Saturday, June 28, 2008

More Concrete

We're close to pouring. I had thought that I'd pour both the foundation and the thermal mass wall at the same time, but I've reconsidered. I'll have enough happening on the day of the foundation pour without the added stress of the fancy thermal mass wall. A color pallet is in the mail for the pigment options for the wall. It will be about two yards of concrete to color. I set up the form for the base of the wall today, and set it on top of two inches of rigid foam to create a thermal break between the earth and the concrete. Eric's going to borrow a laser level from the boat yard and help me set a level line on the interior of the form. I tried to set the top of the forms perfectly all the way around, but even a small amount, say a 32'nd, would leave me about a half inch off by the time I worked my way around to where I started. At some point I decided that perfection wasn't going to happen and that making a level mark on the inside of the form was the way to go. The melamine coated MDF (the smooth form material for the thermal mass wall) will come in a few days. Making the form will be an interesting project. Between knock-outs for built in shelves and four electrical outlets (one on each side of the base of the wall and two on the top for lighting), I'll have a lot of little details to work out.

1 comment:

helenesheahan said...

hi michael, gosh,you sound too busy. this is a huge project.I think you should be published in some magazine..you are priceless.mom