I've been hacking away at the rock in my pit at intervals over the last few days, and it is now just about possible to see the difference. Before, it looked like this:
And now it looks like this:
Oh, really not that much difference then - the camera cannot lie.
I've mostly been using the hammer drill, and cleaning carefully after each pass. That way it's possible to see which way the grain of the rock goes, and so break it away more easily. The rock layers are of course distinctly twisted and the rock is full of hard lumps.Occasionally and at the edge I've resorted to the angle-grinder, as otherwise the hole will get to be a very irregular shape, and I'd rather it stayed reasonably rectangular. Mikey has been helping with a hose to cool the disc and keep the dust down.
It's still very hard work though ....
Mikey and I spent a busy afternoon with the concrete mixer doing the final 0.7 m3 of concrete in the corner. We used six and a half bags of cement, so that suggests a 35kg bag will do about a tenth of a cubic metre.
The new concrete looks - and is - a bit wet, but I don't suppose it will make a lot of difference to the strength. In any event, it is a corner where nothing very heavy is likely to go.
We've been working on and off in the pit, and it is gradually going a bit further down. The tools of choice - as illustrated - are a big angle grinder and diamond disk, and a hammer-action drill. A bigger drill would be nice - and would probably work a lot better. The drill flakes off the stone but it's seldom a big piece that comes out.
I tried using a big masonry drill to break into the stone, but this wasn't successful: the stone was simply too hard. Next time with Mikey I plan to have him dribbling a hose directly onto the cutting disc, as cutting with a dry disc produces immense clouds of horrible dust. Unfortunately the water doesn't drain away into the rock very quickly - there's a bit of rainwater at the bottom in the picture. I'll have to find a way to deal with that - it may simply be a bucket. Once the new floor is done in the centre, there shouldn't be too much rainwater getting in.
We've already moved a couple of the old vehicles back into the hangar, and it is a lot better having them on the new concrete than on the old dusty floor.
To do the bit of concrete I had to move the red 2CV out, and annoyingly we've had a lot of rain. It won't be able to go back in until I find a way of either moving, or using, the sand and gravel left over.
Mikey and I - with a bit of help from another friend - managed to deal with the lorry-load of concrete that arrived yesterday morning. When it arrived it was raining, which is better than sunshine when you are laying concrete.
Eight and a half cubic metres wasn't, as it turned out, quite enough to do both sides as we had planned. But that's the maximum amount that you can get in the bigger mixer-lorry, so we had to manage as well as we could.
On this side, where quite a lot had to go to the back to bring up the level, we filled barrows and wheeled it to the back. Caro and Mikey are dealing with the bits we've splashed over the edge. There's nothing like a clean working area.
We needed to work quickly as the concrete seems to set ("go off", as they say) very quickly, and we had to get it as level as possible before it became too hard to work.
But it all looked very good when we'd finished.These pictures of Mikey's below were taken through the metal grille that we had put across the entrance: we have people staying with a very large dog - a leonburger - and we didn't want very large pawprints all over it.
At the back on the left there's a small gap, but I think if I get out Tony's concrete mixer and fetch a couple of trailer-loads of sand and gravel, I should be able to get that bit done one morning. The small length of blue conduit is there so I can have an electrical feed to the pit, for lights or tools. Always better than trailing leads over the floor and tripping over them.
We were in the end quite pleased with how we managed to get it "level" - that's to say, with a slight fall towards the open end of the barn, and a similar slight fall to the drain at the back.
Mikey's camera has given a bit of distortion to the pictures as far as the depth of the hangar is concerned. It isn't really quite that far from front to back. The pit is only a little off-centre between front and back, not right at the back as it appears.
The next job will be to get on with removing the bedrock from the pit, and having a last load of concrete to finish it all off properly. With what we have it will be possible to put the various cars back in there within a few days.
..... we'll hope not, anyway
Ecclesiastes 10 verses 8 to 12:
[8] He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
[9] Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.
[10] If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
[11] Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.
[12] The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
Some very sensible advice there ..... somewhere!
The idea of getting part of the pit dug before the concrete arrives next Monday was simply that earth is cheaper than readymix concrete. I need quite a few cubic metres of earth to bring the level up at the back of the barn before putting concrete on top of it. Using concrete to make it level is the expensive option.
The pathetically small amount of spoil that's been dug out so far can just be seen at the back right of the picture. What we dug through was a layer of earth that has drifted in over the years, and then below that a made up floor, stones pounded down into clay, possibly with some other material added (ash? lime?) to make a reasonably solid floor. Below that there's a bit more earth, and then ....
... and then I think it's the bedrock. If I can borrow a digger it might be able to claw some of this up - the stone isn't really hard. Or at least sometimes it's not really hard. Plan B is to extend the pit so it's closer to the back wall of the hangar, where I expect there's a better depth available before I find the mountain again.
After a couple of days of very dusty work I have emptied almost everything out of the hangar. The "almost" is a small stack of roofing tiles in the far corner. I dimly remember that these are either seconds that don't fit the roof properly, or a different pattern that don't fit at all. They may end up going under the concrete.
About a third of the wood I cut up for firewood, maybe a bit more could be saved for possible re-use (though that might include re-use as firewood too), and the rest went onto the bonfire as being too full of woodworm for any practical purposes.
The wood that is being saved has gone up onto the platform:
I would guess that this is the first time the hangar has been clear like this for a good fifty years. The main problem with what is left is that up against the back wall there is a thick layer of disintegrating firewood and similar material, which won't make a very good base for the concrete.
The hangar is about to get a concrete floor - at last. Working on any of the vehicles currently presents a major difficulty. If you drop anything small, there's an evens chance that you'll never find it again in the dust on the floor. Add to that the chickens' frequent dustbaths, which spread the dust all over everything in the hangar, and you can see why the job needs to be done.
First, though, it has to be emptied completely. I took all the cars out (this had to wait until I had done the electronic ignition on the H-van) and moved quite a bit from the left hand corner before I took the first pictures:
One of the things that had been sitting in the corner for several years was the old and ricketty steps that used to give access to the platform. I dug it out and fixed it in the middle of the wall, as I knew I'd be up and down all day when sorting out the timber.
The next picture is as things are today, after quite a lot of sorting. The wood goes one of three ways. Stuff that is solid and potentially useable goes up to the platform. Wood that is reasonably thick and not too much eaten by wood-worm gets chopped up with the circular saw. Anything else - pine boards that you can break across your knee, for example - goes straight to the bonfire.
I've started a bit of sorting on the wood still there: firewood on the left, and useable wood on the right. Much of the middle remains to be investigated, but I'd guess most of it is firewood.
Although it hardly looks different I'd guess I've moved a good ton of wood out. There's a large pile of firewood now next door.
