After a week's lull, the groundworks team returned to build the next level of our foundations.
The yellow plastic is a combined radon gas barrier and damp-proof membrane. This was laid in strips on top of the concrete foundations.
This is a non-standard building detail - the DPM is usually routed on top of the block and brick work.
These tongue-and-groove cement "trench blocks" were laid on a bed of mortar around the perimeter of the house and across the load-bearing strip foundations.
James, Sam (the brickie) and John laid all of the blocks in one day.
We can now see clearly the outline of our new house and the dimensions of the rooms.
This view is through the TV room into the kitchen / dining / living area.
Next day, two parallel courses of hard engineering bricks were laid on top of the blocks. The floor of our new house will be constructed from concrete I-beams, supported on the inner course of bricks. The voids inside the block / brick walls will be sand-blinded, lined with DPM (taped joints) and filled with solid foam insulation.
While the groundworks team was busy on the new site, the fencing contractors (Sarah and Martin) built a new 6-foot boarded fence along one side of our new drive. We first dug in concrete posts - quite a challenge to knock through the compacted surface of the drive.
And then constructed the fence using horizontal cant-rails and vertical close boarding. And hundreds of nails. But no damaged thumbs.
Won't be needing those old school shoes in the foreground.
The garden of our old house is now enclosed by the new fence.
We are marketing the house for sale in the new few weeks, so pressure on to finish the new one ...