noelleprice (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} noelleprice) wrote,@ 2006-09-14 22:49:00 |
|
Building a House the East St. Tammany Way - Installment 2: The Pour
Here I go with construction crash course number two. (See the journal entry from August 8 for installment #1, in which we discussed "Formwork".)
When we last saw our house-in-progress, it looked like this:
Next, a transit level is used to mark the desired elevation of finished concrete on the forms, and a chamfer strip is applied on that level all the way along the inside faces of all the forms. This will be used to run a screed board along to ensure that the finished concrete is all on the same elevation, or at least as close as we can get. Then the rebar is tied together in long sections, which are laid on top of metal chairs to hold them up off the ground. The rebar is required to be no closer than two and a half inches to the edge of concrete in any direction.
After the rebar is placed, temporary supports are nailed bridging the forms for the purpose of holding the hurricane straps in place during the pour. These straps are embedded in the concrete, and will come up through the cement blocking and be nailed a jillion times to the sills and the wall studs. The hook-shaped bottom end of the strap is wire-tied to the rebar. Then, all you've got to do is talk a pump truck into coming out to your site.
The operator uses a remote to move the hose around with the boom while our people move the hose manually throughout the form system. Here, Lauren and Julia "man" the hose.
The concrete is then finished with trowels and floats, checking elevation with the transit level in the process to verify that nothing's gone badly awry.
The sole purpose of this last picture is to demonstrate why it's better to be tall than short when you're holding a hose out of which concrete shoots at high pressure...
Here I go with construction crash course number two. (See the journal entry from August 8 for installment #1, in which we discussed "Formwork".)
When we last saw our house-in-progress, it looked like this:
Next, a transit level is used to mark the desired elevation of finished concrete on the forms, and a chamfer strip is applied on that level all the way along the inside faces of all the forms. This will be used to run a screed board along to ensure that the finished concrete is all on the same elevation, or at least as close as we can get. Then the rebar is tied together in long sections, which are laid on top of metal chairs to hold them up off the ground. The rebar is required to be no closer than two and a half inches to the edge of concrete in any direction.
After the rebar is placed, temporary supports are nailed bridging the forms for the purpose of holding the hurricane straps in place during the pour. These straps are embedded in the concrete, and will come up through the cement blocking and be nailed a jillion times to the sills and the wall studs. The hook-shaped bottom end of the strap is wire-tied to the rebar. Then, all you've got to do is talk a pump truck into coming out to your site.
The operator uses a remote to move the hose around with the boom while our people move the hose manually throughout the form system. Here, Lauren and Julia "man" the hose.
The concrete is then finished with trowels and floats, checking elevation with the transit level in the process to verify that nothing's gone badly awry.
The sole purpose of this last picture is to demonstrate why it's better to be tall than short when you're holding a hose out of which concrete shoots at high pressure...
