According to the revised plan, we’re in week 11. Given the time of the year and weather, I’ll simply summarise the activities each week. I may update the photos as well on the relevant page for each activity especially if they span a few weeks.

The Capping beam is a steel and concrete beam that ties all the piling together. It creates the foundation for the suspended slab and helps to hold the earth and neighbouring houses back. Again, one of the reasons why we’ve taken a conservative approach.

Steel reinforcement bars will be placed over the top of the piling cages with ligs designed to the engineers specs. We’ve not started this yet. However, what the guys are doing is preparing the ground and the piles for that.

Once the steel reinforcement is complete, the concrete is then sprayed onto it and the capping beam is formed. Once the concrete is dry the formwork can be removed and the basement excavation can commence.

At the moment, the piling subcontractor is preparing the ground to pour the capping beam. See images below.

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If you notice from the pictures above, there is water on either sides of the piles. That’s because Dianthus sits on a high water table. Following pouring the capping beam, they will need to dewater, excavate the basement and then waterproof it. The construction of the substructure is arguably the most complex work to be done. Therefore, the elapsed time is likely to be circa 261 days. We’re not due to finish all the basement construction until middle of December.