Friday, August 23, 2013

Ferro Vault_Exterior Finishes

The crew is still making great progress on the exterior of the building. At this point all of the major work is complete. The work left to do is primarily adding plaster layers to the front and rear exterior (including the block walls) and other finishes - notably the ferro-cement benches.

plastering on facade

Gabs finishing the triangle windows

plastering on rear wall


smoothing out the vault

finishing the exterior surface of the vault

Mike and Sam taking a break

adding the vault extension to the front facade

start of ferro benches with welders mesh

adding chicken mesh

bench (almost) ready to plaster


plastering block wall


plastering buttresses

more plastering





Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Ferro Vault_Exterior Plaster

Progress is moving full speed ahead! With the front and back walls curing, the team moves to completing the exterior layer of plaster. Here, they "throw" between 1/2" and 1" of sand/cement mortar onto the vault to increase the overall thickness, correct any imperfections in the first layer and smooth out the whole thing so it looks nice.











Sunday, August 11, 2013

Dividing Walls_Ferro

Progress continues on the front and back walls of the radio studio. These photos show the guys ferro-cementing the first hull of the walls. The work is really moving now - every step shows huge signs of progress toward completion.









Friday, August 9, 2013

Dividing Walls_Prep

Even though the student research team left the island, work on the future EKFM radio studio continues at full pace. Getting the first hull of the roof completed was a huge step toward completion, so the work that remains is much more focused on non-structural dividing walls, doors and windows, and finishings. We are very lucky to have EK Radio presenter Nancy "Naz" Sungu who has agreed to take photos for us to document every step along the way in our absence. We thank her greatly for putting in the time to send us photos everyday.

Muogah finishing the block walls on 
front, middle and rear divisions

middle block wall completed up to 29" (desk height)


meanwhile, Mike welds the front door/window structure

very quickly the structure is complete, installed, and just like
with the roof, welders mesh is put in for the ferro-cement infill

Mike binding the welder's mesh to the frame

Elijah and Sam putting finishing touches on the welder's mesh

as work progresses on the front, the structure for 
the rear wall is installed too

next, chicken mesh is applied over the welders mesh


Sam and Elijah finishing the chicken mesh

detail of the rounded-triangle window/screen

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Ferro Vault_First Hull

Once all the steel work is done (ferro), the vault is ready to be cemented. Very much like slab day, the whole vault had to be smeared in its entirety in one day. That meant the crew had to get to the site around 6:30 am. We started by dry mixing sand and cement at a 2:1 ratio. That meant 6 wheelbarrows of sand and 3 bags of cement. Wet mixing is done in small batches in wheelbarrows with sisal fibers and immediately smeared onto the steel mesh. Since this was a huge task we hired two additional local workers who have experience working with ferro-cement on the island.

Tyrus and Calvins (extra hands) starting the day 
dry mixing with Samwell

and we're off...smearing begins

smearing the cement/sand/fibers

progress is fast. within about an hour the 
structure is starting to close up

Muogah smearing away

Tyrus taking his rooftop position

radio presenter Nancy "Naz" having a try

Mike up on the roof too



lots and lots of support from a forest of round poles below

fast progress. we reached here by about noon.




Gabs is all smiles when it comes to ferro-cement







so thin

last little bit

At last, the first hull was complete. The crew was done by about 3:30 pm, totaling a little over 8 hours of work. In all, it took only 4-1/2 bags of cement, 9 wheelbarrows of sand, and 14 kg of waterproof admixture.