Saturday 11 August 2007

[Progress.029] Slab Done!

When I was there early 7:30am this morning, our busy construction site was already crowded with trucks and trades person. Looks like we have different concret pump team this time.

There were 5 of them working, they started from the right hand side bay window corner at the front. Probably because there were some drop edge beams there and the ground level was much lower.

This guy holding a machine that looks like the edge trimmer we used for mowing glass. He keep inserting it into the concrete, run the machine for a few seconds, which I think generates some vibration for the concrete to be properly distributed between the waffle pod and steel mesh.

Around 8:15am we went to neighbour's backyard to have a better view of the whole site.

And again, we have this laser machine standing at the far corner behind where the kitchen will be located.

We are quite happy to see they included and put in steel mesh for areas where the hot water, air conditioning and water tank(not shown here). We have seen a few builders who simply insert a thin concrete block.

Every few minuts, they will use this stick with an orange thing (receiver?) to check the hight and it makes a quick beeping sound.

It was quite quick, they done almost 25% in about an hour.

When I returned about 10:30am, it looks almost done...

Urh... except the garage...

When I was there after lunch, they already started, they are working really hard today!

Later around 2pm, the concrete pump truck was gone, and they start removing all the timbers.

Our bay window looks like a chocolate cake, in concrete...

They are already walking on the slab, using a small machine which I think is to make it level.

There were some left overs and now I can see the other side of waffle pod, it's filled with lots of crosses, which makes it quite strong I think.

A closer look of the little machine, it has 4 blades at the bottom and it looks like a huge upside down fan.

This is a close look of the receiver.

This is the edge trimmer thing I mentioned.

When I returned late in the afternoon, it's all done!

We were told that it might take up to 4 weeks for the concrete slabs to be fully "cured", but it's already quite strong and can safely walk on it. Our supervisor told us last week he already ordered the frames and they should be here in a few weeks, so all we can do now is wait... For the concrete slab to dry/cure and our builder to send us the first bill...

Need to go to bed early tonight, tomorrow is my big day - city2surf....

5 comments:

TandTheOz said...

congratulations Allan, you have concrete (and probably sore legs today!). Very exciting to see your home taking shape.
cheers
Helen

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your slab! And on the big run too!

Anonymous said...

That 'edge trimer' is a vibrating poker to get the air out of the concrete and nothing to do with the edges.

Mike.
UK.

Anonymous said...

Hi Allan
I dont see the black sheets under the slab coming out, did your concretor trimmed them off?
Many thanks

BuildingOurFirstHouse said...

Hi,

Thanks for your comment.
My understanding is, that black sheet thing is just a thin layer which separates the slab with the concrete pierings.

I didn't notice them cutting it at all, but may be they did that when they put on all the foam thing.

But even if it sort of pop out a bit, shouldn't worry too much, as they can be easily covered by your landscaper later. Or the other option is you can ask the supervisor to remove it or easily cut it off yourself later!

Cheers
Allan