Diesel, firewood, and concrete slabs.

An overall view of the area previously laid with granite sets now with one rown of four concrete paving slabs in place. There is a large pile of granite sets piled onto the new slabs next to the mobility scooter under the bleet cover.

First job today was to drain the diesel fuel from the car. This was fairly straight forward and, having watched a few YouTube videos, I was confident in removing the fuel pump sender unit from the tank.
This really was a simple process but the best advice is that when removing the pump lift it and tilt a little to let the fuel drain out of it back into the tank. It will drain for quite a while so also have a container to hand, I used an old saucepan from the scrap metal pile, so that the pump can be hoiked out and put in the container to continue draining.

The next stage was to pump out the diesel. For this I decided to sacrifice a Whale Pump I had in stock. I don’t know if the diesel will damage the pump, nor if I’d ever want to use it for water later. A hose was attached to the pump, and a 12V battery charger was used for the power supply.
I pumped 40 litres into two Jerry cans and transferred the fuel to my other car, and the fuel pump was then put back. 10 litres of diesel was left in the car to ensure it will be able to be moved around and relocated at the top end of the drive. The remaining fuel will be removed then.
I didn’t take photos as I had diesel on my gloves.

Next stage in the driveway tidy up was to break up a pile of old pallets and deliver them to a neighbour for firewood.

Then, after a sit down with a cup of tea in the garden I decided it was time to start extending the paved area at the top end of the drive. The drive is laid with sandstone and granite sets which my Dad and I put in ten years ago using reclaimed stones I had rescued from hardcore.

The existing paving at the top end of the drive is 600mm square slabs 50mm thick, again it was reclaimed and I put these in ten years ago. I had six more slabs I bought second hand, though having bought them I then found they were cut down from larger slabs, and not quite all at 600mm, nor square. However, they will do to save buying more. I do also have other larger slabs in stock with some damaged corners so I can cut them down to 600mm as needed.

So here is where I will start. Notice that two of the car port legs are on the sets.

An area of granite sets at the top end of the driveway with two timber posts for the car port resting on them. There is an area of concrete paving slabs at the end of the sets. A mobility scooter is parked on the slabs under a blue cover.
The sets are nice, but will have to go.

I used a couple of long plasterboard props to lift the first leg about 25mm off the sets. Then lifted the stones for the first slab. I took care to get a firm and level surface in sand before I slid the first slab in place. I then carried on along the row with the next two slabs.

Some granite sets have been removed from under one of the car port posts and a concrete slab has been set underneath it.
First paving slab under the carport leg.

At the other end of the row there was a bit more ‘stuff’ in the way. There is the car port leg, of course, that was lifted with the props as before. Then there is a length of steel box tube that is the bottom of a pile. That was levered up and a lump of aerated block shoved under it. And there is also the end of one of my Monkey Winches, so that was lifted and a bit of wood put under.
Then I could start removing the sets. I needed to ‘tunnel’ under to clear the space up against the base of the dry stone wall at the base of the hedge, and remove a lot of roots that had got in between the sets.

Granite sets have been removed under the other carport leg. the black gritty base has been excavated to clear space for a concrete slab to be inserted.
That was difficult!

This one was not so easy to level but I got there in the end after removing the slab twice. So that is the first row, and the car port is back on its legs.
I will put in a second row, and then I can’t do any more until the trailers are off the drive. Hopefully I can manage without any more slabs going down.

An overall view of the area previously laid with granite sets now with one rown of four concrete paving slabs in place. There is a large pile of granite sets piled onto the new slabs next to the mobility scooter under the bleet cover.
First row of paving done!

An extra 1200mm of paving may not be much but it should provide a smoother surface for the engine crane to run on making it much safer to use when it has an engine suspended from the boom.