Week 6: October 26 - November 1

Week 6 - We spent most of our time this week prepping the storage area down over the hill, for our concrete placement. In the photo above, we are putting forms in place to hold the concrete, but this picture depicts us using a scab to reinforce the point where two of our form boards meet. The scab is placed over the joined edges, on the outside of where the concrete will be placed, and is screwed or nailed in place. Two metal stakes are driven in next to it, pinning the scab in place, and (hopefully) preventing any sort of blowout while the concrete is being raked, pushed and pulled.

More form boards going underneath the storage shed's walls. We used form boards around the entire building. Anywhere concrete might try to sneak or leak into or out of, we had to find, map out, and counteract. You can see yet another two scabs in the above picture. We actually had to cut the siding on this part of the shed, in order to get the form boards in the desired location.

In our 'spare' time (when the weather wasn't feeling particularly cooperative), we were busy inside working on our sheds. In this picture, we are working on leveling the shed up. This is very important, because without starting our building on a level baseline, we wouldn't be able to use a level to garner any accurate readings. Using this sensor, which interacts with a laser level, we were able to attach it to a piece of wood. Then, resting this on each corner, we were able to determine which corner was the highest/lowest. (The markings on the board are barely visible. This particular corner ended up being higher than the other corners, so the other three were shimmed up to match it's height.)

Shimming in progress...

Using a compactor to press the dirt down, forcing it to settle into a more permanent form. This will give the concrete a sturdier surface to be laid on top of.

Using the laser level again, to better gauge the levelness of the dirt surface. We want to get it as close to level as possible, preventing any variation in the concrete. It helps to reduce excess in the use of the concrete, which will reduce the overall cost of material.