Building control?

Sense prevails! Building Control have agreed that we don't need to excavate any further, below the level of the rock the existing cottage sits on, which is great news and saves us from sending more material off-site. It also avoids the potential damage that undermining the existing house could cause.

As a result, and due to all the trenches for footings being finished last week, the larger of the two diggers has been taken offsite. Hopefully steelwork for reinforcement of the retaining walls will arrive tomorrow in time for the steel fixers to assemble ready for a concrete pour before the end of the week.

We'd prefer not to have to use steel or concrete (due to embedded energy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_energy) in both materials, especially concrete thanks to the temperatures required to produce it) but there are no sustainable alternatives that provide adequate strength for the foundations and retaining walls - and that are acceptable to Building Control. Kind of ironic when you consider that the Cottage has been standing for 103 years on rock with no foundations whatsoever!

Once we are out of the ground, we'll be using thermalite blocks which comprise approximately 80% PFA (pulverised fuel ash, a by-product from coal fired power stations) to reduce the amount of natural resources used in each block. So not all the concrete will be 'bad'!