Construction Updates
Follow our progress with the construction of the building here.
Our first phase is to achieve a watertight building by the end of March 2026.
Each week we will be taking a 'birds-eye view' photograph from a drone to see the construction progress - take a look here:
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Week beginning Monday 19th January 2026:
Don’t know if we’ve mentioned this before, but sometimes the Dartmoor weather can be wet and windy! That was definitely the theme again this week, and the work of completing all the shuttering detail of the first floor walls, including all the window and door openings, has been carried out in pretty poor weather. In fact, with the weather predicted to be so bad all week, Duraform had worked the Saturday previously just because the forecast was good for a day.
The target for this week was the second pour of concrete, which is the first wall pour. The hall has lots of windows and doors so this means lots of small bits of shuttering, and various different steel reinforcement details to fit inside. Visiting during the week this work was happening in torrential conditions at times, but with determination the concrete pour happened on Friday. The structure doesn’t look much different to the start of the week, but now those walls are full of concrete, it really feels like a building.
Next steps for the coming week will be to strip down temporary access and propping and start the next level of Nudura to the main hall section. And in fact, some roofing elements to the ancillary rooms will not be too far away, and the site is going to be busy in the coming weeks with various tasks occurring concurrently. Duraform remain focused on the finish date in March and all the committee thank the team on and off site for their hard work.
Week beginning Monday 12th January 2026:
The team have been working this week on bringing the walls of the external parts of the hall up to their full height, and the internal walls of the main hall up to the same height.
As the walls grow, scaffolding is required to allow the structure to be assembled and to eventually give access for the concrete pouring of the walls. The pouring of concrete happens in stages, and the first pour will be at the end of next week.
In order that the walls are straight and vertical a system of props and turnbuckles are installed and everything is made plumb. That process has been ongoing this week, along with the task of detailing around all the openings so that these are all fully concrete-retaining and to correct sizes.
Design work is continuing on next stages of the project, which then inform costs and allow us to plan for and seek funding.
Week beginning Monday 5th January 2026:
In preparation for the prompt start of work this week, Duraform delivered a small amount of Nudura wall material to site prior to Christmas. The rest of the wall material arrived during the week. From Monday work started in the snow and ice – the slab was like an ice rink! Not a facility we expected to provide.
This week has its excitement, it is the first time that the sizes of rooms and the windows and doors openings make a physical manifestation. It has been a disciplined job to work out what is the ‘right size’ for a new hall. It needs to be affordable to build and run for generations, big enough to cater for sizable events and intimate enough to deal with the expected uses day-to-day.
In the changeable weather of a Dartmoor winter, the Nudura material has definite advantages. We chose it for its thermal efficiency primarily, and its durability and simplicity. The system matches well the raft foundation we used on our soft site. But it is also a modern form of construction which is quite robust to wind, rain and snow during construction. As we have mentioned, one bit of our funding puts an absolute deadline on construction of this phase, so even with Storm Goretti this week, progress has remained on target. The wall shutter is 100mm thick dense polystyrene, with in-built links across to a similar material on the opposite side. Into this is threaded steel bars for strength. The void is then filled with concrete. For now the polystyrene element is going up, along with the temporary supports which box out the windows and doors (i.e. keep the concrete held in the walls), keep the walls vertical and in line, and allow access for pouring in the concrete. This week Duraform have reached up to about 6 foot in the external walls, which means one can stand within and feel the size of the multi-use room, the kitchen, plant room and stores.
There are quite a few details and additions to sort before the concrete is poured but the scale of the various spaces is emerging.
Week beginning Monday 15th December 2025:
The milestone which the contractors have been working toward was hit this week, with the floor pour happening as planned on Thursday.
To be ready, there was a concerted effort at getting the steel fixed in preparation. There is plenty or reinforcing steel or ‘rebar’ in the slab, and all the structural walls – which are being put up in this phase of work – have continuous reinforcement which connect them to the slab. Prior to pouring the slab all the rebar needs to be tied together robustly, and made so that there is sufficient ‘cover’. This is ensuring the steel is within the concrete by at least 50mm or so, so there is no chance of the steel rusting and blowing the concrete out over its lifetime. As all this gets hidden once the concrete is poured, there is a need for Building Control to sign off the work before the concrete pour.
This duly happened on Wednesday and despite a wet day predicted for Thursday, everything was ready. The day had definitely not dawned by the time the concrete pump arrived at 6 am, but excellent progress was made and all the concrete was placed by late lunch-time. This concludes the work planned before the new year so there will not be another update until week commencing 5th January. The plan will be to make an immediate start to the walls, the first course of Nudura is on site now to make a start.
Merry Christmas to all, and thank you to all the people making this happen, especially the Duraform team who have battled, if not hell, certainly high water to keep the build on track.
Week beginning Monday 8th December 2025:
This week the Duraform team have been making great progress in preparation for the floor slab. The insulation system has been installed, with the team on site even in the teeth of Storm Bram, and it did not slow them down much! The insulation is shallow under the structural walls, but 300mm thick under the main floors. On top of this another Radon barrier is laid – the yellow material – and then comes the task of doing the steel-fixing. This is assembling and installing the cages which form the reinforcement under the walls, wiring it all together so it stays in the right place, in preparation for pouring of the concrete floor.
Thoughts are now turning to the floor pour, which is likely to happen toward the end of next week. This will be somewhat weather dependant and there is ‘weather’ predicted next week. Before it can be done the steel fixing needs to be completed so that will be the first task next week.
In addition, a site meeting was held between the Community Hall representatives, the contractor, and our professional support of Andrew Kirby Architects and our Quantity Surveyor Oliver del Mar. This was very comprehensive and we noted that all involved were impressed with the floor system being used in terms of how clean and organised it allowed the site to remain.
With Christmas approaching the critical milestone planned is for the floor pour to occur. After this there will be two quiet weeks, before the arrival of wall materials in the new year.
Week beginning Monday 1st December 2025:
The most important item this week to keep the project progressing on-time was the delivery of the “Build Lite” material. This was duly delivered mid-week as expected and so Duraform are making good on their efforts to get the project moving swiftly.
The Build Lite is a system of interlocking insulation which goes under our floor slab. It has higher edges and so allows the concrete floor slab to poured within it. It means that the slab is entirely underlaid by extremely well insulated material. Obviously, since the whole building is sat on it, it needs to be accurately laid on totally level ground. To this end, the final levelling task is to lay a thin blinding layer of sand. This is laid totally level – it looks like a billiard table to me – very impressive. The Build Lite is then laid down, up against string lines to make sure it is totally true and temporarily weighted down. This is partially completed now, and the rest of the material is on site, along with lots of steel reinforcement ready for installation.
It is pleasing to see that the contractors are using all of our prepared carpark area and there is enough space for stockpiling, parking and containers.
Off site, details of the external windows and doors have been finalised. This is a balancing act; the best solution are high quality triple glazed windows which are designed to meet PassivHaus standards, but would not be appropriate for high traffic situations like the front doors. We therefore have decided on a mostly Rationel Auraplus, but using a more commercial door solution for the front door – as there are inner and outer front doors we can compensate for the slightly lower thermal efficiency.
Week beginning Monday 24th November 2025:
Duraform have had a fairly relaxed week on our site getting the final preparation work done before our “build lite” order arrives ready for casting the main floor slab (expected midway through week 3).
Completed work this week has been a small amount of material spread and rolled on the previously levelled material. This got the site completely level. They have then installed the Radon system - Radon is a gas which comes from Granite and is radioactive. It is heavier than air so can collect in places, and therefore there are special rules in Granite areas to avoid this happening. In this case, it is putting a grid of perforated pipes right under where the build lite will be. Think of it like ground drainage, but for heavy gas. Duraform have done this, and that is the network of blue pipes just at the surface area.
Duraform have been happy to let Miles work alongside them on site too and he has built a new turf bank across the site. By stripping turf off the site and using it to create a new bank, this is a cheap way to build and sorts all the functional requirements of keeping the dark, bat-friendly space separate from the car parking area. In due course, between Gail and Simon & Val Tame (& hopefully a group of willing volunteers!), this will get planted up with hedging saplings on top. We shouldn’t need to do much on the swale side of that bank now.
Week beginning Monday 17th November 2025:
It's been a busy and exciting week! As soon as we had sorted out the legal formalities, Duraform started on site, with brothers Charl & Christian taking charge of the digger & dumper and accepting deliveries. They are friendly, welcoming and well wrapped-up against the bitter cold!
We are still waiting for final quotes to energise our mains electricity connection, so in the meantime Chris M has got agreement from the Sports Group (huge thanks to them!) that we can use their power and he's recoding meter readings. Chris E has set-up a temporary connection to the site for the contractors and they have a back-up generator in their GroundHog unit if required.
Speaking to the guys on site they have been very complimentary about the site in terms of levels and conditions - that is great because that is all stuff we have done and directly saved costs. Hats off to the digger drivers, dumper drivers, roller drivers, Alan for directing us, Lloyd for providing the material, basically all round. The comment was that the bearing capacity was twice as much as they needed - if you walk off the prepared bit into the unimproved field you'll know that took work!
The application to have all remaining Planning Conditions discharged has been submitted to DNPA. Building control have also been appointed and will do a first visit next week.
In terms of communications with neighbours, we have put letters through all the doors of Brook Lane residents and updated the site notice board with new relevant details.
Val & Simon Tame recently met Gail on-site to look at the Landscape & Ecological Management Plan (LEMP) to discuss planting requirements. They will plan and manage tree and bulb planting and we already have donations of bare root saplings and daffodil bulbs for this purpose. We'll put a shout out on the volunteer WhatsApp group when we need helpers for planting.
Miles has made a start on the new hedgebank separating the site from the swale area. This will be built using turf cut on site, so there will be no charge to the charity - great news as this will have more opportunity for biodiversity, and less maintenance as we had expected to have to put up a fence!
In the background, grant applications for further stages of work are being made. Remember we only have enough in the kitty to get the building to a watertight shell currently, but we would dearly like to continue with works once that stage is reached. Hence a continued effort with grant applications.
All of this work can only go ahead because we have a supportive community who have pulled together to get the funding package over the line, for that we are very grateful. It will be exciting to see the outline of hall emerge over the coming months.
