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:
Continue reading “Week 63 (Soffit example and more grouting)”
Category: construction photos
construction photos
Week 62 (Reaching the 12th course)
As the blocks go up, the difference between the 12th and the 10th course don’t look quite as dramatic as the difference between the 0th and the 1st course or the difference between the 2nd course and the 4th. But there are differences, some which can be seen, and some which must be discovered.
For example, after the 11th course had been completely the outer wythe needed to be grouted to continue the concrete fill down to the last grouted level (which I believe was just below the 8th course). The grout did use up some of our sand pile:
Week 61 (Snow, and the 11th course)
When March rolls around in North Carolina there are two things you come to expect: basketball and beautiful spring weather. The UNC Tar Heels met expectations, landing at the top of the ACC rankings. But the weather was a bit less predictable, with sub-freezing temperatures and 3-5 inches of snow:
It was beautiful, but not very helpful to the schedule.
Week 60 (The 8th course)
Progress has been steady, and the pace is picking up again. Last week the masons’ best day saw 90 blocks laid. Today, they will lay over 100. Here they are finishing up the 8th course on the east wall:
Week 59 (Partial 4th course)
The 12′ tall storey poles have been up for a few weeks, but the site has a whole new look now that the scaffolding is going up.
Week 58 (The second course)
I’ve been away for two weeks, but back now and happy to see the progress that’s been made. As you may surmise from the title, the walls are now all of 16″ tall, but they will be getting taller (24′ when finished), and in anticipation of that there’s a whole pile of scaffolding waiting to be assembled:
Week 56 (Starting the inner wythe)
I’ve been too busy to keep my blog postings in order. I hope to get around to writing about Weeks 54 and 55 before I forget everything, but that’s not looking likely, alas.
Here’s the progress of Week 56: the laying up of the inner wythe. I have selected a series of photos showing the various stages of the blocks being laid into the mortar, then the mortar being cleaned flush with the block, then the final raked blocks. Here’s the series:
Week 53 (From down to up)
Though it was only scheduled to take six months, the digging, building, filling, and finishing the foundation took pretty much the whole of 2008. That’s a long time to spend on the down part of the project. For 2009, we’ll be doing the up part of the project: cutting and stacking blocks to make the walls, building a roof, laying in doors and windows, and, if all goes well, moving in some serious acoustic materials and audio equipment. I can’t wait!
(The image to the left is not a construction photo. It’s a whimsical reference to Pat Metheny’s album The Way Up, which I happen to like very much, and which, having selected the theme of this blog posting, makes a great musical background track. And if you like it, check out the NPR interviews of March 7 2005 and March 29 2005.)
Week 50 (Pouring the slab, part 2)
The second pour was scheduled to coincide with a predicted sudden and short freeze the week after our first pour. After three days of light rain and warm (for December) temperatures in the 50s and 60s (Fahrenheit), the temperature at dawn on Monday was a frigid 20F, and would not break freezing until the afternoon. The colder the weather the stronger the cure; moreover, the sky was predicted to be clear—also best for concrete—so we waited, again. Here’s some totally cool ice formations we found when we got there:
Yes, they looked and felt just like blades of grass…made of ice!
The trucks set up quite early and were already pouring when we arrived:
Week 49 (Pouring the slab, part 1)
For six months I’ve been waiting for the day I could say “we poured the slab”. Last week, that day finally came.
And I wasn’t there to see it.
Manifold Recording / The Miraverse 
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