For months we were going round in circles not knowing whether piling was required or not but, when we finally got the definitive answer, it all happened pretty quickly. There was an Austin Powers moment where the lorry trying to deliver the piling rig tried a 300-point turn in the road. It looked like they were about to destroy the chimney at one point but limited the carnage to hacking up the road (much to the dismay of the other residents of our road: it’s very unfortunate that it was resurfaced last year).
The groundworks team weren’t as on top of things as the builders and seemed likely to cut off the mains water and/or drainage most days. The main contractor, John, was off on holiday but must have been on the phone to the groundworks company, me and Pete (his nominated second in command) most days whilst he was away despite my attempts not to call him. Despite the mess that they created (on the road and with piles of rubbish) the final report was that they’d done a good job and left a very level site ready for the building to commence.
