Twin peaks.

Its ironic both the Coniston house and the Grizebeck extension are at the same stage requiring a roof.
Grizbeck is moving along nicely ,the first floor joists went in 2 weeks ago quickly followed by the blockwork to take the roof, padstones are in place both on the existing stone walls and new blockwork in readiness for the steel purlins. once these go on then the timbers for the roof can follow.
Rob and Adam or stone Maisons are busy facing up the new block walls to the extension with stone reclaimed from the old building and using Burlington blue Quoin stones dressed at the exposed edges so No sawn faces are seen,it takes a little longer but gives more of a natural look. Green oak window and door heads are in place with  dressed stone tabling detail above all the oak linels to deflect the harsh weather.
New Burlington blue slate will be used on the roof of the  extension and will follow through to the old part of the farm house with the same blue slate laid in diminishing courses keeping true to the properties  charm and character.
internally the original ground floor kitchen fireplace has been replicated using dimensions and photos  and the reclaimed oak mantel will also be reset in position.

The Coniston house is also now up to roof level and our blacksmith Tony Sanders has prepped all the steel including a cranked beam to support the ridge .
Sam Clarke our joiner will start on the roof timbers at the end of the week and we can then get felted in before the weather takes a turn for worst (.if that's possible ) i cant remember a summer like this one, lets hope the winter is dry and mild.
Slate cills have also been cut and placed by our skilled hand Mike, so windows and doors can now be measured.and we should take delivery of those in approximately 3 weeks.
In all both jobs considering the weather are going well.
Next week i hope to bring you some news and progress of the garage and boiler house at Mill Gate with all excavations for the foundations now complete and reinforcement for the rear garage retaining wall now in place.

Thank you for looking and have a great week.

Stephen G

Summer gone in a Flash ( Flood)

I have to say the weather is driving us mad. it makes our job very very difficult for ground works but the boys are doing well ,very rarely do they complain and the jobs are progressing well.
Grizebeck has turned a corner with most of the drainage now in including  steel work with mesh and bent bar in place and concrete going in.
Block work to the retainer and extension will start tomorrow and finally feel like we are getting somewhere.
(most of the work to date has been hidden, underpinning,drainage and foundation work)
Now all the infrastructure is in place we hope to progress quickly to roof level .

Mill gate is finally moving forward again with final excavations for the garage taking place in readiness for the reinforced garage retaining wall.
Again we can get the reinforced garage retaining wall in and move to the easier block wall construction.

The Coniston site has also come on well, despite the weather we are finally out of the very wet conditions and above ground floor level and going up.The floors went in very quickly with the use of the
telehandler to lift the T beams in place,it make for a speedy and sound floor construction.
The new bridge also got a good testing with the flash floods, the river rose 3 6"' in just 2 hrs of heavy rain . It stood the test well ,and when the river level finally dropped 100kg plus boulders from up stream had moved a considerable distance. During the flood there was thunder but it was difficult at first to distinguish between boulder movement and thunder. quite amazing

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.

Old Boys and boulders

The Grizebeck Farmhouse  got off to a good start with demolition of the existing and excavations for the new extension well underway. The old building came down easy with the use of a 3 ton machine.and telehandler.
Not like back in the old days when it was built. The old boys had just the use of primitive tools and a lot of nouse. in those days they didn't have the use of heavy machines only horse and cart. , brawn and brain,often moving large stones and boulders with levers and round poles. excavation work again was done by many hands with pick and shovel,farms like these had a rook of farm labour. often clearing fields by hand and the stones where then used for field walls and farm buildings.
The glacial boulder you can see in the picture forms the lower wall of the farm building,left over from the melt water of the previous ice age could have been carried along in the ice for miles,  smoothed and shaped by up to a mile thick of ice then deposited in the melt water .
The old boys  probably dug the boulder further up in the building excavations and slide it into position with many hands. weighing about 3 tons in total.
The existing gable will now need underpinning.this will mean excavating small sections of wall to a depth of 600mm in sequence ,concreting and building back in brick to form a good strong base to a crumbling wall.
Underpinning will start next week so we will let you know how we got on.

Mill Gate moved very little this week as the boys where call in to tackle a few outstanding jobs on an Ambleside property refurbishment, of which we hope to bring you some pictures soon.

The New house at Coniston moved forward a little, with new drains ,setting out for the house and the start of excavations to the outer walls.
Its a bit of a waiting game at the minute as we are quickly running out of room with approximately 250 tons of excavated material on site needing removal . but the bridge needs another good week in which to harden off before we dare use it.
I hope to bring you some more good weather next week and in the mean time keep lashing on the sun cream and most of all keep smiling its a great world out there!
Thanks for taking the time to look at my blog.
See you next week.

Contrast: Bridge U beams, Demolition and Flowers.

This week saw a contrast both in weather and work.
The Coniston site very quickly turned into a mire as the heavens opened on Thursday, the river rose a couple of feet in 24 hrs and left me thinking how lucky we had been with the foundation work too the bridge.
Another week later would have made conditions near impossible .
The U Beams for the bridge deck are now in place ,our site joiners Sam and Dan have begun the task of ply shuttering to the underside of the bridge and our experienced hands Pete and Andy have begun the task of reinforced steel fixing to the deck in readiness for the concrete pour. Large boulders from the excavations where also added along both sides of the bridge at the base to provide protection to the concrete during bouts of heavy rain inducing smaller stone movement.

Demolition started on the Grizebeck job in readiness for a new extension to a lovely 18th Century farm house. many features and character will be added to the property with their own ideas and hopefully ours too. pictures will follow over the weeks to come.
Mill Gate saw the near completion of the new path,part completion of the curved retaining wall for the perimeter of  the new pond and other borders including the wisteria border to form an archway  through onto the newly formed steps into the woodland,a covering of top soil to the reinstated areas around the path including seeding the play area banking with wild meadow flowers .
all told.a good weeks work really.
See you next week.with more garden walls built,setting out of the new Coniston house and excavations to the Grizebeck extension.
until then BFN.

Heron on Mill Gate lawn comes to admire our work.

If i am honest it took me a good two days to get over the Highland Bike ride. 20 years ago i would have been out working the same evening.and probably boiled the kettle half a dozen times before i got my cuppa.
It was a fab trip though and well worth the effort.
The week went well with the Coniston plot now with half the bridge  complete.Both abutments are  in place and back filled with the concrete left to harden off ready for the steel UBs and concrete deck.
The end of the week saw us having a good tidy round ready for excavations of the New house late next week.
Mill Gate saw landscaping reach a point where the fruits of our labour could be seen quite clearly.
Recycled green stone edgings where put in place with dressed edgings defining a neat curved path area from the newly seeded lawn.
Large stones found in our excavations where add to the borders to give the planted areas definition
and harmonise with the greenery .
The great thing about Mill gate is the fact i can be as creative as i like as pretty much everything is an open canvas.
Creativity is paramount to our work. features and little things out of the ordinary can unconsciously
add a quality to your life, its a little like looking at a nice view on a sunny day, features can raise a smile  even on a wet miserable day on your way out to work for another stressful day ,or on your return home.
Our sculpture at the entrance to Mill Gate was added this week in a flash of inspiration.
We are currently working with a local blacksmith incorporating Ancient tree roots , wrought iron work and stone to create unique sculptures ( showing at Holker hall garden festival on 8th -10th of June)
We can be comissioned to create your unique sculpture from our extensive stock of raw material just ether drop us a line or phone for a viewing and friendly chat ( you never know you may even get a fresh cup of coffee and some home baking). or pick up a bag of our home grown Snowie lump wood Charcoal.
We will bring you more next week on the ever changing landscape of Mill Gate ,progress at the Coniston plot and much more.
Have a great week and stay safe.