09/08/05 - The second concrete pour is over and generally it went well. 

A big thank you to all the workers again - some of whom obviously didn’t learn from their first concreting experience and came back for a second helping!

As you can see below, if you forget something or make a mistake the results can be, er...  exciting.  However, even the repairs of the partial ‘blow-out’ below will be fairly straight forward.  The easiest solution is to just sand down the polystyrene untill it is level again.  The distortion is very localised.  There is no reduction in  wall strength as there is actually more concrete at this point in the wall - the downside is that there will be a reduction in insulation.  There is still 2” overall, however.

The next pour (for the 1st floor walls) is penciled in for around 6 weeks time, hopefully before the oak frame arrives.

Ready to go!!!

Pouring, rodding and poking (vibrating to get the air out) the back wall.

Pump and Mixer.

Lunch (courtesy of Anita) is served!

C/w from bottom left - Phil Sacre (QuadLock rep - Newmil.co.uk), Keith Roberts (doing self build in Enfield), Jim McGrath (thinking about using QuadLock for a big extention in Hertford), Ewan Rathie (here for the beer), the Pump Man and Mick Peake as ever, looking very pleased with himself.

How to do a window ‘buck’ correctly... The 2x4” braces and ply strips around the opening are now removed (and used again later)  leaving the treated timber (2” thick) between the Quad-Lock panels to recieve the window frame in due course.

09/08/07 - And how not to do it...  Insufficiant bracing between inner and outer panels at the bottom of this opening (for the electricity box) has allowed the pressure of wet concrete to force the inner panel in and break it.  This caused a small amount (8 shovel-fulls) of concrete to spill out.  No spillage on the outside - only minor bulging of the panel below the opening.

27/07/05 - Apologies for not doing an update a bit sooner but, as you can see, I have been busy.  The Quad-Lock for the ground floor is one course or two short of completion.  Door and window openings are obvious.  These, and the tops of the walls, need to be braced with timber for the concrete pour which is planned for the 8th or 9th of August.

The vertical timbers are there to brace the walls every 6 feet or so.

You can see the plastic ties, which hold the two leaves of Quad-Lock panel together and stop them from spreading under the load of the wet concrete when it is poured between them.  Black for 4” thick concrete walls (internal), yellow for 8” (external ground floor) and soon, blue for 6” (1st floor external).

Scaffolding (to stand on whilst doing the pour) should arrive today.

As you can see, the weather has finally turned and it has been quite wet for the last few days.  Fortunately, this does not stop the Quad-Lock from going up.

28/07/05

19/07/05 - The slab with Quad-Lock Track down.  The gaps are for doorways.

This shot of the ledger board/brackets incidentally shows a close up of the wall thickness transition from 8” concrete core on the ground floor to 6” concrete core for the rest of the outside walls.  You can also see the concrete outer face where the oak frame will sit, now the wooden shutter has been removed.

The cast in-situ fireplace hearth.  This will have the lounge fireplace sitting on it - the chimney will be in reconstituted pumice pre-fab interlocking blocks (Anki) so it won’t weigh much.  It will also have a ledger board bolted to its front to support the ends of the joists that meet it.

29/08/08 -  Wall footings rebared and ready for concrete.  Looking North.  This will have a brick and concrete block retianing wall on it.  Further up it changes to brick and brick, non-retaining...