18 April 2008

Please excuse the delay in the blog. I have had a client visiting for the last month and my computer blew up.

So , what has happened since my last post?

Well, lots of things. Some of the more visible would be the new insulated concrete ground floor, all the second floor wooden flooring laid, all the second floor ceilings hung, structural work for the stairwell, first electrical fix, rebuilding boundary wall and the partial completion of the gate, remodelling the unstairs layout, installing the pipework for the central heating.

Oh and i broke two heavy duty breakers trying to excavate the septic system and 'Batco' my youngest laborer had his 22nd birthday.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so heres a few for you:

Here part of a wall has been removed to move a door to make more useable space on the second floor









and here you can see the laying of the insulated concrete ground floor with steel reinforcements. the total area laid was 50m2 and 10ton of sand was used. Everyone was shattered after this big pour









This picture shows the laying of the tongue and groove wooden floor. in principal these are easy to lay but on green warped twisted wood they are a bugger! The best bet for these is get them in early in the build, let them dry out and then heavily sand them to make them level. Welcome to Bulgaria!


Finally, i couldn't not show a picture of 'Batco' and his birthday. We worked through lunch, clocked of at 3pm and fired up the BBQ. the weather held and we had beer and meet in the Garden. Happy Birthday BATCO!

From left to right-Batco, Sharkov, Ivan, Pencho, Colin, Nicoli, Ascen and Jonny

14 March 2008

So, the end of the second week in the now sunny Bistrets. Spring has finally sprung, the birds are tweeting in the trees and we can have lunch outside in the sunshine. Winter seems like a long time ago but i know i will get caught out by the changeable March weather conditions!

The entire week has been spent do like structural work. The main workload this week has been on the upstairs floors. The original wooden beams in the house on the most part were OK but some of them needed replacing. A few had been scorched in an old fire but after a bit of a clean the damage was only cosmetic and it had smoked the woodworm's out of them! The damaged beams were removed (by chainsaw) and replacement beams sourced and selected to blend in. A bit of a fiddly job but one that definitely needed doing. Over the old beams 10cmx10cm rough sawn joists were laid and leveled.


The extra joists were laid to level the floor and to strengthen it. It sounds like a quick job but getting everything level was slow. The original beams were crooked, the new joists warped, the floors between the rooms had to be the same level etc etc. Add to this trying to squeeze a staircase in (cutting even more beams and supporting them), moving doorways and it all adds up to lots of man hours.


This week my electrician paid his first visit to the site, top start the first electrical fix. There was much scratching of his head when i explained i wanted two lighting circuits in each room (for some interior design ideas i have). I speak Bulgarian well and it took ages to get through to him. He is also one of those who thinks if he talks loudly i will understand better (remind you of any of the other Expats you may have seen?). My guys always enjoy this spectacle and sat back to watch the show. They understand me completely and find it funny that he doesn't but the sparky is a good hardworking guy so i keep using him.

Work also started on the battening for the wooden paneling on the second floors. Again the usual problems of nothing level or straight in the house and lots of fiddling to get it all vertical. The client has chosen to go with expanded polystyrene insulation behind the paneled walls instead of the usual rock wool. He feels it will be a healthier environment to live in. I disagree but he is a doctor! The polystyrene will require lots of cutting to be able to fit in every where so i think i may have to design a hot wire cutting machine for it (if i have the time). I will post pictures of this potential death and fire trap.......

Other work of note was the reinforcing of a main supporting vertical wooden post the previous builders had put a big stone over it and covered it with cement) and mini foundations for the stairwell.

The client is visiting from Norway this week and he is very happy with the work. So, a good week all around!

7 March 2008

The end of the first week in Bistrets. We missed out Monday because it was a Bulgarian national holiday (liberation from the Ottoman Turk Empire) but still got a good amount of work done.


Last Friday was our first real day on the job. We stopped in Golyama Krushevo first to pick up all surplus materials from the clients previous renovation. and then headed out to the property. The first day is always an unknown. Will there be water and electrics? Yes! Sort of...I was rather surprised that there was electrics in the property. There had been a new first fix installation previously (which i thought in the most part was a good one) but if it was all connected and their the bills had been payed was another matter. I took steps to cover myself by bringing my generator and buying some fuel for it but..there was electrics! Good start to a new build.

The water looked promising too. There was new pipe work in the house (functional but not that good), so i was hoping it would all work, However because the water meter had been left uncovered all winter, the actual water meter had frozen and come apart at the seams. This meant if the water was turned on, the meter leaked badly. The stop tap too had seen better days. This meant the meter would have to be replaced and the stop tap along with it. The stop tap is not a problem and was changed live (why does this keep happening to me?) but the water meter will have to wait. A new one will have to be bought and tested somewhere in Bourgas before it can be legally fitted.

As least i have water and electric to work with though!

The first thing to be done was break out the concrete floor on the ground floor. This had been newly installed but firstly was cracked all over the place (nice) and no DPM (damp proof membrane) had been installed under it. It took all day to get it out but it allowed me to see what was underneath the house (almost bedrock!) and to fit a DPC and underfloor insulation at a later date.

Before the floor can be relayed, there is some structural work to be done. The first is to open out the ground floor by removing half of a load bearing stone wall and the second is to replace a lintel in a kitchen window.
I love structural work. Changing a building and creating space and light inside Bulgarian houses is always fun and interesting work. The first order was to install a small forest of Acro props inside the house to support it when i remove a major wall. When this was done the old stone and mud wall was pulled. We found two old mice nests inside! It makes a change from old wasp nests though. We also disturbed a small lizard that had made his home there and it was the first one i have seen this year. My guys said they make good eating.....

With the wall dropped there was an immediate change in the feel of the house. It was lighter and more open. The remain part of the wall will divide the kitchen from the living room. Formwork was erected, lots of steel placed inside and the new concrete columns were cast. These will support the two new RSJ's (reinforced support joists or steel lintels) that will span the new opening. The new columns are cast in situ and will tie perfectly into the walls. they are not little things either. A quick bit of math reveals that they hold about 1m3 concrete or over 1.5 ton of material. Two of these, sitting on bedrock, with lots of reinforcement will now probably outlast the house! The formwork for these guys is heavy duty. They had to be massively supperted to prevent the concrete breaking out. This will be left for a couple of weeks to cure and then the Acros can be removed and the concrete ground floor laid.













The other structural work that had to be done was to replace a lintel in a kitchen window. This lintel had been cut in two by the previous builders to make way for pipework. The lintel and beams above it were now unsupported and dropping down. Quickly a new lintel was inserted and the sides beefed up just in case.

With what work that could be done downstairs completed attention was turned to upstairs. All the floor boards were lifted and new beams laid and leveled perpendicular over the top of them. Doors frames were fitted and one of the bathroom doors was removed and repositioned 40cm to the right.

At the same time, trenches and a start on the septic tank was made. make hay when the sun shines!

One of the excitements of the week was on Thursday when 33ton of sand and ballast was delivered. This came in a massive lorry and trailer. The driver was scared of trying to get the lorry into the garden due to the angle of approach into it, so unfortunately it all had to be dumped in the street. Not a missive problem, its longer to fetch it with a wheel barrow but the major might complain and people might help themselves to a cart full or two. But, no other option was available.

28 Feb 2008

The last two weeks have been rather monotonous. The only good thing about them seems to be the change in the weather. It felt as though winter suddenlt ended and spring came with a snap! In a matter of two days we went from working inside with winter clothes and the heaters running constantly to having lunch outside in the sun. This has made a real for the moral of the guys. Although the working environment is always happy, working in freezing conditions, in the snow, travelling in the fog and arriving and leaving work when its almost dark, takes its toll on anyone. Now its sunny (or at least for the moment, Babba March is a bad tempered old woman), i will have to think about getting the guys their winter uniform. Red t-Shirts and dark 3/4 length shorts i think. I keep threatening to have them all wear bikinis when it gets really hot.........

So, the work.

It felt like a never ending round of sanding, filling, sanding and varnishing. The entire ground floor is almost wood paneled. The previous builders took no care in their work when they did this. The simply erected the wood and varnished it. Then painted and plastered above it without covering it. This has left the wood covered in paint and muck, full of pencil marks, sticky tape residue, ingrained dirt etc etc. Cleaning this can only be done by sanding and having to sand through two layers of thickly applied yacht varnish is very time consuming and eats up sandpaper. I think we have used over 28meters of coarse and fine grade paper. The real time consuming part is that most of the problems (as caused by the law of sod) are in corners and fiddly places where i cant get any sanding machines into. This means most of the time it has to be done by hand. However, the weather was better and we could have the windows open to let fresh air in. It is most unpleasant to have to wear filter masks all day long. On the upside, i believe all the guys have smoother softer hands after holding sandpaper all day long and roding all their callouses. nice!

Other jobs that were completed during this time include the completion of the bathroom, tiling front and back weather strips for the doors, re trimming all the wood work, rehanging ALL the newly installed windows and doors, varnishing the external wooden kitchen extension and having a good old clean up. It took about 8 man hours just to clean all the varnish and silicon on the new window panes in the kitchen extension.

At long last i have fulfilled the clients brief. Try and make the place look presentable for very little money. I will have to come back at some stage and reroof it, renovate the second floor and redo the external insulation. That can wait because i am now off to pastures new! The little village of Bistrets, close to Sredets. The client (Mr T) has told me his tastes, given me a broad outline and told me to get on with it. Excellent! It is a joy to have someone trust you and respect you taste and judgment on a property. I have the opportunity to make an amazing house for Mr T and i know it will give him massive pleasure to own it and will be a real string in my bow.

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.