On Monday we discovered that the pump didn't do such a good job. The water level was actually higher than on Friday. You can see the water in the picture on the left. Were this guy is standing the desired dept of 3.1 meter is reached. But before they can start with the foundation this water has to be completely gone. They told me not to worry about it and that they already had a backup plan in place for this. As you can see by the way also the poles needed to be shortened again. So more jack hammer drilling all day long :( I'm so enjoying the silence when they go home now ;)
Shortly after that the backup plan arrived. A company specialized in this work. It was fun to see that they put this pipes in the ground with some kind of water drill. They pump water under high pressure through a hose to make a hole in the ground. Very quick. Then they could put in these pipes that are connected to a bigger pump. Within 2 hours all the water was gone and also the complete ground water level was dropped to the required depth. So after that they could continue to dig the rest also to 3.1 meters.
My wife went on the roof at our neighbors to take this picture. It gives a better idea of the scale of this project. You can also see our kitchen standing on one pole there in that corner. There is still some ground under the foundation there, but not much anymore. Quite a strange idea when we are having dinner there. Normally we can also walk outside to the garden there, but we locked that door now for safety. You can also see that it is completely dry now in this picture.
In this picture you see another load of dirt and clay leaving. Every time we think it will be the last one. But they are still driving on and of. Even our neighbors are starting to ask question now how much more loads will come. Well it should be almost done.
Also in the mean time some materials are arriving for the foundation. I guess they are a tiny bit behind schedule because of the water problem. But they will start soon on that. I'll update you again soon.
Last week the constructor started working on the roof of the studio. The first thing they did is put on large concrete plates. On top of that a maze from steel was made again that will reinforce the concrete that will be put on later. Also the electrician put in the pipes for the electrical wiring. We made two light spots in the studio and 4 places to get electricity from. Besides that I asked them to put in extra pipes for my surround monitoring setup. These active monitors will be attached to the ceiling so I needed two pipes per speaker one for the audio signal and one for the power. There will be one switch later to turn all the monitors on and off at once. Very convenient.
After this they put on a layer of concrete. You can just see the steel framework left in the corner. They straightened the whole thing by hand. Quite impressive to see. Of course the concrete is fluid for a while so they can still manipulate it. They also left a hole that you can see in the back of the picture. Though this opening (that will be bigger later) the stairs that will lead down will be fitted eventually. I find it still difficult to imagine how it will all look later, but I guess it will be alright :)
At the moment they put the concrete on it was very sunny weather. The constructor was actually afraid that it would dry too quickly. This could lead to potential cracks he said. So he asked us to put water on it after a few hours and again the next morning. Here you see my wife watering the concrete. It was already dry enough to stand on here. Quite nice that we can go outside already again. My wife and the kids also went down in the basement last weekend. It was quite an echo well they said. Which confirms that we will have a lot of work to get the acoustics right later. But we did anticipate on that. We'll see what they are going to do next this week. I hope at least they can close the gap to our neighbor's garden so that this can't be ruined any further. I'll keep you posted.
