Sorry for the radio silence. The past weeks have been a combination of inactivity on-site – and then technical issues with the website (aka I forgot the password!!)
So …. where were we?
The last blog reported that excavations had uncovered a large amount of contaminated waste which had to go off to be tested by a specialist lab “up country” somewhere! No chance then of draining off the groundwater onto the nearby field. So we were stuck with oily water continuously filling up the new trenches under what will be our bedroom.
Needless to say, it was a stressful number of weeks all round.
What would the soil test uncover?
Would removal and decontamination blow our budget out of the water (literally!)? If so, where could we claw back some spend?
We could take out the landscaping and patio budget. We considered the removal of the single storey “garden room” which could be built as an extension at a later stage.
It wasn’t fun ☹
But three weeks ago, Rob rang to say he had found a way to soak up the oil so clean groundwater can be pumped away into our soakaway. Apparently, it involves pompoms! How I wish I’d kept all those arts and crafts kits from earlier times!!
Spot the pompoms!
Then the lab tests also came back and confirmed what we had hoped – that the main contaminates were a variety of engine oils with little sign of any real nasties. Nearly 30 tonnes of soil will have to go to a special decontamination waste site, and we’ve lost 3-4 weeks of lovely dry weather but at least we can get going again.
May 31 2021
Building 'Delamere' 