Concreting the terrasse

It has been quiet here for a while, but that does not mean that we haven't been working. It has taken several days with lots of headscratching and shovelling to get the terrasse ready for concreting.

The problem was that we needed a slope o...n each side of 1cm for each metre to enable the water to run off freely - easily said, but with each of the four sides sloping in different directions and not easy to take levels over such a large area, it took a bit of time.

We have used a system of rails, the top of which represent the finished level of concrete, and we needed to bring in the right level of stones to reach the required depth of 10cm over the area of 154 metres squared.

The concrete arrived in two lorries and it was off loaded and levelled into place by me standing on the top of a long plank and three butch french men pulling the plank to level off the concrete (sorry no photo - lots of balancing required!)

After this the rails were lifted and we filled in their holes and finished with a petrol vibrating concrete ruler to get a smooth finish.

The only thing left for me to do was a four-course meal for 8 people, phew!

Ground work finished

The ground work for the patio area is now finished - we are now ready for 15 tonnes of cement and 600 paving slabs, phew!

Retaining wall

Because the ground where the pool has been built was sloping, the pool was not fully sunk in to ground level. This left us with a problem of how to secure the patio area so that it would not subside. The solution was found by installing 5 former concrete and metal electricity poles (don't ask where they came from - does everyone still have power?!) This should ensure that there is no landslide in future years!

Pipes and drains

There are various pipes around the outside of the swimming pool to take the water to the sand filtration unit, which is compulsory for a "public" pool, which is what this is considered to be. The pump then takes the water through the heat pump and brings it back to the pool - it will circulate the entire volume of water (70m3) in one hour. There is also an additional tube, which will feed the waterfall feature. These have to be covered in fine sand to protect them, before we can infill with gravel.

The same day, we excavated a couple of trenches. One to take a drain from around the pool in case the ground gets waterlogged and disturbs the pool structure. The other trench was to feel electricity to the pump house. These were quickly back filled (before I had a chance to get the camera out) and you would almost never know there were there!

All of this work was washed down with a beer for the boys, whilst I did the school run!

A problem that has been looming for a while has been how to fill in the hole which will be the future sun terrace - soil will settle and create subsidence problems, concrete is too expensive and hardcore is difficult to find.

Yves "found" a ...fallen down stone building in one of his fields - it was at the edge of the field covered in brambles, we thought that we could make a start with that - 8 trailer loads later (about 15 tons each) we had an impressive heap which Stefane started to level with his digger.

Smooth bottom!

I've been so busy working that I've not had time to update the progress here. About a week ago we skimmed the bottom of the pool to give it a smooth finish to take the liner:

Rain stops play ....

The pool has been "drying" for the last couple of weeks and the rest of the work has been held up by the rain (and a little holiday of our own, where thankfully we were spared the rain!).
In the mean time I have been sanding down and oiling the garden furniture - 8 tables and 30 chairs - ouch my arms hurt!

Concreting the base for the swimming pool

The next step was to concrete the floor, the mix had to be very dry in order for us to form the rounded bottom of the deep end - this made it very hard to move it around and to smooth it down. In addition we had too much (for the walls we didn't have enough!) cement - so we ended up shovelling lots out and putting it around the base of the walls outside. Unfortunately you can't send concrete back and get a refund! Hey, ho!

First lorry of concrete was delivered - with this we filled up the wall structure - 5m3 of concrete. Tomorrow we will do the base of the swimming pool.

Ready for concrete

Yesterday we finished putting in the metal reinforcements for the concrete and connecting the pipes which will suck the liner into place.

Structure finished

This morning we started to put together the walls - a short storm came over and blew everything down!













This afternoon we finished putting all the panels together and reinforcing them with metal rods - all is square, level and in place - just the steps to do and we're ready to concrete it all in ....

Swimming pool arrives

The lorry arrived with all the pieces of the swimming pool, very exciting and very big - the lorry couldn't turn around in the courtyard, it was so big!

Building a concrete surround

The pool walls need a level, solid base to stand on, here are Jeff, Yves and Hugh putting this in place