We are making progress on the slab. Due to an afternoon field trip for another class yesterday, we weren’t able to make it to the site until around 5:30pm, right as the sun was setting. We quickly got to work tamping the soil and fixing the walls of the turndown, making sure they were vertical on the outside of the slab and sloped on the inside. This required a few passes with shovels digging away and refilling different spots to get a uniform turndown all around the perimeter. Once we were satisfied, we tamped it one last time and checked the elevation. The turndown is 16″ deeper than the finish slab, while the slab field is 5″ deep. Eventually it became too late to run the gas compactor without disrupting the neighbors, so we had to use the hand tamper to compact everything. It’s worth noting that the soil here is extremely sandy, so it falls apart with even the slightest touch.
Headway at Medway
Once we had it all level, we pulled the plastic tarp over to act as a moisture barrier (took a quick pizza break, thanks Dave!) and started laying out the rebar that was cut and bent a few days ago. We had two teams work from the edges to the center and eventually got the field rebar tied in, but not before nearly running out of ties. By this time it was around 11:30pm and stores were closed so we couldn’t finish tying the piers’ rebar until today. We are scheduled to pour the concrete this afternoon at 3pm.
There’s still a lot to do. This is only our first pour out of three. On Friday we will pour the other half of the slab and on Monday we will pour the piers. Which means we have to have the formwork for all 14 piers built before Monday. It’s going to be a long weekend… It seems all of our free time will be spent working on this, which comes at the expense of ignoring our other classes. It’s frustrating having to choose which class to succeed in, but there are only so many hours in a week. And ultimately studio comes first (vs. making a box or giving a history presentation). The most we can do is take it one day at a time.