Eunice and the Engineer: Heavyweight Storm Precautions and Precision Engineering
With the arrival of Storm Eunice in the West and the upgrading (downgrading?) of the weather warning to Red Alert for London and the South East, this morning was an odd one at AG. The first task was to ensure that we were as safe as we could be before the winds really hit us.
Granite slabs might appear to be immovable – at 600kg – they take some shifting. But wind is strong, and we have lost slabs which have been too close to vertical in the frames. The first job was to get them as safe as we could:
- Slabs at as much of an angle as possible, within safety limits
- Slabs together, not standing alone
- Slabs strapped together and to their frames
- Expanded polystyrene buffers between the slabs to physically hold them in position.
We also brought the sign in!
Eunice and the Engineer: Precision Engineering in the Polishing Shop
Meanwhile, as the wind threatened to take the roof off, the imperturbable engineer from Intermacc, the CNC people, continued to set up our new machine. A man who pays as much attention to carefully laying out his tools as he does to the technical work in front of him – we look forward to getting this new monster machine up and running.
Eunice and the Engineer: Meanwhile, around the farm...
It just happens that the farmhouse – a centuries old, listed building – is undergoing extensive work at the present time. It has a very large scaffolding, corrugated roofing and plastic sheeting box around it at the moment, and it was with considerable nervousness that we kept an eye on it through the day. The structure has proved impressive: although large parts of the sheeting have been shredded, there is not a sign of the roof lifting or disintegrating.
And, rather strangely, this afternoon, still at the peak of the storm, was very beautiful at times.
The farmhouse all boxed up, just after dawn
A plane gets off at Gatwick – but the next one coming in turned away on the way in
Afternoon and the plastic sheeting is suffering
I wonder if the blowing out of the plastic to the lee of the house helped reduce upward pressure on that temporary roof
A rather stunning afternoon, at times
Eunice and the Engineer: Wishing you well on a rather different day
Wherever you are as the storm subsides, we hope that you and yours have come through the threat in one piece, and with a minimum of damage to property and belongings. I’m about to drive home, hoping that the roads are at least fairly clear. Take care!
We are Affordable Granite, your friendly local granite worktop company. Call us for a quotation on 01293 863992 or by email on sales@affordablegranite.co.uk.
