Working on the Welcome Building

We started on site at Westonbirt about a month ago, and things are really progressing well. Luckily we’ve been blessed with a beautiful location, which always makes life a bit easier!

So far, none of the materials we’ve excavated have been taken off site, all the soil has been distributed for use elsewhere. We always try and reuse our materials where we can, and avoid waste and additional costs – something we know the Forestry Commission are keen to do as well.

In terms of the build itself, we’ve been getting underway with the groundworks - all the drainage has been installed, both land and foul, with the septic tanks going in in the next three weeks.

We’ve also cast the reinforced concrete slabs and the holding-down bolts to take the timber frame structure, and this means that you can really begin to see the shape and scope of the building, which makes it easier to envisage how it’s going to look when it’s complete.

We’re really trying to be as local as possible, with our stone being sourced from Tetbury and the shingles and rain cladding coming from English Woodland Timbers. Not only is this important to us as local building contractors, we are also aiming to achieve BREEAM Excellent. BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is an awarding body who assess the environmental design and building methods for sustainable building projects all over the world, and in to achieve ‘Excellent’ all our materials must be sourced from within the UK, among other initiatives we are working towards.

The next stage will be to erect the timber frame – the crane man has been down this week to assess what type of crane he will need to use, and hopefully we should begin to see the frame going up in the next week. Fingers crossed for the weather!

For more information on the Westonbirt Project visit the webpages.