₦airaland Forum

Meanwhile, someone is busy baking... Concrete Biscuits

mufutau55: Damn.. that far? I feel for you, Brother. Well, just keep at your pace and everything will surely be good. I am sure the client understands.

Hajji Mufutau

Of course, he does! Over time, I've learnt that "Success stops when you do" and "The best way to escape your problem is to solve it".

mufutau55: Were you able to get the delivery close to the site now? I surely hope so, that is a lot of work to move manually..

Hajji Mufutau

Yeah, we were able to get it this close . I can only imagine where we will be if materials are very close to us.

First Floor Slab Preparation - Granite Delivery

Work moving along quickly getting form in place for first floor slab. Work continues tomorrow. Meanwhile, rebar is being bent for the spiral staircase.

And the tank...

And more...

More pictures

mufutau55: Heh! Oga brabus, how are things going? I hope the rain is not disturbing the decking work?

Hajji Mufutau

We are pushing the project o. Here are few pictures to feed your eyes

Picture Update: Parapet forms removed. Electrical/Mechanical tubing ongoing.

First floor rebar preparations started and work underway getting the form in place for pouring first floor slab. Meanwhile, I'm presently out of town to tidy up arrangements for a new and upcoming project in Lagos. I'll be back with more picture updates later tmrw.

Thanks.

Well done my Oga on top

Last Weekend at Chateau De Brabus.

First floor slab formwork in progress.

Hey Sir Fhemmmy, I'm honoured to have you on our thread.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I've only purchased 3 loads so far and I still have 1 full load left on ground. Meanwhile, I've done the following

1. Blinding of the main building
2. Casting of the column base and starter columns (main building)
3. Casting of the ground floor slab (main building)
4. Casting of the lintels and columns (main building)
5. Blinding and Casting of the soak away floor and columns
6. Sand filling of the driveway

I knew it already. When I was in Port Harcourt, I used 3 loads of granite (which was supplied by the owners relative o) to do a small foundation but in my Ondo project which is twice bigger, I've not finished using 2 loads. I got 2 of the trucks you showed last as 30 tons when the real 30 tons truck can't move into my site.

If you check the thread, you can see how I was using granite to fill my driveway. Of all the trucks you posted, I've not seen anyone as big as the one that delivered 30 tons for me in Ondo. All of them are in 15 tons class.

God is watching us in 3D.

and..

Picture updates

Project Update:

Stage 2 completed, we are now moving on to Stage 3 (First floor slab).

Stage commences tomorrow.

Plastering of the soak away ongoing. Meanwhile the carpenters are preparing the formwork's

Picture Update: Topping of the lintels half way up.

No one can ruin your day without your permission. Make the very best of your day, today!

Work Mode Activated

The soak away will be plastered today in preparation for the pouring of the first floor slab. We intend to use it to store water for the rest of the project.

More pictures from the site..

Day 19: Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock...

Its 19 days since we broke ground.

The team who built the ground beam in the last pic above are NextHomes' "A-Team" and they are already in town to tackle the first floor slab.

You remember this project...

I have been very busy over the past few days and so the blog update have not been as frequent as it used to be. I'm going to try and get back to making short regular posts again.

With that in mind, here is a very short progress update:

We are currently in the process of topping the lintels of the Chateau and the "A Team" of NextHome Builders are already on their way to take up the first floor slab formwork and reinforcement. I'm so sure all the block works should be completed by the end of the day. Yesterday, the electrical pipes were buried inside the wall through the lintels high up.

gabbytabby: Mr Brabus what mix do you use for plastering and do you use different measures for inside and outside. How many headpan is in the wheelbarrow.

With concrete mix some say 1:2:4 and others use 1:3:6 which part would you use either for. I.e is 1:2:4 for below dpc and the other for above?

The 1:2:4 mix

One bag of cement, 2 wheelbarrows full of sand and 4 wheelbarrows full of granite. Whatever mix you do, the most important thing is the quality of the materials (sand and stone) used.

mufutau55: Is starting first floor block laying considered as heavy or light load?
Or simply put how many days is safer to start the block setting for the next floor?
Thanks.

Hajji Mufutau

FYI,

Generally, floors are designed to support the weight of the slab (called dead load) and the weight of furnitures, equipments, and the inhabitants (called live load). However, dead load is much greater than the live load on concrete floors. So we should not depend on the live load capacity of a floor slab to support the weight of workers, materials and concrete from the first floor. Otherwise, we will overload the slab and then theres deflection.

So, the normal assumption is that the concrete will reach full strength in a month (28 days). However, the slab can achieve 70 to 75% of 28 day strength (with proper curing method) in seven days during which it may be considered as strong enough to hold its dead load and some live load.

The Recommendation

To shore the formwork, workers, and the poured concrete at the first floor level so that the loads from the first floor to the slab below is equally distributed to safely support the live and dead loads. With that, you can safely commence block works on the upper level few days (3 - 5 days) after pouring the slab and even do more within a short period of time. But there's a caveat, if possible avoid mixing your concrete on the upper slab to avoid deflection. Leave the props for over a month till the slab achieve full strength.