Frame for the first floor has been erected..

Frame

Frame for the ground floor was put up today, now we can which room is room

FAMILY ROOM

(The two steel beams can be seen in the picture)

Slab has been completed and Frame started

The slab was completed yesterday afternoon. Went to check back this morning and the timber for the frame was getting delivered at 7:00AM. The contractors said it takes about 4 days to put the whole frame up.

Concrete pour has begun this morning

Completion Date

We got a letter from Porter Davis today advising that the completion date will be 13April 2010.

Waffle Pod slab

What is a Waffle Pod?

Waffles are made of heavy duty moulded Polystyrene. These are about 1 sq meter and about 375mm thick for H class soil.

uses moulded void formers, which are arranged on a levelled building area in a grid (similar to waffle)pattern. Once the concrete is poured it fills the spaces between and across the Waffle Pod and Rib Raft System to form a concrete slab over the entire area. The Spaces between the void formers effectively become concrete beams resulting in a slab which has a structural element of immense strength. The system uses less concrete than the conventional method, of beam trenching, so the need for labour intensive digging has been eliminated.

Will try and get some pictures tomorrow..

Pebbles have been spread and the land levelled. Steel rods have been delivered.

Gravel

Gravel was delivered this morning. This will be used to level the land in preparation for the concrete pour. Concrete pour will now occur on the 18th. Nov. It was delayed a bit since they needed time for the concrete in the piers to dry completely.

Piers being dug

Holes for the slab's piers are being dug this morning. There are 42 holes 1.5m deep. The piers are necessary to provide extra stability to the slab since the soil gets disturbed after demolition. Digging the piers will take all day. They use sort of a bob cat with a massive drill bit.

Concrete will be poured into these holes tomorrow then gravel will be poured over the ground and levelled and made ready to pour concrete for the slab. The concrete piers will stay exposed when leveling is done. The piers will bond with the slab when concrete for the slab is poured. In essence the slab instead of just sitting on its own on the ground will have 42 piers 1.5m deep to sit on for extra support. This is where a lot of the site cost goes into I guess.

I spoke to the site supervisor yesterday. Concrete will be poured on 10nov and frame will be started on 12Nov

I thing the images in the last blog were too small .. heres a bigger picture

Construction Begins !!

Its been a while since the last blog. Construction on the house has finally begun.

• Temporary fencing has been erected at the front.
  
• Portable loo is also in place
  
• Ground has been levelled for the slab to be laid.
  

This morning the guys had dug trenches to lay the plumbing pipes. Once the slab has been laid, it will be clearer how much fall there will be at the back. From what the guys were saying this morning, there will left over soil and we can decide what to do with it later. Either gradually level the back or have a drop.

Electric cable from the underground power pit at the nature strip has been drawn into the block.