Chris mixing concrete; Mike putting the concrete in the formwork.
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June 22, 2000
The first section of concrete to be poured was the fireplace structure. When building on an island
things rarely go smoothly and this pour was no exception. There were two electric cement mixers on site
but before the first load was mixed one of the motors seized! Fortunately the second mixer worked. Of course this too
was not without difficulty and every now and then the motor stopped working. Sometimes this was inverter problems
(the inverter supplies the 115 volts AC from the 12 volt batteries), and once a
particularly "hard to find" problem,
the plug had come undone from the cord! Lunch was taken in shifts so that the pour continued all day.
Two people can do most of the job by themselves but every now again they needed more concrete bags. To pour the 8 foot high structure, the mixer was supported at the top of a scaffold so that the concrete did not have to be lifted too far once it was mixed. At about 6 pm, the work was finished and Mike left a beautiful flat deck for the fireplace. Chris was the concrete mixer for much of the day, and Mike did the pouring. This was a messy job for all, and was definitely not the same as "pouring tea"!
Chris mixing concrete; Mike putting the concrete in the formwork.
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then use your browser's back button to return to this page.)
Yet another load of concrete is passed up.
The empty concrete bags accumulate beneath the scaffold.
During the pour Bill came round to check on how things were progressing. All the formwork was put up under his watchful eye.
Bill, the Advisor for the project, talking with Stephen.
At the end of the first day, the concrete fireplace platform is smoothed off by Mike. It looked really great when it was finished. Those involved also felt great that a major goal had been achieved. Now that the crew had experience with concrete there would be a one day pause, and then the deck and the walls would be done.
Mike smoothing the fireplace platform.
June 24 and 25, 2000
On the second day of concrete pouring, the deck and part of the two walls which join the deck were poured. Two
cement mixers were at work now as the failed electric motor was replaced. The mixers were so placed as to tip
directly into the wall space thereby reducing much carrying. The concrete was then directed to flow to the
required area by the use of a stick. Sometimes there were leaks from the
concrete formwork where the shiplap did
not follow the rock contours closely enough. These responded well to anything blocking the path of the concrete. Wet
concrete bags worked quite well blocking the smaller gaps.
Two cement mixers and their teams hard at work.
The two teams of concrete pourers worked from opposite corners of the building to join in the east wall. Here is Ben smoothing off one wall. You can see the step to the left is already poured. It was usually necessary to allow the concrete to harden a little before pouring the next step. If you did not wait there was a tendency for some of the concrete of the enxt step to come out on the step below. The total time to mix and pour approximately 500 bags was 3 days, with one team working the first day, and two the remaining two days.
The final wall nears completion.
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