The concrete all got poured today. Making this happen took an impressive amount of work. Originally the cement trucks had been ordered for 7AM. When it became clear yesterday afternoon that there was still a lot to do, they pushed them back to arrive starting some time between noon and 2. The first truck arrived at 1. A little later would not have hurt. The story continues in the figure captions below.
Picture 1 – While Javi steered the tube depositing the cement, Kayvan, the brother of our contractor and his onsite foreman, ran the vibrator. This crucial piece of equipment makes sure that the concrete flows down to fill all of the voids.
Picture 2 – While they were doing that, another of the workmen was busy putting in strips of wood at the top of the forms that would create keys to lock this concrete in with that which will be poured on top of it next week.
Picture 3 – Primo, another of the workmen, was busy attaching blocks that would hold the two pieces of plywood together that joined at a 45 degree angle. Javi, had seen that these were missing while he was up on the wall pouring the cement.
Picture 4 – And two of the workmen were straightening a wall, for which they just finished the forms this morning, and adding a brace to hold it in place.
Picture 5 – This is what it should look like when they finished. The two humps running left to right in the picture are lengths of wood that will form the keys.
Picture 6 – Although the concrete is full of sand and gravel and seemed incredibly stiff, its pressure was such that it pushed out through any crack or hole. Even more concrete came out of the tube, hit the wood for the keys or the rebar at the top of the form, and splattered all over the place.
Picture 7 — To avoid some of this, toward the end, Javi started taking out one of the two pieces of wood for the keys at the top of each wall section, so that he could insert the tube into the wall. But this meant that someone had to come by later and dig those keys out of the hardening concrete by hand.
Picture 8 – And then, occasionally, too much concrete ended up somewhere. This is Primo shoveling extra concrete out of the bottom of one of the window openings.
Picture 9 – One of the last steps was to install the anchors for this plate into the hardening concrete. Eventually, this will hold the steel post that will form the southwest corner of the house.
Picture 10 – I was amazed at how hard they all worked to get everything that needed to be done in time. Certainly, by the end of the day, Kayvan looked like he had been pouring concrete — It’s not clear that he’ll ever be able to wear those glasses again. The crew certainly appreciated the beer that I got them when they all came off the site at the end of the day.