Once again i seem to be talking about the weather but as a builder it plays a large role in my working life. The weather has been kind this week. I have been able to get a lot of work done outside and the project is almost finished. Well, it would have been finished if the client had not asked for extra work.
All of the internals have been completed and the client is happy. I will be posting picture of the renovation from start to finish on my website here www.JericoEstates.com/gallery as soon as i can. this renovation has been one of the most challenging i have undertaken while in Bulgaria. The brief seemed simple at first, renovate an basement apartment in the city of Yambol. However, problems with damp and sewerage made it technically challenging. The problems of damp were two fold; firstly all BG basements are damp as they are below ground level and the second was that it was flooded by faulty plumbing to your knees a few months before i started. This left the actual building structure saturated and difficult to overcome. The next time i do a basement renovation i will insist on specialized materials or decline the work. With specialized materials the job would be a breeze and i could give a 20 year guarantee on the work (i am a registered tanker for Delta membranes).
The second problem was sewerage. Due to the falls of the waste pipes in the apartment being below the mains sewerage in the street, a macerating sump pump had to be fitted. This is basically a large container with a pump with teeth designed to chew up and raise the waste water upwards to meet the mains sewerage in the street. A poo pump in short. It was interesting to watch most Bulgarians scratch their heads when trying to source this, as they had never even heard of it. Although my Bulgarian is now good, it took some creative miming. A large number of suppliers must have just shaken their heads and thought 'another crazy Brit'.
Anyhow, by the end of the week the hard landscaping to the rear of the apartment block was almost complete until the client requested some extra external rendering. As long as the weather holds, i will be able to do this and be able to finish the job and move on the next project. I will be more than happy to see this job finished and get my teeth into a full renovation in the village of Bistrets for my new client Mr T.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
19 Jan 2008
The weather this week has improved marginally. Monday saw the temperature rise a little causing a slight thaw in my area and we had some rain. This seemed like a good omen until later on that night when it got cold again. This caused all the wet roads to freeze and become like glass. My guys were only able to free the works van at 10.30am on Tuesday morning. My van lives with my Foreman 'Jonny' in his village called Lesovo.
Lesovo is a large village in the south east of Bulgaria 4km from the Turkish border. It sits at a much higher elevation than most of the surrounding areas. This means it always has worse weather.
Once the van was freed attempts where made on the roads. These too where sheet ice and dangerous to drive on. I made the call not abandon work for the day which displeased my client. However, the safety of my employees always comes first and 'its not worth dying for' springs to mind.
By lunch time the ice had melted in most areas and the possibility of half a days work presented itself. Economically this didn't make sense for the client, so the guys will have to work Saturday to catch up.
Work in the apartment is going well, plastering, sanding, painting all at full swing. Monday finally saw the airconditing being installed. At long last the chill of the apartment can be taken off, the places can be aired and dried out. It also makes working at lot easier as paint and plaster dries out quicker. Oh, and not having to wear multiple hats and jumper helps.
So work was OK inside but not outside. The client brief was to build a retaining wall to lower the ground level at the rear of the property to attempt the reduce damp problems in the basement apartment. This was fine when it was cold. It can be dug out (slowly because its rock hard) and concrete can be poured (with admixtures and wrapping it up under 30cm of straw and plastic sheeting) but the thaw has been a major stress.
The ground has turned into the Somme. Not only all the melted snow and ice but water from the apartment block roof (which has no guttering) and all the airconditioners constantly dripping has made work impossible. 'Ascen' valiantly worked most of Wednesday and part of thursday before throwing in the towel. Even with full waterproofs, the constant dripping left him soaking wet. He has been sniffing, coughing and wheezing ever since.......
One of the interesting parts of the week was another visit to the Yambol municipal dump. This is 6 km outside of Yambol on the Sliven Road. I last visited here in early summer and it left a lasting impression. Try to imagine the end of the world and you are sort of close. In summer it was a post apocalypse wasteland, strewn with plastic and burning tires, inhabited by bands of children rooting through the rubbish to scratch a living and hards of pigs feeding on the waste of society. When i pulled up in my van i was chased by bands of children and when i stopped, they threw open the back doors and dived in, fighting and screaming over cardboard, plastic bottles and odds of metals. Thankfully i had two workers with me but they seemed as phased as i did. Anyhow, they dived out and beat pack the children to prevent any thievery of tools and other materials i had in the back as well as the rubbish. I found the entire thing really upsetting and it left me downcast for a couple of days afterwards.
Anyhow, back to now and a winter visit to the dump. It looked better than before. Mainly because all the rubbish was hidden under a blanket of snow and the pigs were not there. I later found out that it is against the law for them to be there, so they are only brought out at night. Think twice when you by cheap pork products, you may be eating part Yambol dump pig meat...
The main problem this time around was the tracks had turned to mush and driving was difficult. Our load of earth, rock and bricks was used in places to patch up the holes in the road. What however was highly amusing was having to rally drive an old Mercedes van in order to not get stuck. i believed i even managed to drift the back end of the van at one stage..
The rest of the week went smoothly and lots of work was completed on Saturday. things are looking good to complete all the internals on Monday but the externals will have to wait until the weather allows. When the apartment is completed you will be able to rent it at www.yambol-apartments-bg.com
Lesovo is a large village in the south east of Bulgaria 4km from the Turkish border. It sits at a much higher elevation than most of the surrounding areas. This means it always has worse weather.
Once the van was freed attempts where made on the roads. These too where sheet ice and dangerous to drive on. I made the call not abandon work for the day which displeased my client. However, the safety of my employees always comes first and 'its not worth dying for' springs to mind.
By lunch time the ice had melted in most areas and the possibility of half a days work presented itself. Economically this didn't make sense for the client, so the guys will have to work Saturday to catch up.
Work in the apartment is going well, plastering, sanding, painting all at full swing. Monday finally saw the airconditing being installed. At long last the chill of the apartment can be taken off, the places can be aired and dried out. It also makes working at lot easier as paint and plaster dries out quicker. Oh, and not having to wear multiple hats and jumper helps.
So work was OK inside but not outside. The client brief was to build a retaining wall to lower the ground level at the rear of the property to attempt the reduce damp problems in the basement apartment. This was fine when it was cold. It can be dug out (slowly because its rock hard) and concrete can be poured (with admixtures and wrapping it up under 30cm of straw and plastic sheeting) but the thaw has been a major stress.
The ground has turned into the Somme. Not only all the melted snow and ice but water from the apartment block roof (which has no guttering) and all the airconditioners constantly dripping has made work impossible. 'Ascen' valiantly worked most of Wednesday and part of thursday before throwing in the towel. Even with full waterproofs, the constant dripping left him soaking wet. He has been sniffing, coughing and wheezing ever since.......
One of the interesting parts of the week was another visit to the Yambol municipal dump. This is 6 km outside of Yambol on the Sliven Road. I last visited here in early summer and it left a lasting impression. Try to imagine the end of the world and you are sort of close. In summer it was a post apocalypse wasteland, strewn with plastic and burning tires, inhabited by bands of children rooting through the rubbish to scratch a living and hards of pigs feeding on the waste of society. When i pulled up in my van i was chased by bands of children and when i stopped, they threw open the back doors and dived in, fighting and screaming over cardboard, plastic bottles and odds of metals. Thankfully i had two workers with me but they seemed as phased as i did. Anyhow, they dived out and beat pack the children to prevent any thievery of tools and other materials i had in the back as well as the rubbish. I found the entire thing really upsetting and it left me downcast for a couple of days afterwards.
Anyhow, back to now and a winter visit to the dump. It looked better than before. Mainly because all the rubbish was hidden under a blanket of snow and the pigs were not there. I later found out that it is against the law for them to be there, so they are only brought out at night. Think twice when you by cheap pork products, you may be eating part Yambol dump pig meat...
The main problem this time around was the tracks had turned to mush and driving was difficult. Our load of earth, rock and bricks was used in places to patch up the holes in the road. What however was highly amusing was having to rally drive an old Mercedes van in order to not get stuck. i believed i even managed to drift the back end of the van at one stage..
The rest of the week went smoothly and lots of work was completed on Saturday. things are looking good to complete all the internals on Monday but the externals will have to wait until the weather allows. When the apartment is completed you will be able to rent it at www.yambol-apartments-bg.com
Saturday, January 12, 2008
12 Jan 2008
This has been one of the coldest weeks of my life that i have ever had to work in! I don't think the temperature got above freezing the entire week and i haven't seen the sun all week too!
The first trial this week was actually getting to work. I am currently working in Yambol and traveling from Elhovo. Monday was written off due to the roads being sheet ice. Sunday night had hail and rain and the roads just turned to glass.
The roads looked clear enough to travel on Tuesday. In fact the roads around Elhovo were in great condition. The snowplows had been out and they had been gritted and salted. This completely changed half way to Yambol when we entered a different municipality. The roads were appalling. There was thick ice covering all the roads (thick as in 5cm at least), the wind had blown the snow into ridges along the road creating kilometer after kilometer of treacherous sleeping policemen. The only thought that kept gong through my head was 'this is not worth dying for!'. Here is a little video to show you what i mean:
However, my foreman 'Jonny' had been a long distance lorry driver for a number of years and has a lot of experience driving on BG roads. Because i have never had to drive in these conditions in the UK (last time it snowed the UK and i was living there, i crashed my transit into a lamp post.....) and tell the truth, was slightly scared, i was more than happy to let Jonny drive.
The center of Yambol was just as bad as the roads leading to it. For a large city in Bulgaria i was very disappointed but the state of the roads. Thick ice everywhere and no signs of snowplows. For some reason all the traffic lights were not working as well. They just blinked amber and everyone had to rely on the signposts right of way info. My guys said this is normal in winter but at icy junctions, at 5 o'clock after working trying to get out takes ages and is quite scary again.
In fact the only snow plough i saw all week was one cleaning the new Technopolis car park. Glad to see my road tax money hard at work.....
Wednesday was again much the same weather, as was Thursday and Friday. Icy roads, freezing fog and driving everywhere really slowly. The most scary is driving at night. I have another video for you lucky people:
In the UK the country would grind to a halt. The trains wouldn't run, schools would be closed, pensioners would be freezing to death but life goes on here as normal. A great sign of the resilience of the Bulgarian people who have to live and work in extreme conditions.
The work in Yambol was for a friend of mine, Mr Phil Rose (check out his website www.ourbulgarianworld.com ). The bulk of the work was lowering the outside ground level at the back of a block of flats. Thankfully the when the work started the ground was not frozen due to a 40cm thick insulating blanket of snow. However, as the week went on the ground got harder and harder. This made digging the earth out hard on the men and machinery.
The weather has made all of this difficult. Getting metal from the merchants was slow because all the steel has frozen together and the cranes were having problems separating it. The water in the entire city was off on Friday making plastering and concreting impossible. The mini dumper truck that was hired to remove the excavated was couldn't get any grip to drive its bucket into the mounds of earth and many other time consuming things.
But work went on as usual and progress has been made. The guys worked in harsh conditions that most people would refuse to go outside in and the client is happy. Well, as happy as Phil can ever be!
Next weeks weather is expected to be much the same. Lets hope it doesn't get any worse because i don't like the idea of having to use snow chains everyday to get to work!
Jerico
The first trial this week was actually getting to work. I am currently working in Yambol and traveling from Elhovo. Monday was written off due to the roads being sheet ice. Sunday night had hail and rain and the roads just turned to glass.
The roads looked clear enough to travel on Tuesday. In fact the roads around Elhovo were in great condition. The snowplows had been out and they had been gritted and salted. This completely changed half way to Yambol when we entered a different municipality. The roads were appalling. There was thick ice covering all the roads (thick as in 5cm at least), the wind had blown the snow into ridges along the road creating kilometer after kilometer of treacherous sleeping policemen. The only thought that kept gong through my head was 'this is not worth dying for!'. Here is a little video to show you what i mean:
However, my foreman 'Jonny' had been a long distance lorry driver for a number of years and has a lot of experience driving on BG roads. Because i have never had to drive in these conditions in the UK (last time it snowed the UK and i was living there, i crashed my transit into a lamp post.....) and tell the truth, was slightly scared, i was more than happy to let Jonny drive.
The center of Yambol was just as bad as the roads leading to it. For a large city in Bulgaria i was very disappointed but the state of the roads. Thick ice everywhere and no signs of snowplows. For some reason all the traffic lights were not working as well. They just blinked amber and everyone had to rely on the signposts right of way info. My guys said this is normal in winter but at icy junctions, at 5 o'clock after working trying to get out takes ages and is quite scary again.
In fact the only snow plough i saw all week was one cleaning the new Technopolis car park. Glad to see my road tax money hard at work.....
Wednesday was again much the same weather, as was Thursday and Friday. Icy roads, freezing fog and driving everywhere really slowly. The most scary is driving at night. I have another video for you lucky people:
In the UK the country would grind to a halt. The trains wouldn't run, schools would be closed, pensioners would be freezing to death but life goes on here as normal. A great sign of the resilience of the Bulgarian people who have to live and work in extreme conditions.
The work in Yambol was for a friend of mine, Mr Phil Rose (check out his website www.ourbulgarianworld.com ). The bulk of the work was lowering the outside ground level at the back of a block of flats. Thankfully the when the work started the ground was not frozen due to a 40cm thick insulating blanket of snow. However, as the week went on the ground got harder and harder. This made digging the earth out hard on the men and machinery.
The weather has made all of this difficult. Getting metal from the merchants was slow because all the steel has frozen together and the cranes were having problems separating it. The water in the entire city was off on Friday making plastering and concreting impossible. The mini dumper truck that was hired to remove the excavated was couldn't get any grip to drive its bucket into the mounds of earth and many other time consuming things.
But work went on as usual and progress has been made. The guys worked in harsh conditions that most people would refuse to go outside in and the client is happy. Well, as happy as Phil can ever be!
Next weeks weather is expected to be much the same. Lets hope it doesn't get any worse because i don't like the idea of having to use snow chains everyday to get to work!
Jerico
Monday, January 7, 2008
The start of 2008
This is my first ever blog. I hope to share with you the trials and tribulations of building and renovating houses in a foreign country Bulgaria. Here the standards and practices are massively different from those of my home country England.
I am based in Elhovo. A small town in the Yambol region of Bulgaria. i have been doing this now for 18months and things aren't getting an easier. However, the pains and joys have to be shared so that others can understand my view of this amazing country.
I hope you enjoy my blog and please standby for more posts
Jerrard Watts
Managing Director
Jerico Estates EOOD
www.JericoEstates.com
I am based in Elhovo. A small town in the Yambol region of Bulgaria. i have been doing this now for 18months and things aren't getting an easier. However, the pains and joys have to be shared so that others can understand my view of this amazing country.
I hope you enjoy my blog and please standby for more posts
Jerrard Watts
Managing Director
Jerico Estates EOOD
www.JericoEstates.com
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