Slab

After many weeks of work on the foundation, we finally poured the slab and the building has taken shape. It's a substantial milestone, and it was fun to watch everyone's energy pick up to try and get ready for the pour including the plumbing and electrical subcontractors.

Below you'll see photos of the crew preparing the forms for the final Ground Beams, placing the reinforcing steel, and spreading the remaining fill evenly over the rectangular pads remaining in between the Ground Beams. After that, they spread plastic sheets over the fill as a moisture barrier, then placed a steel grid (8 mm thickness, in 20-centimeter square grid openings) over the plastic as reinforcement for the concrete slab.

You'll also see the plumbing sub placing his wastewater pipes that have to go under the slab in place, and the electrical sub placing his high and low-voltage conduits and sleeves under the fill material to establish his routes under the slab.

(crew and subcontractors working)

(plumber setting up the WW drain for a future toilet)

(plastic sheets being placed over the smooth fill and WW pipes)

(final pads remaining are being worked on by the electrical sub)

(at the end of the day, awaiting the concrete pump truck next morning)

The pour went smoothly, and included approximately 50 cubic meters of concrete for the Ground Beam and slab (the 10-centimeter-thick slab took around 35 cubic meters while the Ground Beams took up another 15 or so cubic meters). We also poured the third phase of the reinforced concrete retaining wall along the front (north) boundary, completing the first 3-meter-high run along the entire 30-meter stretch of street frontage. The retaining wall took another 13 cubic meters to complete, bringing the total for the wall so far to around 90 cubic meters.

Th crew used hand shovels to spread the last of the concrete evenly over the slab, and a make-shift level spreader to smooth the surface (as seen in the first two photos below):

(using the level-spreader to smooth the concrete)

(using shovels to spread the concrete evenly)

(close-up of the finished product)

(the building takes shape)

(retaining wall shown in foreground)

(the view from the street)

Next phase will bring forming of the walls for the second basement level, ordering reinforcement steel and the new (for me) process of placing an order for the stone facade and overseeing that aspect of the construction work.