Month: January 2016

The outside of the tank is finished–here are a couple of pics of it.  As mentioned, it has two layers, which need to be put on within a day of each other, so they bond–fortunately the weather has been cool and damp, which is ideal for the curing of concrete.

I’ve also shown a couple of pics of the inside form work, for the record. These will now come off and the inside layer will be put on–only one layer so it should go quickly.

Then everything will cure for a week or so, depending on the weather; then it will be filled half full from the bore water and will continue to cure for a month.

While that happens the house site will be laid out (including establishing true north, which promises to be interesting!) and preparations for the footings made.  Moving on!

It’s the last weekend of high summer: the new year school term starts on Monday.  The streets are thinning; the caravan parks are emptying; only a few families with young children on Long Beach. The beach, however, doesn’t seem to notice: it goes on being beautiful.  Luck for us, the ones who are allowed to stay and to walk lightly on it.

 

It’s been raining hard over the past two days, but Gary and Nanks (one of the Nankivell clan whom we all know) have been out there rendering the tank.  If you look closely here you can see there are two layers going on the outside: a first layer which is mixed for strength, and an upper layer which is more dressed.  After then the inside will be rendered with the strength mix only and it will be watertight.

You can see a couple of vertical concrete posts there, too–these are to take the weight of the roof, which goes on last.

It’s really a large tank when you get up close–which I’m particularly happy about, as out there you need to have plenty of water in hand.

I’ve also put in a pic of the land because it is a beautiful day out there after the storm has passed through–dust settled, sparkling and sunny!

(I should have mentioned before that if you click on a pic you can run the slide show and see the detail–but I’m sure you already know that!)

Here is the final step of prep work on the tank–the netting has been completed and backed (or formed, as we say in the business) by foam batts (another technical term) ready for the rendering. Also, Roland thought we should record everything, including the septic tank installation, so we know where it is later!–makes sense.  I can just see me putting the grubber through the lid of the septic tank, nothing more likely.  So here are a couple of shots of the installed tank, and the line to it from the house, with a post marking one of the IPs (inspection points, as above. . .) between the shed and the tank.

I’ve been away in Adelaide, and there have been some good developments. The septic system is installed (no pic necessary) and the trenching from the tank site to the house site is in, with the pipes.  Clearing on house site itself has begun (if you click on the pic you will see the big Boobialla bush which has been pushed out of the way–regrettable, but necessary, and it is all over the block.  The tank netting is being completed today, locked down with fastenings and made ready for the rendering.

Planning for the first action on the house site has begun! The level datum is in place ready for levelling (which won’t take much, the soil being so light–really just flattening it out). Then comes the surveying–which we are going to do with a new app (of course) which gives you true north, cross-checked with a traditional sun-dial method.  Gary and I have complete confidence in this extremely innovative and precise method, which you mark out with a stick in the sand, and may well patent it. And with luck it will save us a few thousand dollars.

It may not be elegant, but in the interests of documentary veracity, and to keep up the momentum of progress, in it goes.  This is the septic system, delivered on site and about to be installed in the excavation to the south of the shed–it will service both the shed and the house.  I could go over the intricacies of design and why this particular one was chosen but that’s not something that is likely to interest you. . .  The trenching of pipes will happen at the same time.  Pretty soon all this infrastructure work will be done and we can get started on the actual house–there’s a thought!

 

This is not strictly about the house–a sea fog rolled in this morning, cooled everything down–I took some photos of Lake Fellmongery on my morning walk.

This is labelled ‘3’, the first two steps being the pouring of the slab and the layout and beginning big mesh.  Here is the tank wall with the big mesh complete and with a couple of layers of small mesh–so now you can get an idea of how big it is.  There is one more layer of small mesh to go and then the rendering can begin–later today, or tomorrow. It’s warming up but fortunately it’s cooler working under the trees.

I’ve also included a photo of the water cube Gary is using up on the tank site–this holds 1000 litres and the new submersible pump apparently filled it in 10-15 minutes!  The height to the bore above the underground water level is about 16.4 metres and then another 5.5 to the tank site, and another metre up to the tank itself, so say about 23 metres lift. Not bad for a 1HP pump!

 

While Gary was playing around with his tank I took on the serious work of digging a trench to bury the new pipe from the bore.

You may laugh, but it’s delicate, technical work.  How do you dig in a straight line when you’re going backwards with the grubber?  How deep do you have to go to carry the load of a 10 tonne truck?

More importantly, how do you fill it in? Everyone who has tried to dig a hole (even Dale) knows that there is never enough sand to fill up the hole again once it has been taken out–even if you put a pipe in the trench to take up space.  It’s very mysterious–it’s called Subliminal Sand Loss and there are equations about it–some of us understand these things. . .

I put the grubber in there just to make it modestly clear that, yes, I did this, and by hand. . .I know, you had no idea.  Just the beginning. You can see how well finished it is–of course. . .

 

Here are some first photos of what promises to be a really interesting piece of work–something I’ve not seen before–the building by hand of a 7000 gallon (at least) concrete tank!

You can see here the nicely finished concrete slab that was poured in the concrete truck drama last week, with the outlet pipe in place. Gary has marked the centre of the slab with a bolt and inscribed the largest circle that could be fitted on the slab.

Along the circumference holes are drilled in the concrete at measured intervals using the generator to power the concrete drill and air compressor.

The large concrete mesh is then fitted in the holes and tied upright. This will be the backbone of the tank wall.  Around them will go some layers of small mesh (like chicken wire) which will be the basis for the rendering.

And then the rendering/plastering happens!–mixed by hand and put on in one long day–hopefully a cool day.  It least it’s cool up under the trees–what a nice place!

The tank will be finished with a square framed galvanized iron roof with a small dip which allow water caught on it to go also into the tank.

Isn’t that neat?  More photos to come as it all happens.

(Ap0logies for the fat little dachshund backside–he was interested in what was going on.)