This week we are working with concrete, admixtures, reinforcement and lamination. The box marked "Fly Ash" contains - wait for it - fly ash. Fly ash is a cement admixture, meaning it is added to cement to produce a particular effect. In this case, the addition of fly ash makes the resulting concrete harder and more impermeable to penetration by water. Notice the nylon netting at the bottom of the photo, used to reinforce a layer of concrete and prevent cracking.
Here is a closer look at what we're doing with the materials from the photo above. We are trying to finish off the edges of the barrel vault - a multi step process we will detail over the next several installments. We are working 24 feet in the air here and have to move s-l-o-w-l-y to keep things from getting exciting. Here, I am mudding over seams between blocks. One edge of the barrel vault can be seen at lower left.
Photo taken perched atop the barrel vault looking down over the edge of the roof. The glare from reflected sunlight obscures detail, but to seal this edge, we are folding over a layer of ordinary chicken wire in a 90 degree angle and molding it to fit over the corner where wall meets roof. We will be troweling cement into this to make a watertight ferrocement collar which will bond with the concrete in the existing structure. We will use a shotcrete process to spray a final finishing coat of cement over this.
A look at some of my "hands on" finishing techniques. In this photo, taken at the lower edge of the barrel vault, you can see bits of both nylon netting and newspaper embedded in cement. The nylon netting prevents crracks from forming in the cement and smooths out corners and edges, much like the netting used for drywall corners. The newspaper wads fill cavities deep in the wall and act as a form to support the cement trowelled in on top of that. When the cement cures over the newspaper, it forms a solid plug of concrete.
Ron from Canada (hi Ron) e-mailed to ask for a photo of the entire house. I took this from across the moat (pretty low right now due to a dry summer) on the driveway. The walls are smoother, the barrel vault structure has been added and we've started constructing a ferrocement shell over the barrel vault since the last time we posted a profile photo of The Augean Stables, a/k/a The Garage Mahal. It's a slow process, but it's all paid for. Now, back to shoveling out those stables...
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