Today about 27 mostly young guys worked from 6 am to noon to
pour the terraza on the house in Plan Grande. The terraza is the roof of one
floor and the floor of another.
It’s a process that has to be completed in one day so that
the reinforced concrete is one piece, without seams.
Boards are place above the walls of the first floor and are
supported by beams called pilotos.
Then the wiring for the ceilings is put above the board and
rebars are put in place.
Then the pouring begins in the morning.
The maestro de obra
– the construction supervisor – had an electric mixer.
One part water, two parts sand, two parts gravel, and one
half of a bag of cement are mixed together.
The mixture is then poured into an area where it is further
mixed and put in buckets.
It is then handed up to the guys on the roof who pour the concrete
over the boards.
The terraza for this house is five inches thick.
The mixture is flattened out and then leveled off.
A final pass over is made to prevent cracking.
The concrete has to dry for at least one week before they
can start doing more construction on the second floor.
The wood and supports stay in place for about 20 days.
What is amazing is that this is often done without architects or engineers. (In fact, most of this was my design. I am, though asking a young engineer friend I know to help with designing the roof.)
More photos of the construction in progress at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johndonaghy/sets/72157644452643671/
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