7 years in the waiting i get to start my 42" pompeii

[jonv]

Very interested to see how these turn out. How long will you keep them in the moulds?

[Gulf]

I'm also looking forward to the finsihed product. I'm sure they will turn out great. You are doing right by keeping them moist. Just, don't let them freeze. And, for total curing time, don't count the time that they are under 45° to 50° F. The heater is a good idea. The first day or two, they will generate some heat on their own due to the reaction.

[leetheldc]

jonv they will stay in the molds for 28 days after the 7 days of been kept moist so 35 in total. a looong wait so weather depending i will proberly be polishing in the christmas holidays and proberly then some as its such a long proccess.


joe, did use any form of hardener in the polishing proccess or just the slurry coat. ive been reading again on google and getting side tracked from other info. and read about using hardener or a type of impregnator at around 400 grit so the concrete is still open poured enougth to take in the product.
yes il deffinatly keep my eye on the temp it was 60 f in there this morning so hopefully it stays that way il pop the heater in there if it gets to near 55 f just to be safe. i gave them a good spray last night and they was still water on the surface under the poly this morning so doesnt look like il need to constantly looking after them proberly just 2 sprays a day

[Gulf]

Sounds like you have a good plan. There were a lot of different methods for polishing concrete back when I did my project. I used an acrylic fortifier/bonding agent mixed in with the original pour and also with the slurry. I purposefully left large bug holes to fill (contrasting color). So, it took a couple or three applications between the first few courser grits to get them all filled. For the finer polishings (when no slurry was applied) I only used water.

[leetheldc]

So I've not had an update for a while I've just been too busy with life anyway I've finally got my worktops polished and in place what a nightmare these where the weight shapes and the size of them made life hard but there in now and I'm quite happy with them I still need to seal them and grout or mastic the joints here's a few pics

[leetheldc]

A few more

[UtahBeehiver]

Very nice work....

[leetheldc]

Thanks Russel much appreciated.

A couple before the polishing

[JRPizza]

All your hard work really shows! How are you planning on finishing off your dome?

[Gulf]

The counters look great! love the shells.

[leetheldc]

Thanks allot guys! Yes the shells came out great a bit randomly placed but they give a bit of character.
I've got brick slips for the dome you can see a few dry layers on one of the pics I posted I'm just waiting on 10mm tile spacers from eBay not one tile shop in hull sold them! In my first plan I was going to render before the brick slips but know I'm heading towards going straight on the verm with them does anyone know of this been done before?

[leetheldc]

So after some advice I put on a coat of render today ready for the brick slips I also got my trap vent installed as advised a while back from gulf. I couldn't get a pvc fitting so I ended up up with a few steel connections to make a hollow pipe.

[Gulf]

Lee,

I can't really tell from the pic if you have some way of embedding the vent reciever into the render so that it won't turn , should you need to remove it for any reason. Also, you don't really need that long of a pipe sticking down into the isulation. The thickness of the render would be enough imo. I threw together a sample of what I did in the below pics from some fittings I had laying around. I'm sure the same thing could be done with a metal bushing and an electrical conduit locknut. Pic 3 shows just the bushing and a Locknut. I hope this is not too late to help.

EDIT: In pic #2 the threaded fitting and the and the bushing are not run up tight. They really need to be to secure it into the mesh. I did not for the example. I may need these fittings for some emergency repair .

EDIT #2: After, posting this I found a brass bushing. It did not quite have the shoulder that a pvc one has. In this case, 2 electrical conduit locknuts would secure it nicely to the mesh.

[leetheldc]

Thanks for the pointer joe I did think the pipe was a little long I managed to pull it out this morning didn't do much damage my pipe was made up of 4 Fittings so I can reduce the length and just fill the hole up with insulation then set in the receiving piece with some render, that needs to be solid right?

[UtahBeehiver]

Just needs to be solid since you probably will not need to remove the breather plug since it will always vent..Make sure the bottom of the breather plug is higher than you finish coating material. I think you were planning using brick splits. Looking nice.