A Lot Of Excavation

Following the site clearance it was time to start the heavy work. We carefully took down the 4m high garden wall that formed the corner of Tipperlinn Road and Stable Lane. This became the access onto the site for all lorry deliveries, excavation vehicles cement lorries etc. But it also meant that we couldn't carry out any of the groundworks in this area for the time being.

We began by levelling the site with our own digger and driver. The excess earth was taken away in lorry loads, 16 tons at a time by Lothian Lift & Shift. Ultimately we would remove about 170 tons of earth.

With the site mostly levelled, we still needed to allow vehicle access onto the site, we dug and cast the foundation of the wall that would separate us and the rest of the works from the new owners of the original house.

There was also a neighbour to the east and the foundations here would go down nearly 2m from the original garden level and this meant that several trees on the boundary might be affected. With the agreement of the neighbours two of the trees most affected were removed and the roots of the others carefully protected.

The ground works were scheduled to last for 3 months but because of the necessity to maintain a proper site access we couldn't even begin the groundworks in that area of the site until the south and east sections of the building were complete up until the steelwork was erected. Cue reworking of the programme!