More columns going up

The shuttering was removed to reveal the first five columns that were poured yesterday. Shuttering was applied and concrete also poured for the next five columns. The area between the ground floor beams was also filled in first with earth, then with a layer of sand ready for pouring the concrete floor. This will be done when all of the second stage column casting has been done.

Five columns up, five more being cast Five columns up, five more being cast

Ground floor beams poured

All of the concrete for the ground floor beams was poured today.

Somehow, when you just have the floor plan of a house marked out on the ground, it always appears much smaller than when the house is completed.  With this house, even when the columns went up you still could not get a real sense of the size and it is only now that the ground floor beams have been cast that you can start to appreciate the scale.

Pouring the ground floor beams Pouring the ground floor beams

A lot of progress with the ground floor beam structure

It seems to have been a very productive day today, with the basic beam structure for the ground floor laid out. Tomorrow, additional steel re-enforcement will be added in areas where greater loads are to be carried. There are also addition beam structures to be added between the primary beams.

Result of a days work installing beam re-enforcement structure Result of a days work installing beam re-enforcement structure

Additional beam re-enforcement added in high stress areas Additional beam re-enforcement added in high stress areas - in this case where an additional beam is to be connected in the area around the staircase structure

First beam re-enforcement structure fitted

The guys working on the site have been very hard working from the very start of the project, but I was surprised to see so much progress had been made since last night, when I visited the site this morning. The re-enforcement structure for the first of the ground floor beams was being fitted. This had involved a huge amount preliminary work in cutting and shaping the hundreds of pieces of steel re-bar that make up the structure.