External Slabs Arrive, Plasterboard 1
I thought I would be smart and organise the collection of the plasterboard today as the external slabs are due to arrive and I have rented the forklift machine to bring them into the site. With the machine on site I will also be able to move the plasterboard. So I rented a flatbed lorry to load the plasterboard onto at Bricomarché and bring it to site. The forklift was delivered late last night.
Who made plasterboard so heavy? I have to move 4 palets and each one is just over a tonne. The flatback lorry can only take one at a time so instead of one journey, I now have to make four round trips. I got the first loaded and set off.
When I arrived at site the stone had not arrived so I got on with other items. First I cleared the travertine palets from the patio and moved them to the rear garden. The palet with travertine for the bathroom has been put next to the rear patio on the garden.
Then I started on the plasterboard. What a disaster. The forklift is rated at a tonne but with the plasterboard on the forks they just could not take the weight and once it was off the lorry it became unstable and the lot came crashing down. Lots of breakages and also many of the edges sitting in the puddle of water.
So I started to lift and carry them all manually but it was hard going. I decided it would be better to load a small quantity onto the forklift then move them to the patio windows and offload them there and this worked well but took a lot of time. Once it was finished and still no news on the delivery I called them to see what was going on. Eventually I was told it would arrive circa 13.00. So I waited for it to arrive and when it did, moved it into the site with the forklift.
I then returned to Bricomarché to collect load 2. As I left Bricomarché, Mikel wanted to fit a plastic cover over the board as it looked like rain. As I was pressed for time I left without it. It did ran slightly on the way back but not much. This time I manually offloaded 10 of the 50 sheets, once again moving them with the forklift. It also rained on and off as I offloaded this first group. I was then able to lift the remaining 40 sheets in one go.
I literally got the 40 sheet load through the patio doors when the heavens opened. Watch the video!
Just to give some idea of the severity of the storm, this is a piece of hail that has already started to melt!
While it was pouring outside (and flooding the patio and driveway) I got on with offloading the sheets. By the time I was finished, the storm had passed and the sun was out. I could not leave the house though as I was wearing trainers and the water outside was deep.
Earlier I had laid out some of the newly delivered slabs. The first photo was just as it began raining, the second after it had stopped and receded.
With ominous grey skies gathering again I decided to call it a day and worry about collecting the rest at a later date.