Day 238: Ground floor walls

Day 234: Incorrect slope

Imagine my surprise when we arrived on site on Saturday and found water dammed up on our southern patio. Friday night’s rain revealed the incorrect slope of the exterior slab. 

Day 228: Concrete details

The shutter boards were removed, exposing all the details designed into the concrete slab.

Drip joint at the edge of the slab 

Aluminium channel to receive a LED light strip

Concrete column to brick wall connection

The light at the end of the tunnel is where the wine cellar is... 

Day 227: Paved driveway

The concrete slabs in between the pavement prevents the paving stones from gradually sliding down the hill.

Steel box for water meter

Day 226: Concrete grinding and polishing

This is the first step in the process of obtaining a polished concrete floor finish. A few millimeters are grinded off to expose the aggregate. At a later stage another layer will be grinded off until the final finished floor level is reached.  The concrete is then polished several times and sealed with a deep penetrating sealer.  

Day 225: Stone masonry

 Eastern boundary wall

Tension between natural rock and stone wall in basement

Day 219: Curing concrete

After casting, the concrete was covered with a plastic sheet to assist the curing process. We removed the sheet on Monday to have a look at our slab.

Day 212: Casting of ground floor slab

On photographs everything looks so calm and in control. In reality however…the site was in total chaos. The concrete was supposed to arrive at 8am. Instead, we were all running around until 12pm installing drainage, tying down steel mesh, fixing shutter boards and getting serious sunburn.

Finally when everything was in place the concrete pouring could start. They poured the balconies first. The concrete mixture contained a waterproofing admixture mixed into the concrete prior to delivery. 

As they pour, someone directs the flow, someone else vibrates the concrete, another person starts levelling and before you know it you have a ground floor slab complete with electrical conduits and plumbing pipes. 

Day 210: The night before casting

The site was covered with people this afternoon, scurrying to ready everything for tomorrow’s casting of the slab. Yet, it is not quite right…