The slab unveiled

And here is the actual slab!  It looks very thick but of course the fill is sand.  The mix was made extra strong.  You can see the Mount stone plinth around it.  The surface is already quite smooth and will be polished in a couple of weeks to the Lesley-approved texture. This will be the floor of the house, with rugs.

We have a slab!

Well, here is the poured slab! Not that you can see much of it, because it’s covered with plastic sheeting and sand to cure.  It all went well, Gary tells me–except that the truck was late so the sun was up and the concrete a bit stiffer from sitting in the truck, and it was a bit of a hustle to get it all out and bedded down.  So it will sit there for a couple of weeks before the surface polishing. In the meantime the framing is being made off site.

Who would have thought so much went into a big piece of concrete. . .but here it is!

 

 

 

Ready to pour the slab

After a wild northerly during the day–which actually flipped the plastic and iron mesh on one side–and an even wilder storm during the night (with Elle and Rafa braving it in a tent!) a calm early morning waiting for the first concrete truck scheduled for 8am.  A big day, to get this right.  After the pour it will be covered and the concrete will cure for a couple of weeks while the framing is made, and then the actual house will go up.

The form work you can see here to support the pour has been cleverly designed by Gary for double use.  After it has been taken off it will be cleaned and will end up as the facade above the walls, which runs around the sloping roof and is designed to make the house look cubed!  And very Swedish, Lesley’s preferred style. . .The concrete doesn’t go all the way down, of course–most of it is compacted sand fill, as in the previous post.

Also, the electrical cabling is in from the power pole to a box on the shed, and then to the house site, with a temporary box there for the building on site.  SA Power Networks are scheduled to connect it to the main lines on March 24–quite a saga but almost there.

Getting ready for the slab

The fill around the house has been pushed into the centre of the house area, to raise the level ready for the floor.  The limestone blocks will be placed around the outside of the house to form the plinth.  These were the blocks that were sourced from a garage being demolished and shipped onto the land and then onto the site (the earlier pictures).  The fill will be smoothed off and then the slab will be poured! An actual floor!  Lesley and Elle have been inspecting houses to look at different kinds of concrete finishes–the idea is to have that be the floor and then cover it with rugs. Festive!