Just back from this weeks routine site visit, and we are all pleased an impressed with progress - a bit like mayhem on site today as we push to get the building ready for the Superflo floor screed to be cast on Monday next week.

Joiners, sparky, plumbers and alarm installer were all on site today, plus ourselves and the clients, and it was very nice to see the site with a real buzz about it. The red stuff on the floor is the underfloor heating backing sheet that fixes the pipes in the floor, by the next time we visit, it should be covered with a nice layer of screed and be super smooth, ready for everyone to crack on with plaster baording internally.

The past couple of weeks on site have been characterised by extraordinary amounts of rain - to coin a local term "it has been pishing doon", to the point where part of the banking at the rear of the site has come away and we now have two torrents of water running through the site.

Pleasingly all this water has proved that the internal tanking is holding up well, and despite a somewhat sleepless night worrying that the mill spring might have moved, after investigation Gregor has proved that it was simply a field drain, I think we can all sleep a bit easier!

The main focus at present is the mill building, with works leaping ahead as we are all trying to get ready to Superflo screed the floor next week. The pictures show the internal kit is well progressed, the floor insulated, and the first fix wiring and plumbing underway. The roofing membrane has been swapped out as I was not happy with its performance, and it seems to be working well enough now. The windows are ordered and delivery dates have been set for September. Gregor and the team at Total Build are turning their minds to drainage and landscaping and trying to sort out the mill lade, whilst Andy and his team at ABC are pushing on to get the interior of the mill progressed as far as possible whilst we wait for windows. Completion is looking likely towards the end of September/early October, slippage largely due to me trying to make sure we have a coordinated solution for the windows...and being repeatedly let down by suppliers. Other than that we are very pleased with the overall progress, and it is great to see the interior starting to look like some of the graphics too now.

This week the main mill building has really started to feel like a habitable space, as the oversite concrete for the floors has been cast, and the roof almost completely sarked. With the slot of sarking to be finished at the ridge level looking a bit like a rooflight it makes me wonder if we shouldn't of had a full length rooflight in this location, but I think it would have messed about with the simplicity of the elevations.

The office/garage building has been strapped up ready for the cladding to be installed, and the next task is to get the internal kit up for the main mill building. Finally at JAM this week we have resolved the great window debacle, and have now placed orders with both Velfac and Vitral.

Uncharacteristically hot all over the UK this week, which has meant that building at Torphins has been like working in a furnace for everyone on site! Nevertheless, there has been no let up in the pace of the works, as you can see form the photos. The roof is now more or less complete on the garage, with just the leadwork ridge to add, the staircase has been installed internally and most of the plastering is complete.

The rafters on the main mill building itself have been installed, and you can now begin to see the outline of the feature full length windows. Internally the walls have been pointed and then rendered to both secure any of the loose internal rubble stonework, and to add a layer of waterproofing. the whole lot is has felt burned on at low level, which effectively works like a DPC, and then the remainder of the wall is painted with bitumen to add a final level of extra waterproofing. Even painted black it feels like a big space internally, and everyone is looking forward to the roof being completed and the internal kit being erected.