Renovation - Machines

When we first arrived and parked up outside of our new home we had a feeling of "well this is it" and "where on earth do we start?" The task ahead of us was a daunting prospect to say the least, had we undertaken such a project back in the UK it would not have been as bad mainly because in the UK you know exactly where to go, who to phone and what to expect.

Spain is different. The best thing to do is gain as much local knowledge as possible and quickly, your local builders merchant will have many of the contacts you need for JCB,s etc and you will no doubt be visiting this outlet several times weekly so its good to build a good relationship with the owner.



Expect to pay around 30 euros an hour for heavy machinery, the pic above shows our friend the "sandman" (because he delivered our sand!) filling in the trench dug to accomodate the armoured conduit for electricity. The pic below is his brother digging up the road at the other end. * Notice that the electricity connection is via a manhole. The JCB operator was an absolute expert - very very quick with a huge amount of skill, the tractor was brought to location on a flatbed truck also.

It was quite interesting to see huge trenches being dug and roads demolished, afterwards though you could hardly tell they had been there. Looking back at some photos like these even makes us realise how huge the project was but taken a step at a time it all fell into place. The pictures detail a trench 37 metres long and 4 feet deep, the electrician was on site to lay the cables and the whole job was done from start to finish in under 4 hours.

It allways looks worse than it is!