Building House in Kram

The concrete truck arrived yesterday to fill the first level of beams and today the form was removed. It's now possible to see the shape of the house. In two weeks (today) I will visit the site myself - I guess there will be more blog posts when I'm there. Taking of the forms Using Antisol to help curing the concrete

We have started the discussion about electricity in the house. There is a confusion between the standards they use (Thai -US) and the normal US standards. By sharing pictures, it's always easier to explain what you want. This is the 3-Way switch (S3) that is needed to be able to switch on and off the same light in two places (stairs as an example).

Full speed working with the forms to the first level of beams. There are now 12 people working on the site. When the concrete work is done, some of them will move to next project and be replaced with workers with other skills.

The first stage is now done, The platforms and the pillars are there. New pictures describing all the steps needed to complete the new stage is nailed at the big board by the "office". The second stage starts with the beams between the pillars on the ground level. As before the base for the beams are concrete (not styrofoam as we use in Sweden) - upon this there will be forms with cages of rebars filled with the factory produced concrete. Some pictures:

It's Sunday and the concrete work on the underground parts is almost done. The digger will come tomorrow and fill the last holes with soil and concrete beam work will start.

For a couple of days now the workers have concentrated to be finished with the foundation. Here is some pictures. The for is gone from the platform, now it has to cure. To support curing in the tropics, this chemical can help. With this the concrete will keep the moist within even if the temperature is 35 degrees (Celsius) and full sunshine. Two times is needed on every surface. Time for the pillars. Forms in place. Quality control - measurement The digger was here again - this picture shows the area. For me, it looks like a WW2 battlefield?

Today it was time to add concrete to the platforms that was ready for it. Was everything ready for concrete? Rebar - check Pillar rebar connection - check Cleaned - check Distances in place - check Forms ok - check Concrete quality - check Vibrators connected and working - check OK, two concrete trucks arrived - 4 m3 was poured into the forms To avoid to much moving of the soil, only half of the holes/platforms are ready for concrete. Later on when these are ready, they start with the remaining ones. The vertical rebars is for the pillars from the platform and up to the ground. Important to keep the area clean. Concrete Truck Ready to start filling the forms Filling, many workers. Using vibrators to get air out from the concrete. Looks good? Noticed something on this photo. Check the nice repair of the electrical socket/wires.  Not so important here - enough secure to get the job done.

There are daily quality checks done by quality engineers at the consultant company. They will compare pictures from the site with the one on the board. The contract forces the builder to supply photos during the whole process. The quality engineers asked the builders about the quality of the rebar, and some minutes later a picture was posted with the info needed. Rebar quality QE can check if everything looks ok. Right dimensions? Here too?

Back to work, Today the workers done many rebar "cages" after delivery of materials and a rebar machine. The three cages that was done before was made of 16 mm rebar that was a leftover from their last work. Now the rebar is 12 mm (as planned). Some pictures:

All the workers have their monthly free day today. Yesterday they got their salary (twice a month), so today it is time for food, drinks and relaxing.

Not enough rebars (steel reinforcement bars)! The delivery of materials have been scheduled to Tuesday, so no progress on the form preparation today. The workers spend time to set up an office for us, where we can have meetings, drink and eat when we visit the site. A big poster is set up with pictures of all the steps needed to be done for the current building phase. Right now it's pictures describing how to do the foundation in the right way. The office. The poster is on the right side. The extra roof at the front was added after test in the bright sunshine. Poster. Observe all this bubbles with descriptions on the pictures - Important. Some pictures are missing, have to buy more glue.