroom – I’ll go through them one by one.

Extension

These little metal strips appeared on the side of the brickwork – I think they are to bind the old and new brickwork together.  The extension will have a brick outer wall and a blockwork inner wall.  I originally asked for the brickwork on the outer wall to be ‘toothed in’ but as the original bricks are imperial this caused a whole world of unforeseen (to me) consequences.  One factor was cost, the imperial bricks were £1.05 each rather than about 22p for a metric brick. It’s not really possible to just use metric bricks with a bigger mortar joint (as the internet suggested) because then the courses take longer to dry so they can’t get as many done in a day but the main problem is, as the blockwork used for the inner wall is metric, you have to have mortar joint line up to put the wall ties in.  You could have an inner and outer leaf of imperial bricks (if you can afford it) but they you have the problem of the insulation also being metric! Needless to say, when all this was explained to me, I agreed to go with metric bricks and a joint down the front of the house.

Metal ties brickwork

At the back – there will be bi-fold doors to the right of this pillar, so they’ve just neatened it up.  Looks good doesn’t it? I like bricks…

Brick end pillar

Steels went in next, by the time I got home from work it was already dark (and the next morning the brickies were working on it) – I think here they’ve replaced the bricks on the inner wall.

Steel RSJs in place

And now they’ve done the outer.  I’m not sure why the needles (which apparently is what the mini steel beams are called) are still there – while it dries perhaps.

Brickwork above steel RSJ

Hallway

The old door wall between the dining room and the hall has been blocked up.  A new doorway opened up and that old backdoor got put to its third use!

Doorway moved

This is a photo of what it used to look like inside the hall.

original hall

And this is a photo of what it looks like now – the coat closet and porch have gone.

Opened up hall

From inside the living room.  It feels huge now – the builders reckon I should forget the little WC and leave it as it is!

Opened up hall

Bathroom

The door frames were removed from the bathroom and toilet.

toilet and bathroom

The following day the wall came down!  It’s a shame open plan bathrooms aren’t really en vogue….

Open Plan Bathroom

I made a couple of animated gifs showing the progress / destruction to date – because who doesn’t love an animated gif?

Downstairs – Weeks 1 to 3

Downstairs - Weeks 1 to 3

Upstairs – Weeks 1 to 3

(except it all happened in week 3)
Upstairs Weeks 1 to 3

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