Rebar in concrete slab.

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Rebar in concrete slab.
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Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 11 10:05 am Post subject:
Hahaha, bits of our house in France are built with poured concrete walls. Yes, honestly!! And if neighbours are to be believed, there's no rebar, just random bits of metal - empty oil cans, scraps of metal, wire, a bicycle frame It's been standing for over 50 years like that, and no cracks!!

crofter

Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 2252

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 11 11:24 pm Post subject:

Vanessa wrote:

poured concrete walls

Known as "run concrete" here, very common building technique until relatively recently. Minimal reinforcing used, and whatever is to hand would suffice. Some houses have massive cracks where incorporated steel has corroded and burst the concrete apart - railway track lintels are a bad idea!

Run concrete outbuilding with porthole:

alice

Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Posts: 2820

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 11 8:38 am Post subject:

crofter wrote:

Vanessa wrote:

poured concrete walls

Living so remotely, I guess folks did the best they could with the materials avaialble. The beams in our roof were whole tree trunks with the bark still on.

Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 11 9:09 am Post subject:

Ooooh, I feel so much happier about it now!

One of our outbuildings is of what can best be described as "non-standard construction". A mix of red blocks (the ones with lots of large holes through), concrete blocks and poured concrete, plus concrete EDF pylons and metal EDF pylons cut to length. The roof structure is a mix of concrete EDF pylons, telegraph poles and random bits of wood.

One estate agent looked at it and said "nowadays, this would be considered very eco-friendly, re-using everything, wouldn't it?"!!!

Again, it's been standing for over 40 years, so can't be "badly" built, for all the shoddy appearances!

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 14 10:20 pm Post subject:

dpack wrote:

a week of warm and damp will take it up to 80% or so of final strength which will be hard enogh to work on and to hold the mass of blockwork

do any planishing after 24 hrs to give a nice even finish to bits that will show ,a foot of floorboard with a block handle will make an adequate tool to rub the surface smooth

some metal poking up into the blockwork will help tie it all together

keep the blockwork damp as you go along and try to let the mortar for the blocks set off enough before adding more layers ,

when blocklaying a stiff mortar holds the block against gravity better than a more runny bricklaying mix .make sure the blocks are well wetted and take your time with bubble ,string and rubber mallet to get each block set perfectly .if layer one is perfect it is easy to build up

if the oven is to be very heavey it may be worth filling the hollow blocks with concrete as you build up for extra commpressive strength

at a guess the oven will be heavey

I left it longer than you suggested, for a variety of reasons, but I have finished the top slab. Layer of self levelling this week to bed the firebrick oven floor on. First pizza cook scheduled for 2017.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 3:12 pm Post subject:
2017? Feh! It'll be done before the middle of 2015! Almost finished!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45426
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 3:23 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

2017? Feh! It'll be done before the middle of 2015!

Almost finished!

Handy, so next summer you can give me a hand with mine!

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 3:27 pm Post subject:
I can send you plans. And advice, and even a list of potential materials and suppliers. And some dough.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45426
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 3:35 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

And some dough.

£10k for starters?

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 3:48 pm Post subject:
I knew you'd say that. Essex, init? No, fool. Flour and water and yeast.

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 3:51 pm Post subject:
I trust it's not where the pond is going.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45472
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 4:01 pm Post subject:

well done and top marks for persistence.

im sure i mentioned it at some point but when you first fire it up ,start slowly with a few sticks for a few hours to dry it gently rather than having steam venting like yellowstone on a busy day( adding several hundred weight of wood and some wp into a damp oven might be rather more exciting than you need

)

once it cools down after the first test firing any cracks can be filled with clay or fire cement and then refire with good hardwood .

the best traditional oven wood is hawthorn but other timbers will work ,prunus juniper,and oak all add flavour but avoid things like laburnum and yew for the obvious reasons

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45472
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 4:04 pm Post subject:
would you like a bit of "olaf" he does make exceedingly good pizza dough if you plan ahead and ferment your thin crusts in a genuine napoli style

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 4:16 pm Post subject:
I would love some Olaf, please, but I'm going to suggest you don't mail it this week. I do only have the vermiculite render, and then final coat to add, but, you know, just in case... I have some starter myself. I wonder if neglect has killed it yet...

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45472
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 15 4:28 pm Post subject:
ok .i will prep a bit to a "relaxed"state so as it wont frighten the postie

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