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… 

Day 194: Shutter work for ground floor slab

Day 191: Wine Cellar – The true story

On the day that the shutter work was removed from the concrete wine cellar, I received a phone call from my builder. “Nadine, I think you should come to site”, he said. I immediately expected the worst.  

When I arrived at site it did not look that bad. During the casting process the shutter work was not supported enough and the weight of the concrete pushed the shutter work a little bit further apart. This caused the plastic pipes to shift. As a result, some of the pipes were skew and irregular at the visible façade.

The first attempt showing the irregularities as well as concrete honeycomb at the bottom left corner.

 My builder made the decision to break down and rebuild. The shutter work was thoroughly supported the second time and the concrete systematically compacted to prevent the formation of concrete honeycomb.

The final result showing smooth concrete and even spaced openings. Almost perfect! Now we just need to fill it up with wine…

P.S. Can anyone tell me why the flaking occurred at the top?