Concrete Oversite ~ How To Build An Extension #2 

On the plus side, the darkness made that level nice and easy to read..

They should have given you that last metre of concrete as an apology for keeping you waiting!

Concrete Singh, there's your problem right there.

Concrete arrives late, is short on volume and wants paying before the release the mix..... obviously didn’t see the Skillbuilder cameras. Might be losing a few customers there instead potentially gaining a few.

What I like about this channel is the honesty and real life dramas mixed in with good banter, we all get problems but its good to see other people dealing with it and its something we can really relate to and have a bit of a laugh with👍👍

Oh jeez The old “ he’s just leaving the yard “ lie , wish I had a pound for every time I heard that one ! What a day or should I say evening , Rog was on bloody night vision at one point “ Those mix on the wagons always say you’ve used more. Great job in spite of everything but for Christ’s sake get some wellies next time lads 🧱👍🏼👢

Omg I would’ve been fuming if that was me .. fair play to James he’s got more understanding and patience than me !!

James could have his own Chanel, very likeable character. That tendon in your foot tho will be the least of your worries.... when you get concrete burns 😂

Singh will be the cheapest and everyone loves the cheapest quote don’t they?? 😁😁😁

James, ever the professional! I’m not sure I could have been so diplomatic with the concrete firm.. 👏

Great series this roger!! Looking forward to more. Great job as always pal!

Nice one James, it's common I guess but I like marking the spazzle to check the level as you go. 👍

Mr King He’s a top man! I enjoy his videos very much, please continue to follow him. Also Roger I’d really like to see the progress on your extension where you created a short video for laying concrete blocks with a wooden spaces.

Great work and great video guys

Great job guys. Good luck.

Couldn’t agree more on both counts. Wellies lads, wellies all the way

Well done boys

Great idea with the laser

Looks like the beginnings of a great job, will James and co fancy an extension job in north bucks mid 2021, more than happy for you guys to film it.

Love it - wish you'd done this series before I did my DIY build the other year, but always enjoyable. May be gearing up for project #2 :D I also felt really odd chucking 50mm of sand down. Kept double checking it because it seemed so much! Also, as others have said, nice to see the "real life" side. Had a few setbacks on my project and it really knocked my confidence, but the more I'm in the "world" of building, the more I realise it was nothing unusual and just part of the course. Too many videos on youtube that just make everything out to be slick and perfect

Well done James, thanks for staying late, let's go up the pub and have a beer. Oh..

Another great vid. Even the advert was interesting. That concrete bother has got to be stressful.

10:44 2 Minute Tip James - Welly boots lol

We used singh concrete on a couple of jobs, extremely late on several occasions and got the lorry suck in drive on another occasion for about 6 hours! Drive was on a slight incline and driver just couldn’t deal with it, they sent another concrete lorry out to try to help him. When we called number on the side of the stuck lorry a travel agents was answering! Was laughable tbh, so never again.

👍👍 Cheers guys

That’s the building game I’m afraid great work tho keep it up 👍🏽

James mate you should have used Asheville aggregates they wouldn't have kept you waiting and they have their own concrete pump and your definitely a serious enough tradesman for them. 👍😀

Well as someone who used to mix and test concrete for 10 years and laid runways and foundations all over the world, that mix looked like shit. I could pretty much tell you from looking at it that it wouldn't meet strength specifications. Way too much additive and way too much water. Lucky it's just a floor but if I was you guys I would core the pad, send it for testing and claim your money back for it not being what you ordered C40 C30 or C20 even (all UK mixes have to adhere to British Standards and it will have a specification to meet). Anyway as always love the true to life videos and the bants. Peace out boys.

Hi there love the vids I using them to teach my students while on lockdown Have you got any working drawings you could put on so I can show them how it will look and the constitution on the build is like It really s helps the lads see what is is like for real Thanks nick

When the water evaporates you will have a nice 50mm of concrete 😆

That little crusher is great!

my last 3 volumetrics were 6 & 3 hours late + a break down on my site, a few years ago I had a readymix lorry driver steal 12 metres of concrete, 2 out of every load he was taking somewhere else, 1 hour between each load even though their yard is only 2 miles away, that cost 2k in extra concrete, labour & boom pump hire, I do regret not having someone follow him to see where it went.

Shovelling concrete is one of the most labour intensive jobs in building, especially when the mix isn’t quite right.

Good to see the old boy getting a days work...

That’s well timed. Edited.. well timed for me and my cup of tea, not so much for you boys and the concrete lorry.

Crushing brick and concrete.....here's a fun story. A developer knocked down a residential care home next to me and decided he would bring in a crusher to make a load of hardcore which he figured he'd use in the roadways and save a bundle. After 3 weeks of noise and dust, they had this mountain or rubble tested....it failed! He then spent more money having it trucked out.

Hi Guy's i felt your pain, that concrete company will have to give it away now, take me hat off to you James best way to be chilled out, all the best Tony. liked the recycling side wish more people would do it if the size site allows it.

I probably should have watched this before our groundwork was done. We had plenty of old bricks after some demolition work. We didn't know that those could have been used for the oversite fill. Maybe, that brick crusher wasn't easy to found or our contractor/builder had a different reason-those bricks/rubble were sent away (grab hire) and the oversite was filled with Type 1 MOT.

use axtell ltd bit more expensive but turn up on the dot and are allway pros.

The sand is also a slip plane, it can absorb small fluctuations in movement under your slab and assist in preventing cracks 👍

How wet is that concrete!!

Putting it politely "what a f'king piss take" Other than that great content as always Roger 👌

He he.... doing concrete is always a stress.... great video though. Thanks guys.

Arseholes to make you pay in advance and then screw you by showing up hours late. But that concrete was extremely sloppy - did you add a superplasticizer or just use way too much water? Tip: when using a laser for check grade, make sure the float is plumb or your slab will be low...tape a torpedo level on it... Not sure I understood the subgrade layer: Bottom was that crushed rubble. Then sand. Then foam insulation. Then concrete. Right? But why not foam around the perimeter for a thermal break so the slab doesn't lose heat to the perimeter foundation? And why only lay the vapor barrier over half the block? Won't you still get rising damp/capillary wicking on the other half of the block? Or do you use a liquid membrane on the other half? What am I missing? Never seen such a tiny mobile crusher - load it by hand and kept up with it, lol.

FYI folks; you can just get the pelican case with pick-n-pluck foam already in it and it very easy to shape with no razor needed.

Should have stuck plastic bin bags over your feet if you got no wellies

That concrete firm has been in Bedford a few times the last couple of months. Think they have their own pump as well.

Hi James does the DPM go across the cavity or do you cut it halfway on the inner skin of blockwork so the Insulation can pass down ? Also I saw on another forum where the brickies were only building the outer skin of brickwork under any door openings and running the oversite slab into this, does not make sense to me but they show it done all the time to avoid rising damp what do you think?

WHAT!! a Nightmare ?? ....... Hope people took NOTE of the NAME on the side of the lorry ....AVOID!! ..... At ALL Costs !!! ........ Because it WILL Cost!! ........ Poor old James, such an amiable fella as well :-)

This is a classic case of ‘fool me once shame on you - fool me twice shame on me’, I take it you will not be using their services again. I am not experienced with concrete but that mix looked a tad sloppy.

Should have gone with ashville💪💪

Having seen the quality of the work james turns out and how particular he is I was surprised to see him using engineering bricks as reinforcing spacers. As its bad practice and can pierce the membrane.. He does amazing work though

Goes to show that you can do all the planning in the world only to be let down by the one uncontrollable factor you are relying upon. My concrete delivery was also late, and the driver was English, and he was grumpy. Complained to the company-complaint ignored. Seems that they think they're above complaint and that builders will just accept it and get on with it. Well done for not showing your stress- too much!!

I’m sure he didn’t come from Dartford really, us Dartfordians are very reliable....😬. Great video chaps.

Guess that concrete company will not receive so many requests after this fiasco.

Watch a lot of UK shows here in Oz and I can’t get over how liquid your conc is! Dunno what kind of mpa your engineers insist on, but you can’t be getting much out of that slop. Love the level on the screed though.

Is there anything worse then just waiting on other people on sites. Should of used ashville, around the London area

Hit em in pocket, never use em again, only language they know. And that goes for other builders, ditch em.

Rodger, buy James a pair of wellies 😜😉👍

Nice soup! 🤔

Try Asheville concretes next time

Well the concrete firm just lost some free endorsement. Silly silly

When you order the concrete, you tell them you want 6am delivery- they say they can't deliver before 730, which you say you will accept, but they have to be off site by 9. Get sorted the day before, rebar and mats down, covered over with a tarp. Early start, but it gets the job done.

Shan’t be using them again then !

Or "oversight" even.

I used to dream of a pump and lorry used to knock it in a mixer and barrow it . Seems crazy we did it that way as it wasn’t that long ago 🤦‍♂️

The Concrete batcher load the materials by weight but you buy in volume. I always thought that weird.

Please, what is the make and model of the stone crusher being used?

Not on at all. Kudos to you lads for cracking on.

How did the extension get bigger after they started to pour ?? The walls and base didn't change ? The volume of the floor never changed? Somehow it gained 2M3 ??? l x w x h ? .pretty sure the mixer lorry is not reading correctly.

Well that must be wrong If you order or say that word "Concrete" then you know it is going to rain so must be fake it never rained....:) ... Brother Danny was building a house in Brighton and ordered (Rain) no it was Concrete for footings as per James here in the podcast it arrived really late in the day. for some reason or another they put their wellingtons /work boots in another car which had gone of site. So Concrete arrived both Danny and Matt were shoveling Concrete into footings they had both put on their shoes earlier on as they thought the Concrete was not coming at all. Danny and Matt were both in the Concrete it was coming up over their shoes. Later that night (it was a Friday night) Danny and Matt met again this time in the Brighton Hospital both had burns on their legs just above ankles it was bad burns...So look out anyone who is doing a home job with Concrete can be dangerous or harmful to the skin.

That's just construction all over, plan everything out to the last detail and some guy just delivers something whenever he feels like and buggers it all up.

More water less water it doesn't matter. A cube is a cube is a cube. Should be worked out to the nearest bucketful surely. 🤔

0931 who never to use when needing concrete 😂

Hi skillbuilder what could be used as spacers to keep the reinforcement up off the membrane rather than bricks.

👍

At least it was a traditional ground bearing slab and you weren’t in a radon area. You didn’t have to mess around with radon membrane.

That concrete company really shot themselves in the foot this time with ranting Rog on site ( only kidding about the ranting Rog ) you know the old saying good news travels slow but bad news goes into hypo drive more so now with the internet its a pity the pumping guy was on site other wise l would have sent the mixer wagon away when he turned up they gave you a slot and did not have the decency to say they were going to be late and then wanted paying before they would mix the short fall, like some of the other lads on here have said they should have given you that as a good will gesture, glad to see you got it down and leveled look forward to the next video

That crusher idea is great but i struggle to find one in the midlands. Roughly what would you expect to pay for one of them for a day and do you normal hire the crusher and the operator ?

Should of used @ashville aggregates

Underfloor heating going in? We’re planning on extending kitchen and wondering whether it’s worth taking up the existing concrete floor (8 year old house) to lay underfloor through whole lot. Or just stick with radiators. Don’t want to build up the floor height with surface laid heating as the ceilings are already low downstairs (2.2m) and don’t want the hassle of mismatched floor levels with rest if the house.

Hi guys are those concrete crushing machines readily available?

Should of used Ashville for the concrete those guys are serious 😉👍

what size ,model crusher was used

Nothing worse than waiting around for concrete. I hope James didn't burn his feet without the wellies. I have seen that end bad... Good video.

I bet you wished you did a block and beam floor. Very rarely pour an over site now. I find the block and beam works out cheaper. Even if you have to pull another footing through the middle to beak up the beam spans I think it's still easier.

WOW!!! That concrete was waaaaay too wet! Unless you had thrown in a gallon of plasticizers I would have rejected it! Theres now way that was slump tested. Slabs lkke that are pronlems well into the future with super high surface ph and very friable and weak at the cream layer/aggregate layer level. Also it will off gas like a Mofo under impermeable coating apllications!

I love how in #1 the owners want their privacy protecting and then that dog just wanders onto screen to listen to the convo about sand blinding 🤣 And more seriously, that concrete company won’t be in business for long. Ridiculously late, charging for a smidgeon of concrete, and the most egregious… has the bad faith presumption that customers won’t pay and want money up front, and that’s AFTER they’ve just done business with that very client and are in the middle of the job, wherein the nature of the work cannot be paused to take a payment due to it setting!

Why use sand for blinding can't you use granite dust lot less sinking.

Should of tried mixsingh rather than concrete singh 😂

And to top it off you forgot to bring you're wellies as well!

Less talking more working 😉

Hello mate alright? yea , well not really can’t come in Monday my toes have burnt off!

Horrendous PR for the concrete firm, blimey

Cannot afford a teal wheel borrow?

Damn, that’s some wet concrete. I’d fire that company and never use them again.

I’ve it I am picking up tips all the time That made me laugh you have sold him some water and then sold it back to you cheeky fuckers 😂😂😂

Shit, hope your legs and feet are ok, that's a complete no no

Pretty sure Rodger has packed in on the tools

use wellies guys i nearly lost my feet from forgetting mine ,,,,,, the concrete just eats skin for fun i couldnt walk for 6 weeks