Today is Labour Day, so I thought I should catch up with my labour report. Friday we finished up a bit early and I've left out a report from Thursday as well, so the information is lacking. As of Friday evening, there are four beams poured in place, two (of four) columns up to railing height and the main pile of dirt in front has been moved.
The dirt that was left was my main task over the last few days, as it needed to be moved and my dad was making the forms for the pour-in-place beams. Wednesday saw the completion of the interior support pillars and the pour of the first cast-in-place beam. Thursday was the second and third beams while Friday saw the last of the beams poured, plus the columns. Plus there was the removal of the precast sill under the back door and the chopping of holes in the bricks to rest the outer two beams.
The first hole was done with a Quickcut - a Stihl product that is essentially a saw blade attached to a gas motor. Used by firefighters to cut people out of wrecks, it can cut through lots of things easily, with the appropriate blade. The cuts were not all the way through as the blade was two large a diameter to prevent unwanted scoring around the hole, so a hammer and chisel were used to finish the job. The next day, the precast sill was removed by chopping out the mortar on the sides, cutting the caulking on the top and then easing it out. Of course "easing" part was "maybe" and since my dad put it in, it wasn't meant to be removed. So I had to chop all the mortar out from under it before it let go. Then a few courses of bricks were removed as they were going to be replaced anyway. The last hole was done with a drill and went much smoother. A really nice cordless Hilti hammer drill that moves through masonry like, like... okay butter, but really easily whatever the metaphor. Melted margarine might be a more modern version. A good idea that, typically, was arrived at on the last one. Oh well.
The pouring of the beams involved the making of the form and the addition of concrete. We used a bucket to fill each of the forms, with about 2 wheelbarrows of concrete for each beam. Each beam has 3 rebars, two at the bottom and one at the top, with a piece of durowall sideways to tie the top and bottom together. Except the second beam where the durowall was forgotten until too late. To help tie a few of the beams to the outer wall, some wires were added to the beams during the pour. This was added because the rebar was too short, despite the custom ordering. Some people may not think 1" is much, but if there is a 1/2" overlap at each end, 1" short is a lot.
Anyway, I leveled dirt inside the walls and started hauling away the excess soil. Friday I got a screen and I put the topsoil through it. My wife came to see what I was doing and said "Oh, you're sifting the dirt" (as in "sifting" flour). I said "Sifting is not manly-sounding enough for outdoor work - this is screening." I was going to conduct a lecture series on the manliness of the heavy machines that "screen" gravel, but the eye-rolling kinda held me back. I originally kept the topsoil separate because I figured I could use it somewhere and the first place will likely be on the lawn to help repair it. The lack of watering and heavy traffic at the back of the house has left some rather barren patches. Judging by the sod I pulled up, I think there is a viable root system there, but it is a matter of coaxing it to grow.
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