Well, the last few days have seen the wall finished and the arrival of some of the precast beams. With the walls done, four more holes had to be dug to support cast-in-place beams. These beams will support the deck slabs, while the precast pieces that you can see on the walls go underneath the balusters. Two sample balusters can be seen - now it is a matter of determining how far apart they should be. These two are visual aids for this process.
The top row of blocks underneath the beams are filled with concrete to prevent water from getting inside the wall through the holes in the blocks. Water will still be able to get through the blocks themselves, but not nearly as much as would get in through the top. The beams on the wall are there mainly to ensure that the railing is high enough to meet local code.
The columns that will support the cast-in-place beams consist of a concrete base with 8" blocks cut in half. These are filled with mortar as they are added with a rebar in the center. The rebar will stick into the beam above and tie everything together.
The precast beams on the top of the walls are sitting on mortar, which I had to mix by hand. Turned out okay - made some "ready-mix" by dry mixing the sand and cement. Then mixed half by slowly adding water. This left half the wheelbarrow dry, giving us enough time to put the beams on one side in place without worrying about the mortar hardening.
Anyway, that's it for now. Today we have to put the last beam on the wall, get the columns finished and start the forms for the cast-in-place beams.
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