The building permission was granted in January 2011. The land clearance started at the beginning of February (week 6/2011) and looked to be a fast process. However, even though we knew there was a rock, it was assumed that it was flatter due to the analysis. This was not the case so further exclavation was needed and of course this was an additional cost which ate into our spare margin (for unforseable costs). Thankfully we had a great firm conducting the land clearance so they were able to cope quickly with the change in landscape and exclavated in one day. So at least this didn't delay the project from a time perspective.

Although it is hard to see from the snow coverage this is a large rock that covers almost 80 m2.

Here you can see the aftermath of the exclavation and the cost here came from moving the rocks to a landfill. However, again this was done very quickly - so having a good land clearance firm is definitely a must.

They were clever enough to ensure that some parts of the large rock would end up in small enough pieces to use in the foundations. Otherwise we would have had extra costs in filling in the gap left after exclavation.

Here we can see the base being prepared for the foundations which are completed in week 10/2011.