We had an early start as we had to be on site at 6am. When we arrived two lorries were already waiting (they actually arrived yesterday evening and spent the night in Lehningen) along with a van with five Allkauf builders. The crane arrived at about 7am and the team wasted no time getting started.
On the first lorry were the outside walls, already waterproofed and with the windows and blinds pre-built in. These were quickly put in to place along with the internal wall next to the stairs within the first couple of hours, just as it was getting light.
There was a small snag with the walls of the bay window as it didn't quite match the size of the cellar roof but it was a matter of millimetres and they soon had it all in place.
As soon as the ground floor walls were in place the scaffolding company started building a scaffold around the house. This meant that there was somewhere for the builders to stand as the hight increased.
Once the first lorry was empty the second pulled round and the team again wasted no time with the unloading. This lorry mainly contained internal walls along with the roof of the bay window and floor of the 1st floor, which is basically chipboard panels that they lay on wooden beams.
This took a little longer to unload as there was more sawing and nailing required but again the team just got on with the job in hand with little gossiping and no breaks up to around 1pm! This second lorry was partly unloaded on to the street.
One of the builders spent the next couple of hours putting together the 1st floor ceiling/loft floor. He also balanced the rafters for the roof on top, laid out flat in pairs. More on this later.
The roof of the bay window delayed things by about 20 minutes as they had to work out how to best position it.
At 1pm we provided a snack of German meatloaf in rolls, buttered pretzels, some home made chocolate muffins, and lots and lots of coffee!
Once lunch was eaten the builders got back to work. In the meantime the 3rd lorry had arrived with the upstairs walls.
Once the upstairs walls were in, the huge ceiling piece with the rafters was hoisted in to place.
As the rafters were laid out in pairs facing opposite directions the guys on the roof simply had to pull them in to place and nail them down with nail guns, which they did in less than an hour.
By this time it was getting dark and cold so they started wrapping up for the day. When we left at 7pm the roof rafters were up and they were starting to put up the waterproof sheeting to cover the roof.
We were really impressed with the skill and professionalism brought by the building team. They all knew exactly what they were doing and got on with the job in hand with no fuss or ceremony.
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