Aircooled VW South Africa

Yesterday was d day for the floor I organised an early shift at work going underground at four but was home by 9 the first truck was already there. end of the day 12m3 of concrete laid in the worst wind Ive experienced in the northwest in my life.




we power floated the floor and it came out fairly well will still need to be sawed in blocks as the area is faar too big for a solid block
today the walls started going up

regards
Armand

Awesome, you not wasting time...

I seriously hope this dude got his feet out of the cement before it dried!

How did you go about leveling the floor in two halves? (without 'damaging' the first half?) Did it set yet? Nice progress that you have got going there! before you know it the roof wil be up. Are you going to smooth the floor with one of those concrete 'helicopters' ?

Hi
The first lorry filled half of the floor. I put a temporary level for the floor down the middle by using a ten meter long piece of 75x75 square tubing. there was about 2 hours between the first and second lorry so the first half was semi set. we then poured the second half but left a 60cm channel down the middle once that side was level we filled the middle line. once everything was set we used the helicopter type thingy to smooth everything. does not look too bad
Armand

Done some serious work , good going.... but......not to burst your bubble, there is a few things that are not right, firstly the mesh sould not be sitting directly on the ground, it should have been raised of the ground at least 25-30mm (cover) as to get the max. effect of what the mesh is actually there to do, strengthen the surface bed and keep it from rusting, the next thing you have no plastic underlay, without the plastic the moisture is going to get to the mesh and it's going to rust & expand causing cracks in the surface bed you just laid and moisture on the edges is going to come thru the surface bed as well.
Hopefully you kept that surface bed wet or covered from the sun, as the curing after casting is the most critical stage for the lifespan of the surface bed.
My advice to you on the saw cuts, which should be done about 48 hours after casting should be in 2m X 2m pannels not more.
Maybe my advice is a little late, but may help someone else in future.

Hi Rui
Spot on on all your observations.
From the photos it seems that the mesh is not 30mm above the ground and this caused a lot of trouble to get right. I was using wheelbarrows (480 trips in all) and had to have the mesh on the ground for some of the time to allow the wheel barrows to pass. whilst the going was extremely slow it also gave us time to lift the mesh as we went along. Not ideal and probably not perfect either (the design did not call for any mesh at all) the reason for not putting a membrane under the concrete is from a course I did at the concrete institute which stated that if you cover the concrete on one side with an impermeable membrane drying will only take place from one side and curling may appear. From the manual: DPC's should therefore be specified only in cases wherethey are essential. I will be cutting the slots alittle after 48 hours purely due to logistics as working a full day and building at home is no fun.

Obviously I am not a proffesional and am taking risks with the job due to my own limited knowledge as well as trying to save on costs. I am currently standing at about R1300 per m2 which is a third of what I was quoted by the proffesionals.
I can also see where the money for a proffesional builder goes as there are lots of things I would do differently if I were to do this for a living. Example building a few scaffolds and placing a ladder on top of them to reach 5m above ground is no fun
Armand

Yep.... building at home is allways a pain in the ass .... but as you say, DIY sure saves a lot of $$$$, in the end you going to be a very proud project manager

That looks great!!

Quite a bit has happened since my last post. the walls have gone up and currently only the west gable needs completion. we also installed the mezzanines floor joists and this coming week the roof should go on.
work that has happenned the floors were sawn and polyurethane sealing compound installed,



The roof support crosses were manufactured and installed


I decided to close the center of the cross with a domed cap

The walls went up



currently we are here




And that is mee standing on the mezanine steel
This week will be electrcal instalations and the finishing of the gable and hopefully the roof
Armand

Mooi man die cave is comming together

Well Done Armand..
Once the hard work is done....
The joy of moving in......
Looks good.......

Armand the local Contractor good work, now

the monster...........she's alive.........you're gonna have that roof up in time for the rainy season, good planning.

Excellent stuff, well done so far!

Wow, do you take on work out of town ? I need one of those!