Wrapping Up the 2015 Season

All packed away for the winter. Bye for now!

Patching the Roof Domes

Since the roof dome pour didn't go according to plan, we had to spend extra time and effort manually patching the roof domes with an extra layer of mortar.

All done

Pouring the Roof Domes - Disaster (Almost) Strikes!

The construction drawings call for the roof domes to be covered in three layers of mortar by hand. We, again pressed for time since the season was nearing the end, decided to bring in the heavy hitters and pour the dome in one shot.

Ready-mix concrete and pumper truck on site

Pouring begins

And then... disaster strikes... ALMOST. The force of the concrete impacting the domes was too much for the diamond mesh to handle and the mesh started giving way. In one area too much concrete was poured at once that even the rebar started to flex too much.

Anyway, in the end we had to do a lot more manual work than expected but managed to get all the domes (mostly) covered.

   

We were so exhausted by the end of it that we took the rest of the day and night to recuperate. This is what it looked like the next day.

 
We had to add lots of reinforcement on the fly to avoid disaster

 

Note the unevenness on the interior due to the diamond mesh giving way

 

Note the unevenness on the exterior also

 

 

Pouring the Bond Beam

Had to bring in the heavy hitters to pour the bond beam because it needs to be done in one shot to maximize strength. Ready-mix concrete and a pump truck.

One person to direct the pour and the rest to "agitate" the concrete so that it can flow into all the nooks and crannies

 

Eight cubic yards of concrete poured in about two hours!

 

 

 

Building the Bond Beam Form

The bond beam is like a footing that anchors the roof domes to the tire wall. First we build the form out of mortar and empty aluminum cans.

 

 

We were running low on aluminum cans and were pressed for time so we decided to do only the curvy parts with cans and use bricks and concrete blocks for the straight bits.

 

Bond beam form finished

 

Some Welding to Get the Steel Flowing

We borrowed a stick welder from our neighbour to weld some parts of the roof domes for added strength.

 

Like rebar between the domes to tie the domes together

 

Like anchor bolts for supporting interior fixtures/walls/etc.

 

Adding the Remesh and Diamond Mesh to the Domes

6" by 6" remesh on the outside

Diamond mesh on the inside

 

 

Building the Roof Domes with Rebar

Trees are used as temporary supports

 

  

 

Rebar Pins and Staples

Rebar staples and pins are pounded into the top row of tires. The roof domes sit on the staples and the pins tie them to the tire wall.

 

We built small forms around the staples and poured concrete to keep them from sinking into the dirt while the roof dome was being built