Blenheim Grove video 6 – On our way up!

Our build continues to progress as we see the block work being done, the concrete retaining walls coming up, and some concrete slabs have gone in!

Check back often as we will be posting videos of our progress throughout the build.

Video transcript:

Again back at Blenheim Grove for the latest site meeting. I’m standing here in a kitchen, and with no walls you can see all the way down the site. And you can see we’re pretty much out of the ground.
Today we’ve got to make a thought on these bricks, now you might be able to notice that the top, the mortar, is a slightly different colour to the bottom. That’s because it’s got a different mix of lime and cement.
You can see the top I’m not sure if you can see that, I’ll try and zoom in. You see someone’s helpfully marked 8 to 1 to 2, I think that’s something like sand to lime to cement.
And then down there, somewhere, 6 to 1 to 1. So that’s sand to lime to cement. You can see it gives a slightly different colour, slightly yellower and slightly darker.
So we’re just going through that process, we’re going for that brick, rather than this brick over here, which we definitely feel is the right decision.
You can see here some of the block work coming up.
I’m now standing in the, this is the utility kitchen area of number 56. Outside there is the lightwell, the entrance to the lower ground. That bit there is your living room.
And then if we come along here, we can get into number 58. You have a bit of stuff in your living room there. And then a slightly larger kitchen utility area down here.
And then if we go across, we’re now in the largest house so far, number 60. And you can see it starts getting bigger and bigger, you can see a little spot down there for the undercroft that hasn’t been built up yet.
If you look over here you can get a good view of the undercroft for number 58.
So there’s a back bit there, and the front bit. And then that hole there is going to be where your window and the entrance to the kitchen is.
And these are the new bits over here, weren’t able to walk across here before, so we’re finally finished all of that, which is good.
See here that we’re finally digging out those bits down in number 64 which is the largest house.
A bit of detail here that I thought might be quite interesting, so the unattractive red bricks, they act… they going to be below ground, you won’t be able to see them. But they’re engineering bricks, so they do a lot of supporting.
You can see this black stuff, this sort of black stuff is sort of waterproofing that goes over. This looks a bit like duct tape, but it’s all sticky. So it sticks, protects any water getting in. And you can see that running all the way along here.