Well back home and wow the house has definitely changed, quite a lot to the point it is currently hard to distinguish if it is a building or a bomb site!! Basically the majority of the rewiring and a good part of the plumbing work has been done this means that all the carpets are up (and thankfully most disposed of!) and channels have been dug in the floor on the ground floor in order to put in the various pipes mainly for the central heating. It is actually quite interesting to see that the floor itself is a thin layer (inch or so) of concrete then some gravel and then earth so not much to dig through.
A few extra problems have of course been discovered as is a necessity with any house renovation apparently. The major one was the discovery of two asbestos boards in the kitchen behind the old units. Because of this the kitchen is currently sealed off until they can be safely removed. Thankfully before ripping out the kitchen the channels for the piping had already been dug so it is not causing any real significant delays just additional cost to remove it! There is also some minor dry rot which needs to be treated and kept an eye on and also in the kitchen there is the need for damp proofing as one wall (the only bit of wall in the house which has earth behind it (as house dug into rock bed!) has damp issues which weren’t exposed until the old stud work walls were removed.
The box room is progressing to become a shower room with the piping in! and the main bathroom has been stripped bare giving a much bigger room. The builders are also looking to raise the roof level of the bathroom (it is essentially a studwork box within larger space to room to do so!) as currently anyone of ‘normal’ height would hit their heads if standing in the proposed shower or bath!
work over the nexy month will be very slow as the builders are on holiday and the plumber and electrician will not be able to progress much further without the builders doing some work. Builders will be back in September though which should allow work to begin in earnest again.
Will get the photos I have taken today uploaded on the Great DIY photo page!
