Week 63 (Soffit example and more grouting)

Last week was one of the wettest times in Spring I can remember since moving to North Carolina nearly 10 years ago.  Here’s how the site looks with its raincoat on:

My main study this week concerns the soffit that will run most of the way around the Music Room.  Of course the soffit needs power, and this is but one (at the North West corner) of many conduits that will feed it:

Here you can see a more finished fixture that will actually provide power to the soffit (in the South West corner):

Right now the only wall that reaches 8′ in height is the eastern wall, and that’s the one wall that does not have the soffit running along it.  Nevertheless, the team has built some soffit “examples” for our review.  The lower example shows the profile that the soffit will have at its proper height, and the upper example shows how the soffit will interface with actual concrete blocks one course higher.  Notice how the upper example penetrates the concrete…that’s the construction approach they would like us to approve.

Here I am standing way back at the back of the Music Room.   You can tell that my eye level is around 6′ because you can see the top of a flat scaffolding board that rests at approx 5’10”.  You can also see that the material they used to represent the top of the soffit, a sheet of plywood, has been so warped by the rain that it’s kinda useless.  Nevertheless, you can also see the tops of the protruding studs that also give a visual clue as to where the top of the soffit will be.  With a 6′ eye level you can see that the top of the soffit cuts off completely the mortar joint at the 8′ level.  That, in turn, means that any cuts we make into the blocks that expose above the soffit, but below 8′, will not be visible unless one is probably 6’6″ or taller.

Here’s another view from more of a side angle:

Here’s a close-up detail showing the blue tape that should be obscured by the soffit in the above tests (assuming we had a flat and fully deep soffit top):

That’s not the only progress.  The 6th course of the western wall of the Music Room was also grouted.

How exciting!  Well, maybe not yet that exciting, but in five more courses, things will get more exciting…

Author: Michael Tiemann

Open source pioneer. Red Hat Executive. UNCSA Trustee. Ninja. View all posts by Michael Tiemann