Roselea

Category: Build Progress

  • Back Section sides all Completed

     Today, we finished off the shuttering for the back section of the building’s foundations.

    We put the two layers of the 89mm Timber to form the necessary height to hold the 150mm thick foundation strip.

    Part of the job was to dig out some parts of the shuttering where it got buried in our flood we had last week. Phew!

    Tomorrow, we will work on the front to back foundation strips, using 300mm wide pieces of 18mm thick OSB sheets This will allow for us to push the concrete harder along these channels without it spilling over the sides.

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-4

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-4

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-3

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-3-3


     

  • Work Continues on Back Section

     We resumed the work on the construction of the foundation trenches shuttering along the back section of the building. The ground in several places is very hard and one place looks like an old fire pit with dark coloured very hard material.

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-3

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-3

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-4

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-2-4


    We should have this section done tomorrow and then we can work on doing the front to back strips.

  • Started Construction of Edging of Foundation Trenches

     We started on the long job of constructing the Edge Strips for the Foundation Trenches. We went from the back right hand corner and went along the back section, running parallel to the Swimming Lane. This section will use two layers of the 89mm CLS timber planks on top of each other to form a 178mm high  shuttering.

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-1-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-1-2

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-1

    Foundation-Trenches-Day-1


    We cut a narrow gully to fit the bottom layer of the 89 mm timber and will add the 2nd layer when we have done everywhere first. We managed to complete in just the afternoon session since the morning was interrupted by rain, 3 segments (a total of 13.6 metres), another 4 more segments (about 16 metres) to go. It is quite hard ground and we are using manual labour to do the job, using spades and trowels!

  • Inserted More Batter Boards and Anchors for all Foundation Trenches and Pads

     Today, we finished off chopping and slicing points on about a hundred pegs, carried over from yesterday. They are short 500 mm long pieces using spare 63mm by 38mm timbers from our stock pile.

    The-pile-of-about-100-pegs

    The-pile-of-about-100-pegs

    Then, we inserted two more batter boards which defined all the foundation square pads to support the metal legs for the roof light complex.

    One-of-the-Batter-boards-for-Pads

    One-of-the-Batter-boards-for-Pads

    These were on the Left and Right sides of the house.

    Then, we went around all the batter boards screwing in all the anchors needed to allow string to be hooked on and strung from front to back, or side to side, to form the layout of the foundation trenches themselves.

    We actually started doing this on the back portion of the house footprint, using four set of strings to define the back two foundation lines and moved a pair of string from each of the front to back batter boards, which then overlapped the other 4 strings and we drove in steel rod at the appropriate intersection. These steel rods, with their protective green caps on, will be used to guide us when we start laying in the shuttering, starting tomorrow.

    The-pins-marking-Back-wall-foundations

    The-pins-marking-Back-wall-foundations

    We will use our old stock of 89mm CLS timber to form the shuttering for the back section of the house (we will have 2 of them stacked upon each other to form a 178mm high sides), but for the front to back foundation trenches, the shuttering will be 300mm high OSB boards to provide “channels” to make it easier to push the “free flowing”  concrete ready mix down towards the back section.

    Here’s a timelapse of today

  • Put Batter Board “L2” back and Verified all positions

     Skipping lunch, we put back the batter board, L2, that was moved to allow the mini-digger to dig and pile up all the excess sand soil mixture from the excavation of Energy Module Number 5.

    We then verified all the batter boards to make doubly sure that they were all in positions and hadn’t moved. The Left side matches up to the Right side and the diagonal distance between L1 and R4 and L4 and R1 were very similar (within 10 mm) so that was good, very good.

    Then the Front and Back were measured and they were holding good too. Only F5/B5 was mysteriously out of alignment and we will make adjustments when we come to construction of the shuttering for the foundations.

    Finally, we drew out 4 set of string to form the complete outer limits of the house, and measured all 4 sides and both diagonals, to reveal that the long front and back were 21.300 meters and 21.310 meters (within 10 mm!), and the left and right were 13.860 and 13.870 (only 10 mm different again!), and the two diagonals reported in as 27.300 meters and 27.320 meters so only a 20 mm of a difference (within the side length errors). Not Bad!!

    Strings-pulled-to-confirm-dimensions-of-building

    Strings-pulled-to-confirm-dimensions-of-building

    We are happy with that and we will now proceed with the construction of the foundation trenches, ready for just over 12 cubic meters of ready mixed concrete.

    P.S. You can see the strings if you zoom right in on the picture ….

  • All 5 Modules Now In Place!

     At Long Last, we have finished all 5 energy modules, all buried in the ground and all full of water. The only signs of their presence is the red white hazard tapes marking out the locations and thin pipes sticking out of the ground.

    Plot-after-all-Energy-modules-finished

    Plot-after-all-Energy-modules-finished

    It has been a long haul, which included the repair of Number 3 (it got lifted by a flood of rain water), some 50 days of work to install all these Energy Modules, they contain a total of 35,000 litres of water, which can store about 10GJ (giga-joules) or about 2700 kWh of free energy from the sun. It is a big investment of time and money but we should see a payback quite quickly over the first few years of operation once the house is built.

  • Day 8 of the Great Module Number 5 – All Done At Last!

     This morning, we finished off burying the last of our Energy Modules, Number 5, with sandy soil and covering it up too.

    The warning red/white hazard tape was wrapped around the perimeter of the module to keep our heavy machinery off that area.

    Module-5-Finished

    Module-5-Finished

    So We are All Done At Last! Phew!

  • Day 7 of the Great Module Number 5 – Finishing Touches and Filling Almost Complete

     Today, we finished off the installation of the insulation panels on top of our Energy Module Number 5. At the same time, we started pumping water into the module, we will need over 16,000 litres of water to fill it! Also we sliced off the excess pieces that were sticking up above the module level, and inserted the various conduit pipes and inspection tube too.

    Module-5-All-Insulation-and-pipes-done

    Module-5-All-Insulation-and-pipes-done

    We chucked all the “rubbish” bits into the gap alongside the module and buried them with the sandy soil we are pushing back in.

    Module-5-End-of-Day-7-Nearly-finished

    Module-5-End-of-Day-7-Nearly-finished

    Tomorrow, we will finish off the filling around the module plus another whole day of putting water into the tank.

  • Day 6 of the Great Module Number 5 – Assembly Finishes ..

     In a rain interrupted day of work, we finished assembling the Aquacell crates for Energy Module Number 5. Next we put down a plastic sheet to cover the top surface and then we pulled up the rubber sheet and folded in the corners and weighted it down with concrete blocks.

    Module-5-Rubber-and-Dpm-fitted-1

    Module-5-Rubber-and-Dpm-fitted-1

    Then the afternoon session was spent on sorting out the insulation boards to tape into big fat blocks (at least 300mm thick), we needed about 25 of them to go around three outer sides of the module. We were interrupted frequently by very short heavy showers. We got there in the end and in glorious sunshine, we trundled our trolley load of foam blocks to the hole.

    Module-5-A-small-load-of-insulation

    Module-5-A-small-load-of-insulation

    We placed all of them around the tank and piled in some sandy soil to hold them into place and that’s today job done (with thunder rumbling in the distance)!

    Module-5-Insulation-fitted-to-sides-1

    Module-5-Insulation-fitted-to-sides-1

    On Monday, we fill in the rest of the sand around the module and compact it down solid, and then put on the insulated lid and insert the final conduit pipes.. and we will be all done – phew!!

  • Day 5 of the Great Module Number 5 – Assembly Starts..

     We continued with Energy Module Number 5 with the start of the assembly of the actual module itself at last!

    But first, not forgetting this time, we put in the underground temperature conduit pipes, this time two of them as the module is so large, we decided to put two probes underneath the unit to measure the ground temperature. They were positioned 3 meters in from each ends.

    Then We sorted out two layers of insulation boards, one pile of 120 mm thick ones and a second pile of 140 mm thick ones, all being each the 600 mm by 1200 mm size. We managed just, to find 30 of each size! We are really making a large dent in our pile of insulation materials!

    Oh yes, we had also some 100 mm thick boards for going down the middle to make the 2.5 meters wide layers (two lots of 1200 mm and the 100 mm making the 2500 mm total).

    Then the rubber membrane was unrolled and sorted and positioned into place.

    Module-5-Insulation-Rubber-sheet-in-place

    Module-5-Insulation-Rubber-sheet-in-place

    And finally for today’s day of work, we got our ramp and slid down, like a production line, enough Aquacell crates to form the first layer, all clipped together.

    Module-5-Bottom-layer-of-cells-in-place

    Module-5-Bottom-layer-of-cells-in-place

    Tomorrow, we should be able to assemble the 2nd layer and pull up the rubber skin and wrap the module, then start putting all the vertical layers of insulation right around the unit and filling the sand back in to hold it in place. Phew!