It's a rocky road ahead...

As expected, we've hit some issues in getting the piers down. The 450mm diameter auger was meant to go as deep as it could until it hit rock. There were a few exceptions that had to go 2m deep, as they support the house near where the pool will be.

We did not get very far. Some were only 40-50cm deep! As predicted by the soil tester, we're looking like we'll be getting some trenches dug instead of individual piers.

Most of the rocks so far have been small, but there are enough of them to get in the way of the auger, and the digger has to try to get them out, with some success. If they do not wiggle in the ground, then they are assumed to be strong enough to remain as is.

Finding a lot of fill, from the demolition (or the original house (?)) didn't help this, as there rubbish was in a highly concentrated area.

So, instead of a simple single days work, we're looking at two days at least. If the engineer needs to come onto site to review, then it may take longer.

To be fair, we knew that we were in for some issues when the demolition was done. The amount of rock that was concreted into the foundations of the previous house filled at least one whole truck full! So, it is what it is, and it's no ones fault. It just simply needs to be done.

There will be considerably more concrete used for this type of piering, not to mention the time taken. We had very expensive site costs to start with, so lets hope they do not balloon out too much!

Just getting started in the morning.

To get to the undisturbed clay, it's around 1.8m deep.

The floating rocks that have been dug up.

They've not finished yet. The rear of the house has yet to be done.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.