New Creation - House Warming

[catmandewe]

Cool progress!

Tony

[christopherl1234]

I am just amazed at how sturdy your home is being built. Makes most of our homes over here look like they are built with match sticks!

[Deleted]

holy moley

that is a lot of bricks! Looks like they make fast work of it. I think it is terrific you get to be there for so much of the work. The workers will respect the project more when they see the efforts the client is making. I think you will move in before christmas!

[adrian65]

Hello everyone, time for another update at the end of a working week.

At the beginning of the week, some metal parts arrived on site. For the moment I won't tell you what they are. Let's see if you guess the use of (some of) them. Here they are:







The progress at the casts for the columns continued:




On Wednesday, we also had a good opportunity for a couple of hours of fun. There was the foreman's birthday and the treats were on him.

We set the BBQ right in what will become the kitchen:


Here are the goodies:


We grilled the meat:




And then we sat around the table:



After this, on Thursday the "elephant" came on and they poured the concrete into the columns' casts (part of the casts were the brick walls themselves).




Gotta have some sense of equilibrium, to be able to walk like that on that thin wall, ain't it?


Finally, the casts were filled:


And today they removed the casts, revealimg the concrete on the inside and the white thermal insullation (styropor) on the outside:




I'm glad that the concrete is looking good, dense, without hollow areas. The casts held on, without any major leaks or deformations.

Next week, the ground floor ceiling is in sight.

Thank you for looking,

Adrian

[Pat]

What a strong structure!

:DI think some of those white items are braces for shelves and bins to hold rocks.

[Bikerrandy]

Yeah ;D lol..... actually, all of those parts are to the stairs. The shelf support looking things are stanchions for the handrails (I think).

[adrian65]

Right, Randy, in the first two pics all the metal pieces are for the stairs. The first pic - the steps from ground floor to the upper floor and the 2nd pic - the stair to the basement.

Now let's see about the thing in the 3rd pic

Adrian

[The Dad_Ohs]

I was looking at the pictures of the brick being put down.... those are some interesting looking brick you have there.... comparable to I would say the 16 inch concrete block used here in the U.S.

The rest, with the string to keep the rows straight and the mixer on site making the 'mud' as some call it here, trowels, and what not... reminds me of younger days working with my dad he was a stone mason, and was very hands on all his life working with stone, brick & block. Very cool and for me nostalgic too !!

[connrock]

I know it's been said over and over again but it's hard to believe how structurally well built your home is!
My guess on the 3rd photo is that it is a floor support or a support for a stairway???
It's ether that or it is to hold a bird feeder that's as strong as your home! ;D
I hope the foreman enjoyed his party!It looks like everyone ate well and had fun!
I REALLY look forward to seeing your photos every week Adrian!
Thank's for doing this for us!

connrock

[adrian65]

Haha, Tom, bird feeder! No,not a bird feeder and not a stairway support. Think higher

THANK YOU everyone for your interest in this thread!

Adrian

[Thunder69]

That last piece is the support for the roof

[adrian65]

Oct 27, 2012 20:50:53 GMT -5 Thunder69 said:

That last piece is the support for the roof

Right, John. It's the central support for the roof. It will be placed vertically, in the very center of the roof slab, and will sustain all the wooden main beams of the roof.

Adrian

[TByrd]

Adrian it looks like a bracket to hold 2x6 or 2x4 in a circular shape, how about a copula frame?

[TByrd]

well I was close, I forgot to refresh my screen and did not see the other answers, other wise I woulkd have guessed correctly. LOL

Tammy

[connrock]

It's pretty hard to imagine were a support like that will go because homes are not built this way here.
The only thing I can think of that is "higher" is the roof?Is this some sort of roof support?
It isn't fair to make an old mind think this hard! LOL
connrock

[NatureNut]

I'm wondering if there is going to be a round roof with that central looking (bird feeder) support. This is an amazing project and what a great party.
Jo

[adrian65]

No, not a round roof, Jo. A pyramidal roof.
That support would be placed in the central axis and will hold the four beams going along the pyramid edges and also the four beams going on the middle of the four faces.
So, eight beams converging in the middle, all supported by the "bird feeder"

Adrian

[grayfingers]

Adrian, It is fascinating to see your design becoming your new home. I very much enjoy seeing the methods employed in the construction. And what a great party, Looks like the Romanian version of beer and Bratwurst!

Bill

[Deleted]

So very strong, so very thermal yet so very simple. After doing a lot of building here I am amazed by the construction there. Most of the houses here are thrown up like a bunch of tooth picks and have about the same strength as a bunch of tooth pics.

A fire there would probably be only the furnishings in one room and not spread through out the whole house. That is a house that can be passed down through many generations with no remodeling or rebuilding half of it. There will be a lot of memories made and preserved in that house.

Are all the houses there of similar construction? The brick homes here just have brick stuck to the outside so they will burn completely down or be blown down by a hurricane.
Jim

[adrian65]

Thank you Jim and Bill.

To respond to many of you who were asking if all the houses are built here in a smilar way: yes, they are. We only added some more concrete than usual, but not more than 20 %. The structure is the skeleton of the house and once made it's hard and expensive to repair or to consolidate, so we wanted to be sturdy from the start.

I am equally amazed about the way you build the houses over there.
In a country like yours, which provides a very good long term security, it's expected to build in a more sturdy manner, especially bearing in mind the hurricanes, tornadoes and timber-eating ants you have there.

Adrian