This cave-in, which occurred
adjacent to the 2nd gate and driveway, required some prompt action.
Day Eight - 29 September, 2015
The guys were expecting several deliveries of sand, gravel, large rocks
and cement. None of it light (in weight) stuff. In the picture below, it's been
cleaned and readied for a small load of rock to fill it. After it's
filled, Carlos (our caretaker) will cover it with marl and after a
while, you wouldn't know there was ever a cave-in there.
 |
| Cave-In Being Remedied |
Before the trenches can be filled with concrete, steel rebar must be added.
 |
| Cutting Rebar to Length |
Along with cutting the rebar to length, there's a
need for smaller diameter rebar (like 1/4" stuff) that is bent and
formed to make a sort of collar for the rebar that helps give it some
3-dimensional qualities, like in the rebar columns. Here's Omar forming
up a bunch of those for just that use.
 |
| Omar Bending 1/4" Rebar As Frames For Heavier Rebar in Columns, etc. |
The rebar part of the project moved right along, as you can see from the
photo below. And already the vertical pieces for the columns are set, making use of Omar's frames.
 |
| Rebar is Already in the Trenches |
The shot below gives you a little bigger perspective
of the whole project. if you're wondering why the rebar runs up so high
for the columns, keep in mind that our ceilings in the new part are
going to be 9-foot 6-inches. Nice and high. They appear more so right
now since the floor level hasn't been cast yet.
 |
| Big Picture of the Vertical Rebar Pieces |
One thing I had never seen before is the use of
concrete standoffs to raise the rebar in trenches up to the mid-point of
the pour. Oh, sure, everyone uses bits of concrete block to use as
standoffs, as well as whatever other material may be on hand.
This
is the first time that I've seen purpose-built standoffs. These even
come with a length of tie-wire molded into the standoff, in order for it
to be married to the rebar, so there is little danger of the rebar
becoming misplaced during the pour. Pretty cool idea.
 |
| Deeohgee Inspecting the Concrete Standoffs |
One of the tasks that's very important from our
perspective, is keeping a handle on the spending for a project,
especially something that's fairly major - at least as far as our bank
account is concerned. Dianna loves doing this, and dove right in. She
set up a notebook, and has everything organized. Tracking invoices,
receipts, and estimates, is right up her alley. I'm so glad she likes
doing that, and she's good at it too.
 |
| Dianna, Reverting to Her Past Life, Keeping the Books |
Of course, we've found another small cave-in. It's
right next to the round one that we patched up already. This one's a lot
smaller. As work progresses, any leftover concrete the guys have, goes
into the hole. For now, that seems to be sufficient. We've had heavy
trucks run over it with no problem, so it seems to be under control. We
are keeping an eye on it. Just one of the hazards of living on a
limestone coast. We're lucky in that none of the cave-in activity around
here seems to be on a par with the really scary stuff like up in
Florida.
 |
| Another Small Cave-In. This One is About One-Foot Across |
One of the real treats whenever we have a
construction project is that the breakfast man, 'FatBwai' (Fat Boy in
standard English) shows up and sells hot dogs, tamales, hamburgers,
patties, all the good breakfast stuff to the workers. He doesn't have
everything every day, but the menu varies a lot. He also sells bags of
juice and some bottles of juice too. The mornings he doesn't show up,
the workers all complain that FatBwai is starving them.
 |
| FatBwai Bringing Sustenance to the Troops |
If you'd like to see more photos of our project as it moves along, check out this link. Click on
https://www.flickr.com/gp/winjama/GwZ9si to see the complete album of the Pool House Addtion Construction. It'll get added to daily.
No comments:
Post a Comment