Week 47 (Completion of slab rebar and mesh)

In construction photos by Michael Tiemann

Progress seems to be accelerating now.  In one week we saw:

  • The completion of the installation of more than a mile of slab rebar
  • The installation of 6″ wire mesh covering the entire rebar’d area
  •  The beginning of the installation of more than a mile of pex conduit

Here’s the representative progress picture:

Read on to see more progress pictures:

Our progress pictures begin with the remains of all the holes that had to be drilled into the foam to make room for the chairs:

foamcutouttrash-sm.jpg

I’ll note that in addition to this filled trash can, I noted two other full trash cans, plus another 8-12 lawn-sized garbage bags full of these little pink cut-outs.  Every one of these holes had to be measured and drilled precisely.  In the following picture you can see one of the workmen holding a yellow drill with a 4″ red circular saw that cuts the holes.  This job is almost done, as he finished cutting the holes that will define the perimeter of the rebar mesh within the slab.  In this fashion there will be no “loose ends”.

foamoverview.jpg

At the very center of the Music Room you can see some wire mesh being readied to be tied down.  Here’s a more detailed closeup:

meshdetail.jpg

Here’s a photo showing some finished slab height details in the Control Room.  We have installed junction boxes for in-floor circuits under the console, and they have been finished to slab height.  They are locked down in cement, and now we can see that cement bulging above the foam where it will become part of the slab:

slabdetails.jpg

Here’s an alternate view with some nice evening light and the day’s progress: mesh covering the entire Music Room (but not yet the Control Room):

slabdetailsevening.jpg

Music Room definitely covered in wire mesh:

musicmesh.jpg

Another detail I noticed (and that you can see in the above pictures if you’re lucky and you look really closely) is that there are quite a few of these notched wood pieces screwed into the concrete at various regular intervals.  This one is #19, and makes it unambiguous where the true center of the grid line is:

notch19.jpg

Not all grid lines are on corners.  Many intersect flat walls, as #18 does:

notch18.jpg

By the end of the week, pex was being laid.  Here we see EQC‘s environmental engineering guru Jeff Reilich laying the first circuits himself:

reilichpex.jpg

Once he’s happy with how his design is reflected by the reality on the ground, he’ll turn the job over to others he’s hired to do the implementation of his design:

reilichotherspex.jpg

The results of the first day’s work:

pexdayone.jpg

Here’s a neat view showing how two manifolds serve the music room of Manifold Recording:

pexmanifolds.jpg

Here’s a final overview picture showing progress thus far.  When finished, more than a mile of pex will join more than a mile of rebar and more than a mile of electrical and acoustic conduit in the slab…

pexoverview.jpg

At present we are actually on track to pour the slab this coming week!

More as it happens…