New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Looks the goods Wozza, remember to wet the formwork thoroughly before pouring concrete, helps to pull out the timber later, and fill over any gaps with a robust tape and it stops the concrete seeping through the formwork joins, it wont mess up your retaining wall etc. About .3 of a cube?? You going to mix yourself?

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Formwork was delayed last week but got most of it done today before the expected storm hit this arvo. Guess beer o'clock just came early.

Reasonably pleased that it all went together OK. I think I made a mistake in trying to cut the support legs exactly the right length. I should have cut them 10mm short and shimmed them up as needed. Going to need some more support front and back and I'll run 3 supports across the inside for the board.

I think I should brace the side walls somehow as well. Maybe screw some wood across the frame but keep the cross pices higher than the top of the frame so I can still trowel the concrete nice and flat.

[cobblerdave]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

G'day wozza
Good job on that concrete beam.
Recon you'll get the form work right 4x2s are plenty big enough.
You obviously figure out to agitate the concrete cause you've got it in the corners really well. A couple things that helps it flow for a slab. Use builders cement its got a slag content which makes it flow better for slabs. Use a teaspoon of dishwashing detergent as a plasticizer.
You've got a few air holes in the concrete beams sides. You can eliminate them by banging the sides of the form work after the concretes in and the air holes will collapse and fill full of the cement and sand in the mix.
Good luck I'm sure it will turn out and I hope you can con someone into helping without it costing you too many beers....
Regards dave
PS phone pics always use landscape

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Looks good mate. Its a slow process so keep in there, I had a 2 months lay period!

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Story so far...and bugger, the photo is rotated. Should I be taking them landscape as opposed to portrait?

I've cast a beam across the front of the support walls - 4 bags of concrete and some reo was a lot cheaper than buying heavy duty 100x100 angle. I'd filled every other hole in the blockwork with concrete and a rod of reo running through each. The rest I filled with rubble and topped up with concrete so I've got a nice flat surface. On top of that I'll lay the builders plastic as a vapour barrier then 6mm Villaboard on top of that, then form up and ready to pour.

The Villaboard/hearth will overhang the walls by about 250mm all round so I'll add supports around the perimeter as well as 2 or 3 supports across the middle.

Game plan is to form up next weekend and pour the weekend after. Then I'd better see about buying some firebricks...

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

After 12 beers you'll prob fond your sanity

That went AWOL long time back...A couple of six packs and I'd be lucky to find my arse with both hands and a torch.

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

After 12 beers you'll prob fond your sanity

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Hey wozza.

Love the stacked retaining wall. Is that cypress pine for the screen? Cypress pine can age to a beautiful grey over time. Looks great in that style of garden.
I'm 4 courses high so you got some catching up to do!

It's the standard pine decking, but I'm quite pleased with it. I'll get some protective varnish on it in a couple of weeks. Was going to use Merbau but it would have doubled the cost. I like the lighter colour anyway.

Thing is, I used brass screws. Well, brass plated actually. I thought they'd look good but they've started to rust already, so I've got to replace them all. Curses! Lucky I only put half of them in to get it up in time for Xmas.

And I left my level resting on a cross piece of the existing fence when I was putting the slats up and built over it with the decking. Managed to get it out after searching everywhere for it for ages and blaming everyone else for losing it. Maybe when I change the screws I'll find my hammer...

[Greenman]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

It is important to maintain quality control on these jobs and it looks you have an appropriate inspector!

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Hey wozza.

Love the stacked retaining wall. Is that cypress pine for the screen? Cypress pine can age to a beautiful grey over time. Looks great in that style of garden.
I'm 4 courses high so you got some catching up to do!

Good work mate.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Of course, always best to have a second opinion...and Logan was quite happy with the accuracy of the work so far.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Well, progress on the garden, so I'm kinda free to continue with the oven.

Slab is in. Some of the blocks roughly in place and the chiminchera has a temporary home for the next week or two. Way too warm to light any sort of fire, though.

Finished paving the garden and the slats on the back wall and partly down the sides are in and the low walls built with treated timber sleepers. Got some lights rigged up, again temporary, so it looks kinda cute at night. I just needed to get to this point as my bro is arriving from the UK on Saturday so it's a barbie on Sunday and the other half wanted everything to look reasonably neat. She's happy, so I'm happy, so time to get the rest of the blocks and think about forming up the hearth.

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

The race is on Wozza!

Hah. I can see you in my rear view mirror (but that's only because you're about to lap me...).

[BrendanLovesPizza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

I did put reo bars in my stand, but only because I got my bar for free, prob not needed my formworker friend told me. I did put two layers of reo mesh in the hearth slab. I did a 140mm slab, so spaced 50mm off bottom and top.
Mitre 10 stores sell metal suspended slab chairs separately. Only $1 each which was good. Normally you have to buy a 100 pack for $50-60. I used 20 metal 100mm chairs, and 20 or so plastic ground slab chairs I had left over and cut them done with an angle grinder to get them to 50mm and removing the large round base on the bottom.

My finish was rough too which makes for more area for the stand concrete to stick to in my opinion and for any pavers or tiles to adhere better as well. (or so I told myself.)

Starting the hebel hearth insulation construction this weekend.

The race is on Wozza!

[Wozza]

Re: New 36" Pompeii in Bondi

Progress! Foundation slab laid at last.

A half ton of road base was delivered last week. Had it dumped in the drive and a dozen trips with a wheely bin got it into the garden. I had some treated pine sleepers lying around, so they were used for the formwork and a couple of hours fart-arsing about with a rake and a shovel and I eventually got everything level then covered it all with plastic builders sheeting.

Fixed some reo around the edges, 2 rows down each side at 100mm and 200mm in from the edge and laid a metal mesh on top of those.

I’d bought 40 20 kilo bags of concrete from Bunnies (over a couple of trips while picking some other stuff up). Took half an hour or so on Saturday morning for me and the lad to carry them out the back. Then off to the local Kennards to hire a mini cement mixer ($60) and we were mixing and pouring soon after. Two bags at a time kept things ticking over and we were done in a couple of hours.

The exact volume was 0.38 cubic metres and I thought 2 extra bags would be enough, but curses, we were still a bit short so I had to nip back to Bunnies for an extra 5 bags. We used 42 in total, so the theoretical amount plus 10% seems the way to go.

Covered it with a tarp when done and I’ve been wetting it down a couple of times a day since. The grandson was around later on Saturday so we planted his foot in the relatively wet cement so there’s a topic of conversation for when he’s turning out the pizzas for his mates in twenty years time.

Edit: Took the tarp off the following Saturday and the slab looks good. Didn't really give it a smooth finish as it wasn't required, but the blocks seem to be sitting nice and square. I need to get some more concrete and I can fill every other hole in the blocks and then maybe get the hearth formed up over the Xmas break.

Anyone think I need to use reo bars in the block holes when I fill them with concrete?