Crawfordsburn Diary Entry No.7 - Foundations

This week saw Baylands Construction Ltd place the footings and start work on the dwellings’ blockwork substructure. Kevin and the team have had relatively good weather to date which has eased the working process. The substructure included the blockwork, 100mm of compacted hardcore (crushed stone) as normal, binding was then applied on top of this alongside a damp proof membrane. The concrete sub floor (150mm) was then poured. This concrete has to sit for a few weeks until it totally sets before any other works can commence.

Concrete was chosen to construct the floor slab for a number of reasons. Costs were a major factor in the decision as concrete provides the cheapest, quickest and most accessible material available to the team. The builders are also familiar with the concrete construction processes. The concrete floor also acts as an effective thermal store, it serves to store heat and facilitate an even temperature throughout the dwelling.

The following detailed drawing illustrates the construction method which shows foundations to floor and wall.

Foundation detail

We’ve also included the following photograph illustrating the foundations and floor under construction.

Boundary walls and hardcore

The next stage of the build is the fitting of the foam glass blok, floor insulation and wall plate. We’ll check in again when further project has been made.