Onwards upwards

Foundation fun

Great to be moving on from the messy, muddy mayhem and finally start creating something more solid. A positive feeling of progress at last. Getting the unseen layers of the floor construction sorted is a vital first step in moving things forward.

It was amazing to see just how much hardcore was needed for backfilling the building – over 30+ tonnes of the stuff! Gradually, though, the level reached the required height, ready to be compacted to a rough-finished surface.

Once the levels were checked and sorted, the top of the hardcore surface was coated with a finer binding layer to provide a clean, level working surface.

This creates a smoother surface with no protruding, sharp edges of the hardcore visible. This is really important when the damp-proof membrane (DPM) is fitted next to prevent punctures. No one wants water ingress from below.

At this stage, provisions were also needed to be made for the pad foundations required for the subsequent structural steelwork, which is to be installed later on.

It’s all about the preparation and layers at the moment, but it’s beginning to look a bit like a floor now. Trying not to get too excited, there’s still a way to go just yet!

Insulation inbound

Exciting times, another big delivery arrives today. So big, it came with its own forklift truck! More ‘ingredients’ for the construction of the insulated reinforced concrete floor slab.

Although this will ultimately all get hidden away within the floor construction, the benefits it will bring should make a massive difference moving forward.

As well as the truckload of floor insulation, the steel reinforcement, the DPM and a host of other essential materials arrived. No excuses now, it’s time to crack on.

Loved the funky rusty steel reinforcement steelwork, what’s not to like? It’s inspired a possible idea for creating a ‘living structure’ as part of the building refurbishment project… stay tuned for this. Never short of an idea or two me.

Construction cake

The hardcore provides a solid base for the insulated reinforced concrete slab to be laid on, whilst also helping with subterranean water drainage. The construction cake is now ready for the next, much thinner, but vital layer to be put in place.

To ensure there’s no upward ingress of water through the concrete slab once it’s been laid, a heavy-duty damp-proof membrane (DPM) is spread across the surface.

Essentially, this provides under-slab waterproofing. It will be nice to know I will no longer be sleeping over a cold, dank, musty quagmire. So glad I’ll be leaving those days behind me now, urghh!

Warm wonder

With the DPM now positioned and fixed, time to get the floor insulation sheets fitted into place. Cutting around the locations of the future structural steelwork.

After the jigsaw arrangement of insulation is cut around the pad foundation positions, all the joints are sealed with foil tape to help with thermal integrity.

On top of the insulation sheets, a vapour barrier is then added as the final layer of the construction mix prior to the reinforced concrete being laid.

Trench time

Whilst the internal mechanical digger requirements were sorted, there was one last job before they trundled off-site. Getting a trench dug for the electrical re-routing.

I had bought a reel of electrical conduit to be run from the telegraph pole in the croft through to inside the building. Danda once again, doing his thing brilliantly!

The conduit was cut to length, and a strong pull-through rope was added before it was rolled out in the trench and buried underground. No one wants a snagged cable stuck halfway through!

Job done. Now, all ready to arrange for the mains cable to be rerouted by the electricity board and brought back into the Small Mission Hall at a more convenient location and usable height. Another job for another day,

Positive progress

The floor preparation sub-base is now all sorted. Just missing one main vital ingredient… concrete! A whole truckload of the stuff is going to be needed, judging by the amount of materials the building seems to be consuming at the moment.

If you’re interested in following the progress and adventures, feel free to subscribe to receive updates, or follow (Instagram, Facebook or YouTube) to join the journey – no catches, no spam!

Rest assured, there’s absolutely no AI-generated churn here; it’s just my own quirky outworking of ideas and dreams, as I look to renovate a derelict Small Mission Hall in the Outer Hebrides.

PS: Very late video update

Yeah, I know, it was a while ago, but better late than never, right?

I’ve finally got around to putting together some video from the Dancing with Diggers part of the renovation, in case anyone’s interested.

It’s also on my Small Mission Hall YouTube page if you want to watch it…