Brought to you by your representative on site: Jay Fritz
All the preparation you saw in the last posting was for this day, the pouring of the floor in the lower level Children's Center. In the first picture you see a piece of equipment called a concrete pump that moves the concrete from it's back trough where the trucks dump their concrete, through a 6" hose that can be as long as 300'. The end of the hose that you see in the second picture is moved around to place the concrete where it is needed. There are three men just to move the hose around because once it is filled with concrete it is very heavy and awkward to move around all the pipes and columns. The other men in the next picture push the concrete so that it is level enough to have long flat board pulled across it make it flat. They start in the back and work they way out to the front because as soon as it is flat they start finishing it with pull floats that are at the end of those red poles in the foreground of the picture.
If you look really close in the background of that same picture, in front of the man carrying the bucket, you can see one of the four riding auto finishers, that is being used in the first picture of the second row, hanging from a beam that will be used as soon as that concrete is firm enough, about 2 hours after the pour begins. It took about 4 hours for 15 men to pour about 140 yards of concrete that was delivered on 15 trucks. Then it takes about another 3 hours after the pour is completed to finish the concrete. The riding finishers were being used in the back where they started the pour, before they were finished pouring the concrete at the front. Because the riding finishers are so large and unable to get between pipes they have smaller walk behind finishers in the fore ground of the center picture to get closer in tight areas. If the area is real small or they have to get tight to a wall or pipe they hand finish it by using float pans to keep them from sinking into the concrete and allows them to get to those areas.
About 4:00pm the same day of the pour they came in with a saw and cut control joints every 10' in both directions shown in the last picture above to allow for expansion of the concrete which helps to limit and control cracking of the floor. While all this was going on in the lower level the steel works are fixing some problems with the roof trusses that were discovered after they were installed. In the first picture below you see how they build a temporary platform to work from to so their hands are free instead of holding on to ladders or trusses. Notice the safety harnesses that they are wearing and are connected to the truss just in case. The center picture below show how it is not always standing with your work in front of you at chest height when you are on construction site. No matter where it is or where you are the work needs to get done.
At the end of a long day that was mostly sunshine all day God sent a 20 minute down pour followed by more sunshine so that we could see he was smiling too. I was a spectacular rainbow with another above that was so brilliant and you could see both ends.
Brought to you by your representative on site: Jay Fritz
It has been a busy month at 7661 Mexico Rd. in Saint Peters Missouri because of all the dry weather we have been having. While the Iron workers were taking care of some problems with the worship center trusses there was a lot done in the lower level to keep things moving forward towards the finished product. Just like the structural building has to start from the bottom, so the concrete floor has to be prepared for from the bottom layer to the top layer. The lowest item in the building is the plumbing because water runs down hill and to get the water out it must keep going down. The first picture shows the main drain and the trench that has to be dug for it to run in which continues out of the building by going under the foundation and connecting to the sewer system where that green pipe (an access to for cleaning out clogs)is sticking up in the air. After all the plumbing is installed and back filled to a level surface the third picture shows some of the electrical conduit that runs under the floor also. Because it is smaller and does not need to be installed with slope for water to flow down it does not have to be buried like the plumbing. The first picture in the second row shows a thick 10 mil plastic moisture barrier that is put down next and sealed to everything with tape to keep moister from coming up through the concrete floor. The plastic needs to be so thick because of the wire that lays on top of it in center picture. The wire is lifted up during the concrete pour and actually runs through the concrete not under it, so if any ground shifting under the slab occurs and a crack forms there is something that connects the two pieces of concrete and keeps them level.
The last picture in the center row shows the completed preparations for the concrete floor to be poured. The red and white sleeves around all the columns are expansion foam that will be lowered into the concrete during the pouring so the concrete is not against the steel which allows for vibration and minor movement without disturbing the concrete. The next Construction Web Article will show the pouring and finishing process of the concrete floor. The bottom row of pictures shows what happens outside the foundation to help the water flow away from the building. During the winter the water washed a lot of mud down into the over dig which needed to be removed by hand because we couldn't get any equipment in there that would do the job more efficiently. Dan, a laborer for the general contractor J Hooker Construction, dug for four days around the entire outside of the building to clean the mud and debris away from the footing and foundation. At some points the mud was up to 3 feet deep and most of the way he had to build a shoring wall to have some where to throw the mud as he dug it. The result in the center picture shows the final product of waterproofing with about 12" of clean rock that has buried a 4" black pipe with holes in it. This "Drain Tile" that will be connected to the storm sewer gives the water an easy path to get away from the foundation instead of building up against and seeping through the wall. The water proofing material is put on in sections as the over dig is backfilled and covers the entire wall where it comes in contact with the ground forming another layer of protection from the moisture.
The last picture shows the Wednesday Contractors Lunch taking advantage of some of the beautiful weather we have been having and serving the meal on the lower level entrance patio. The contractors have come to look forward to the lunch and getting a chance to meet some of the people who will be using the building that they have helped to build.
Brought to you by your representative on site: Jay Fritz
As you can see below things are still growing and getting bigger. After all the support beams were installed in the first picture they started setting the roof trusses right away. I think one of the most interesting parts about watching men & crane working together is the hand signals that the man on the iron uses to to tell the crane operator what needs to happen to get the truss in the right spot. In the second picture it looks like he is keeping his balance with his hand out like that, but he is giving signals to the crane operator. Remember the large gable end truss that when it was delivered we had to stop traffic to get it in the parking lot? In the last picture of the top row it looks a lot smaller up in the air with the rest of the building around it, and in the first picture of the second row the top had to be put on separately the next morning. With all the trusses in place and the crane is gone, it is time to go back and put the rest of it together.
The center picture shows the metal decking being laid over the floor joists that will support the concrete when it is poured. It took 5 days to get to the next picture where the decking on the main level is completely laid and welded every 16" to each joist. Some of that time was spent getting the baptistery recess area, shown in the first picture of the last row, installed in the right location. Because the baptistery is 14" taller than the platform that it is being recessed into, it had to be recessed into the main floor as well to get it low enough. In the next two aerial shots you can see the location of the recessed area which is located in the front of the platform. Also these shots give you an understanding of how this addition will almost double the square footage of the building.
Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for dry weather, worker safety and a quick resolution to problems as they are discovered.
