15 Feb 2008

This has been a mixed week, not only with the weather but with work.

The start of the week started with snow and ended in sunshine! The first three days of this week were spent working at a higher elevation to the East of Elhovo for Mr T and the last two days to the North West for Mr Phil Rose. Quite a contrast but it was nice not to have to work in the cold all week.

The first three days were once again trying to put right Mr T's build. Things are gainig momentum as problems are solved and the real work can get underway. One of these problems was the plastering.

Prior to my arrival, approximately one month before, all the downstairs walls had been replastered. It is almost like the plaster knew what he was doinf this time but once again made some very serious school poor errors. The error this time was with preparing the old walls. The traditional Bulgarian way to render a wall is to put plastic mesh on the walls and then plaster over the top of it. However, most old Bulgarian walls have been painted with lime wash ('Var'). This coating is very powdery and nothing can stick to it. It is easy to tell lime wash. if you run your finger over it, it comes away with white paint on it. This means unless the wall is prepared properly anything that is applied to it will fall off. Have a look at this for what i mean:



The only thing the plasterer had to do was......score a criss cross pattern of grooves all over the wall. This cuts through the lime wash and provides a strong key for the new plaster.

On another note, the plastering was done at ground floor level and is bound to get damp along the bottom. The only way to easily stop this is to dry line the walls with plasterboard, like i have done in the picture below:



Anyhow, the client decided that it was too late in the project to redo EVERYTHING so would risk problems in future.

Another fun thing we had to do was replace the stop tap for the main water supply and we couldn't turn the water off to the street. In the trade it is called 'live' work and is usally done at the start of the build, when you done mind if things get wet and not at the end when you do mind. Just another different mentality i suppose. So, we changed it live and didn't get anything wet! I believe that is my new record! With this done we can now sort out all the problems in the bathroom....

Late on Wednesday afternoon i got an anxious call from an exclient. I had installed a pool, redone his roof and landscaped his garden before. The problem was that the excavated earth, which was banked up for further landscaping inthe future, was allowing his gods (six!) to escape. This is not normally a problem but he has two manic young pups and they got out and killed a chicken. For those of you who have not heard of this before, its a really quick way of having a dead dog and no friends in your village.

So, we moved about 14 tonnes of earth in two days. the weather was fine and all of us took off layer after layer of clothing while toiling in the sunshine. I slept the good sleep of physical exhaustion after the first night. i was really really tired. So tired in fact that i almost fell asleep at the table that evening. Did i mention that it was Valentines on Thursday? Thanks Phil

9 Feb 2008

At long last! I have finally move onto the next project. It is always a joy to leave a happy customer behind and get your teeth into something new.

However, this next project is going to be a pain in the arse. i have been drafted to finish a renovation. A renovation which has had numerous builders, Bulgarian and English, bodge and cut corners. The state i inherited in at first glance looks ok but on closer inspection is appalling.

I told myself i would never redo some one else's work after i had to do this in Rujitza after another cowboy English builder had screwed it up. However, i have sympathy for this client, Mr T. He has been shafted numerous times since he has been out here and refuses to give up or be beaten, regardless of the cost.....

Where to start? Inside or out?

On the outside a Bulgarian has attempted to insulate and render it. Not only is it not level, the panels are fitted unevenly, not stuck on properly, electric cables left hanging on the outside (and not hidden behind) but he attempted to render the outside WHEN IT WAS SNOWING!!!!! For those who don't realize how big a mistake this is, ice crystals will form in the render and cause it to crack and fall off really quickly-even if you use special chemicals. Idiot.

The septic tanks is a joke. its about 2.5m3 (the last on i installed was over 27m3, have a look here for pictures), very badly built and chances are will leak sewerage into the street and garden.

The roof-leaks, need i say more?

Some of the windows were installed backwards!

The inside was very useful for me. It allowed me to go around, point by point and explain to my newer workers how not build and if they ever did anything like this they would be fired.

The woodwork is appaling. And considering half the ground floor is wood panelled then this is a problem. the plaster work on the ground floor has had to be completely redone. I have skimmed it with a water resistant render but as its the ground floor and no damp proofing has been done i fear in places damp will come through. this could be easily fixed by dry lining but i would have to gut the entire ground floor and start again to get it right. this is not an option after all the money that has been spent so far.

The bathroom. My trainee tiler found this really funny considering this was meant to have been done by a 'meister'. It appears that he hasn't heard of a spirit level. The top course of tiles have a height difference of almost 3cm! try getting thouse grount lines to match up! The ceiling has had to be redone to make it meet the tiles. it would have had to be redone any way because the centers were to wide (over 60cm!, i use 40cm), there were not enough screws, the frame to which it was attached was to weak and the installed didn't use water resistant plasterboard. Nice.

There is a lot more problems, in fact it think it may be worth a second post! Stay tuned for how i make it look nice!

2 Feb 2008

At last! The work has been completed in the Yambol apartment. After much sweat and toil the client is happy and i can move onto my new project. This weeks work went smoothly even though Monday was rained off and i was ill on Thursday. The main work this week has been rendering the outside of the apartment.

This rendering has been very time consuming. Normally rendering involves long straight walls occasionally peppered by windows and doors. This rendering was full of angles, balconies, stairs, windows and as a result took ages. The weather didn't help either. Again. Due to the cold and damp conditions the render took longer to dry out and cure. This means firstly longer times before the render can be finished and secondly longer delays where thick render has to be built up in layers. This was particularly tricky when rendering the tops of windows. No matter how long it was left for, large chunks always fell out (landing with a splat similar to a cow pat) causing more delays and frustration. Regarding the frustration, it always amazes me the creative usage of the Bulgarian language when cursing by my builders. I have come to the conclusion that Bulgarian may be one of the best languages to curse in while muttering under your breath. It doesn't have the passion of Spanish or the poetry of French but it can be drawn out for a long time, in deep guttural tones while solidly venting your spleen at everyone and everything and their mothers and smoking a cigarette.

The last final slog of the week was the delivery of 8.5 tonnes of stone shingle. The client wanted the garden cover with shingle to quickly and cheaply smarten the place and and reduce the maintenance. Unfortunately, the shingle arrived at 4pm on Friday afternoon. There was a huge amount to shift and spread around. I had to quickly find a couple of casual laborers to shift the stuff and even then we only finished after 7pm. I must give my guys credit for not moaning about having to work late on a Friday and we all got stuck in, sweated and groaned as the pile got smaller and smaller until it was gone. This was also the first time i have seen my guys after work, sit down and take 10 minutes to recover as apposed to jumping in the van and doing it there. It was also when of the rare occasions where my guys refused a beer or two after work (Friday is pay day!), to chat and discuss the week. The all wanted to go home! Not very often anyone will turn down a free beer.


So now the job is finished, the flat can be furnished and be rented out. The flat will be listed on www.yambol-apartments-bg.com very soon and when i have time it will be listed on my website www.JericoEstates.com under the renovations gallery.

I am really looking forward to starting the new project for Mr T but before i can do this i have another job from him. Namely, finished off another house of his. This house has been a money pit for him. Numerous builders, con men and bad work have made this job expensive. Hopefully i will be able to do something to help him and finish it off quickly but regoing over other people work is a real pain.

26 Jan 2008

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.

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

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 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