The great concrete pour

It was a very foggy and gloomy day (one of the few we have had all winter) that we finally poured the concrete slab for the house.  That was about a month ago now, time flies when you are having fun.

We had a crew of about five volunteers, and a paid concreter who was happy to work with us (harder to find than you would think!), and two guys who operated the concrete pump.  We had to hire a concrete pump (a line pump) as the slab site was just too far from the driveway to be able to shoot the concrete straight out of the truck, and while we contemplated it for a (very short) moment, we decided against wheelbarrowing 40 cubic meters of concrete!

the pump truck with concrete truck

pumping the concrete, first into the trenches, and then over the whole slab

it was a fairly relaxed affair!!

It ended up being a fairly relaxed day, nothing really went wrong, and the pace was calm.  The man who held the hose for the concrete pump certainly earnt his wages, he worked like a machine!  So now months of work is covered up, all those trenches and curved reinforcement....  at least we have photos to show for it all!

the boys 'hard' at work

screeding the concrete

our curvy slab, just finished.

its dry!

So now we have a lovely flat area, that will be our thermal mass in our house.  We designed the house to recieve winter sun (but not the summer sun) and its lovely to see how far into the house the sun reaches at its lowest point (to the halfway mark in the house).  This will be integral in our passive solar climate control, gently warming the house with winter sunlight. 

Now to save up for the next stage which is most likely going to be lining and insulating the ceiling.