Put yer backs into it!
A few weeks after viewing our potential new home and we returned to clear out some of the debris in the barge to allow our surveyor a chance to check on what he could, whilst the barge was still in water. As the barge has spent many years being used for dredging works there has been a huge build up of gravel and silt between every single rib in the bottom which is a bit of a double-edged sword – it’s a bugger to get out but at the same time it’s so oxygen-free that the inside of the barge has stayed in fantastic condition where it’s remained covered.
A second, and equally as practical reason for clearing the dirt, is its weight. We’ll be transporting by road and craning onto site and the mud in the bottom weighs in at around 10 ton so everyone concerned with the logistics of moving this beast are all keen to reduce the load as much as possible.
Purely by chance we chose the hottest day of the year to do this work – imagine the fun of trying to dig out thick clay combined with rocks and gravel from individual steel bays, whilst being in the full sun and stood inside what is basically an oven. The thing was practically humming with energy as it absorbed the sunlight and converted it into the equivalent of gas-mark 7.
By the end of the day we’d done about 1 ½ tons and that was enough – the fact that we didn’t really have the right digging tools (should have taken the pick-axe) was really frustrating and far more tiring than the heat.
We left with a cheery ‘goodbye’ and with a secret hope that we could rope in some help to dig out the rest of the barge before transport day….
