Holker and a new team member.

I am beginning to think we have had our summer early in the year. its gone quiet cold and we are back to difficult building conditions again ,with the return of the rain ,sites are very quickly turning to mud .and making the job quiet challenging.
Grizebeck is coming along nicely with the underpinning to the existing structure almost complete and new foul and surface water drains now in place.
Much of the extension foundations are now complete and ready for steel and concrete and this will be the focus of our attention next week.
The coniston site finally saw the removal of spoil from site allowing the delivery of concrete and blocks to site on Monday with block work due to start Tuesday weather permitting.
The Grange site is now underway with the two good hands Pete and Andy,they know there stuff when it comes to steel reinforcement work with almost 170 different bent bar numbers its not for the faint hearted.
Progress at Mill Gate has slowed a little as we attended Holker show on Thursday Friday and Saturday with Roots of Nature our family business.
Run from home. its a great combination of very old tree roots,mostly oak sourced from our land, combined with metal work to make garden water features , garden and internal sculptures.

A week last Sunday was the start of 4 long days constructing the Holker stand, it worked well combining the new business and also it gave us a chance to show off a little of our building skills too, As the stand combined slate tiling and feature stone work with two roots of nature water features.The Iris and Osprey.
The iris and osprey in particular caused quiet a stur and well received at the show.
We are working closely with a Lancaster based blacksmith and hope to produce many more features with a great deal of input and ideas from future customers . the idea is simple.
You can visit Mill gate by appointment , choose a root from our large stock area and we can suggest
ways to enhance the root with metal work or stone,to create your unique garden feature / indoor feature.Visit  www.rootsofnature.co.uk or speak to Gia on 01229 861183
Finally we are delighted to welcome Sam to our team, he is a young and enthusiastic guy and prepared to take on the challenge of working for both Stephen Grindrod ltd and Roots of Nature.

PS I wish i could invent the rain sensitive Solar panel, think i would be very wealthy

Have a great week.

Stephen G

pup and pebble



Sam the pup

The week got off to a great start with plenty to do, the under pinning at Grizebeck  got well under way.
Wednesday saw the removal of the Pebble in the wall !! not exactly! weighing in at nearly 3.5 tons
the Manitou was put to the test with experienced hand Mike at the controls the pebble was set to one side.
This freed up another section of wall for excavation and underpinning with much of the old masonry foundations now exposed its become clear the extent of under pinning that needs to be done.
Reducing the exterior ground level will certainly help with future water ingress in wet periods, its hoped that by the end of next week much of the excavation work will be done leaving us clear to complete the underpinning and start surface and foul drains in readiness for the integral retaining wall and house foundations .

The Coniston site moved forward with near completion of excavations for the building .
even in this dry spell and relief drains now in place water on site is still a problem with the presence of rock close by ,until we get out of the ground its a battle. a challenging site with little room until excavation spoil is removed makes for interesting work.

The Ambleside property is now near completion and looking good, when our clients asked for a feature wall in the bath room in natural stone my first reaction was it cant be done without the introduction of a steel support beam to the floor, requiring a lot of stripping back and expense
we came up with the idea of a cladded wall ,in natural stone . each piece of slate cut to the required thickness and then clad to the wall like a tile, the results where very pleasing.
we also introduced ventilation to the bathroom via the feature wall with tiered slates and boxing to the rear with a remote extractor.
Small details like heat pads to the back of the wall mirror ensures very little mirror condensation and a clear view.
Flush  fit metal roof windows where also added at the clients request giving a nice clean roof line and crisp finish to the interior, a new gable full length window over looking the fells also makes for a feeling of space and light Its turned out a nice job and a pleasure to work on with huge attention to detail which we are not shy of.

Hope we all had a good jubilee celebration and God save our Queen, long may she reign.