Slab Preparation. Day 3.

I arrived just before 3pm on Thursday to find that significant progress had been made. The polystyrene waffle pods had been put in place. The gaps between the pods form channels where the concrete will drop down into, giving strength. Concrete can take huge compression stress. Concrete does not deal well with tensile stress. To assist the concrete do deal with tensile stress, steel mesh and reinforcing rod is placed within the concrete to take the load. Most of the thicker reo-rod was placed in the channels. The mesh is lifted off the waffle pods, to be in the top third of the concrete. Both the guys laying the slab out, and the independent inspector where quite taken aback and surprised by the engineering of this slab. The slab itself is simple, as in not involved, but it is very heavily engineered. Heaven help anyone who wants to demolish this slab!
 

The initial laying out of the mesh on top of the waffle pods.

The mesh being lifted off the surface of the waffle pods. This also shows the width of and the depth of the solid concrete around the edges of the slab.

View from the front showing the garage and portico.

Closer inspection of the edge and corner.

The extensive bracing put in to support the slab.

Detail showing the reo-rod on the bottom being lifted off the bottom of the slab so that it's actually in the slab itself.

Detail showing the cross bracing in the narrower channels.

All of the supporting struts to support the boxing around the edges of the slab are manually put in place. Nailed, drilled or screwed into place. The mesh is put down, manually, and then lifted, manually, onto the round plastic supports shown above. These supports give the proper clearance above the waffle pod, and below the surface of the slab. It is a huge amount of work to be done. It is all manually performed, and by the end of the day, having been bent over for most of it, they are quite well exhausted. It's not a job that I could do.

It was at this point, before the pour (tomorrow) that we had David from Darbecca inspect the slab preparations. He was very pleasantly surprised that there were very few faults in the installation; all of which are only generally rectified (waffle pods that had moved etc) on the day of, or as the pour occurs.

I would also like to thank Matt, PD's Slab Mgr for being so approachable and responsive. I did not get the inspection report until about 7:30pm, and it was only then that I realised that I only had Matt's phone no, not his email address. I needed his email address so that I could forward the report to him. Matt was responsive to SMS's at 8pm at night, and I forwarded him the report. I could not ask for more!

So all in all, we're happy and excited about the pour for tomorrow!

Slab Preparation. Day 2.

Today, the guys were continuing to prepare the slab.

I popped around twice through out the day to see their progress. In the morning, they were putting the wood boxing around where the edge of the slab would actually be.

All of the support bracing is yet to be put in place.

 

Looking at the rear of the slab, it is very high off the ground.

Some very heavy reo-rod and normal mesh. Apologies for my finger!

All of the different types used.

When I arrived in the afternoon, they had completed the boxing and were well into the laying of the moisture barrier (thick black plastic) used to protect the slab.

The bracing has been completed. You can see the height of the slab.

Still lots more to do.

The pour is due for Friday and there is still much to do.

Slab Preparation

This morning, we drove past the block, to find that the previously dumped gravel had been spread out in preparation for the slab. Foundations for the foundations as it were.

Gravel base for the slab.

Odd though it sounds, the house is starting to take shape; in that we can now really see how big it is and where it's going to go.

Drainage completed! Day 5!

No, it is not a dog agility course!

It's the long overdue (through no ones fault) completed drainage!

Yey! Slab, here we come!

Looks like an agility course!

Finished!

Oh, and all of the rock has been removed as well!

Drainage progress. Day four.

This morning I went to check the block to see what the status of the drainage was.

To my surprise, we had a second, larger digger on site. This one was brought in to break the rocks up so that they could be actually picked up and put into a truck to take them away!

It had this jack hammer attached to it.

The jack hammer.

It makes pretty neat work of the rocks.

The split rocks.

Unfortunately, I did not have my boys with me, so I had to take this instead.

I was going to name this blog post "Ten years of hard labour", as that is about the time I think that it would have taken me to breakup and move these rocks by hand! :)

Drainage progress. Day three and counting.

The drainers have been working hard now for three days. With at least one more to go!

The amount of rock they have had to work around, and remove has been a lot more than they expected. They started on Friday, were working on Saturday and today, Monday, they are still going and expect to be still going tomorrow. I hope this does not blow out extra site cost charges!

However, they have been great to talk too, and are doing the best that they can, with what they have to contend with. As I've said previously, it's a rock road ahead...

The sewer cap. 1.8m deep.

Drainage in progress. Piers shown.

About one third of what has been dug up!

Starting to connect the sewage.

Sewage detouring around a pier.

Progress so far, still going.

Drainage preparations

Last night, on her way home, Heli drove past the block and said that there was a big pile of dirt in the driveway.

Huh?

Upon investigation the next morning, my boys and I checked it out.

It is red scoria. One of the really strange things that I find about building is that at least in the case of the piering and drainage, it is documented after the fact. Whilst I understand the need for flexibility, as witnessed by the piering adventures, can't we at least have a plan??? Well, no. Not in the case of drainage. I've made some requests for placement of drainage risers. I'd have liked to have seen a plan first so that I could see what I'm getting and what I needed to add where I needed it. Nope. In this case, it is all done after the fact.

Once it's done, I'll be requesting a formalised plan drawn up. Darren from Darbecca, our independent inspector, has strongly recommended that we get all plans (piering and drainage) documented within seven days of being done. This way it's all fresh in people's minds. Or more to the point, if things go horribly wrong, and you find yourself in a VCAT hearing in 3-5 years time, the judge will (and has) asked in real cases "Why was it not documented?". It's all about protecting yourselves.