29/06/2009 by Martin Sargent.

The stone walls at the front of the villas are completed and the installations to connect to the mains electricity and water have been installed. We are now concentrating on the dividing stone wall so we can finish the external tiling.

The external tiles are being laid. We start from the swimming pool edge and work outwards to making sure the cuts go against the villa and the swimming pool edge starts with a full tile.

We use a special cement adhesive for the external tiles. This will stop any damp penetrating into the garages below. The external stairs have a special edging tile that gives them a high quality finish.

We have now started the external tiling on the second villa.

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25/06/2009 by Nick Lanzarote Guidebook.

Despite the credit crunch and weak state of sterling the holiday island of Lanzarote still expects to welcome well over one million tourists this year.

The bulk of them from the UK and Eire.  And anyone planning to visit Lanzarote this summer can now get their hands on a comprehensive 96 page guide to the island – entirely free of charge.

Lanzarote Guidebook has been created by long term island residents in order to provide visitors with accurate and up to date information about the Island of Fire.  Along with plenty of inside tips about the best places to go and things to see and do.

 The Summer 2009 edition features 96 pages – illustrated with some fantastic visuals – and is packed with useful information for tourists.  Which can be downloaded fast and for free at the Lanzarote Guidebook web-site.

 Lanzarote Guidebook contains comprehensive information about all of the island’s resorts, towns and places.  Including maps for each resort. Along with coverage of all of Lanzarote´s many attractions.  Such as the Timanfaya Volcano Park and the Jameos del Agua.

 Discover the work of César Manrique - the island born artist and architect who campaigned for the controlled development of tourism on the island. Find out more about upcoming events this summer – such as the Jazz Canarias Festival and the fiesta of Nuestra Señora del Carmen. 

 For those who like to explore and enjoy days out Lanzarote Guidebook also features an overview of the islands most breathtaking beaches and information about the best excursions on the island.  Including kayak tours, catamaran trips and submarine voyages.

Lanzarote Guidebook also contains a handy Essentials section.  Which covers all of the holiday nitty gritty such as bank opening times, hiring a car, driving on the island, duty free allowances, shop opening hours and a list of emergency contact numbers.

This indispensable guide is published in a handy and portable A5 format and is distributed free to tourists on the island via car hire companies, hotels, tourist information offices and private villas.
Visitors to the Lanzarote Guidebook website will also find even more in-depth and detailed information about the island online.  They can catch up on all of the latest island news, check live weather reports and use in-depth climate information to work out when best to visit.  Whilst browsing one of the best selections of Lanzarote villas and apartments online.

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09/06/2009 by Martin Sargent.

The lower level garden areas are now finished and the top coat of back-fill is used to cover the water tanks and waste pipes. The shuttering has been placed to help protect the stone walls from any falling rocks.

We have installed the electrics for the jacuzzis and the water pipes for the pool shower and garden water taps.

We have compacted the top soil, placed all the steel rods and poured the final coat of concrete for the patio area surrounding the swimming pools.

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03/06/2009 by Martin Sargent.

The Canarian dry stone walls at the front of the villas are now finished. We have built the stone wall by the swimming pools up to the patio floor levels. We can now finish screeding the outside terraces and start laying tiles.

The trenches have been dug for the waste water pipes and we are finishing off the plumbing for the swimming pools.

Posted in Dry Stone Walls, Current construction projects, Client - Hitesh | Print | 1 Comment »

08/05/2009 by Martin Sargent.

Finally gone are the days of hours and hours spent in the local travel agents trawling through holiday brochures and never being sure if you are really getting exactly what you are after or if you are getting the cheapest deal. Now, with the many online travel agents, flight companies and tour operators, you are only a click away from finding cheap holidays in Tenerife.

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21/04/2009 by Martin Sargent.

Natural dry stone walls can be seen all over the Island of Lanzarote. In the countryside they create the natural boundaries between fields where the farmers are constantly clearing the ground for their crops. In the villages they line all the road sides and now in a lot of new constructions they are used for boundry walls to keep the traditional feel of the Island.

Dry stone walls on Lanzarote are made from the Islands natural lave rock that is quarried from a lava field between the Moñumento del Campesino (near San Bartolome) and Teguise (the Islands original capital). All lava extraction is strictly overseen by the local authorities as it is prohibited to remove volcanic lava from the countryside. The rock is removed using large excavators which extract pieces of rock of approximately 1 to 2 meters cubed. This stone is then delivered to the site in this form ready for splitting/cutting.

The splitting of the rock is done by hand. We use a diamond tipped blade in an angle grinder to cut small grooves in the stone in which we place steel wedges. These are then hit with a heavy club hammer a few times and the rock is split. The process is then repeated until the desired size of rock is reached. This is a time consuming process but gives the stone a good flat finish for us to work with.

This method of building stone walls is called “Piedra Cortada” (cut stone) and is the best quality of dry stone walling on the Island.

You can also build the dry stone walls by using the smaller stones directly from the quarry, this is slightly cheaper in the cost of labour but does not give a top quality finish.

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17/04/2009 by Martin Sargent.

We have now finished the screeding in-side and out of both villas ready for tiling.

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17/04/2009 by Martin Sargent.

 The block-work is now finished, we then render the swimming pool walls and screed the pool base.

It is important to cut away the render around the pool light and inlet valves so that the fiber-glass resin has good contact.

Posted in Current construction projects, Client - Hitesh, Pools - Under Construction | Print | 1 Comment »

17/03/2009 by Martin Sargent.

The final structural part of the project are the swimming pools. We have leveled the base and compacted the soil ready for a thin layer of concrete. This gives us a base to work on. A steel mesh is constructed of 12mm steel on top of which we pour approx 20cm thick concrete.

The base is now finished and we are laying the blocks for the sides of the swimming pool.

This is the traditional system for building Lanzarote swimming pools and is used all over Spain. This construction system has been used by Lanzarote Builders for many years.

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Posted in Current construction projects, Client - Hitesh, Pools - Under Construction | Print | 6 Comments »

17/03/2009 by Martin Sargent.

The shuttering is in place for the balcony floor off the master bedroom and we are putting in the floor levels ready for the concrete.

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