Hi Janggut,
The piles (we call them ‘stumps’ here) are simply dug into the ground. The longer the stump the deeper you have to dig the hole (at one side the stumps are 8ft high from the ground). At the bottom of each hole they sit on small square wooden 'sole plates'. All the holes were dug by hand using a spade. I think there were something like 125 of them, including the shed. The hardest part was not so much the digging (which is just donkey work) but deciding exactly where to put the holes. As the site is sloping, the layout on the ground will not match what you get up where the actual floor is. So a fair bit of fancy calculating was involved!
It was almost all done on my own, including the design work, plan drawing, glazing, painting, plastering, cabinetmaking, carpentry, roofing etc. The exceptions were the electrical wiring, which I was not allowed to do by law, and also the copper water plumbing. I was allowed to help the licenced tradesmen by fitting the switches, basins, taps etc plus I was able to do the gutter plumbing and some of the plastic work. We also had the water and electricity connected to the site early on. So I had power tools pretty much from the start.
Some tasks were tricky (like lifting the heavy ceiling beams in the lounge on my own, which took a while) but with patience and persistence it was all possible single handed. Even fitting the plasterboard to the ceiling was done solo, using little toggles of wood to support the edges as I lifted them into position. I did miss the target once though, and had a large sheet break in half as it landed on my head! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
Under floor rooms are handy, as you say. I made one room underneath. It’s only about 6ft high, and has a lot of stumps going through it, but it’s entirely full of shelving and is designed purely as storage for all the crap that we accumulated over the years but can’t quite bear to throw out. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
Oh, and I did get one machine in too – to put the concrete septic tanks in. Too big and heavy for one guy to manage, even an ambitious nutcase like me… <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
