Bond Beam Unveiled

After 2+ days of curing time the bond beam formwork is released and all of the metal infrastructure is cut flush.

Week 10

Week 10.  The major task of week ten was finalizing the bond beam formwork and pouring the beam.  There were a variety of other task begun such as scaffolding construction and column surfacing.

Bond Beam Pour

Once the formwork is ready to go concrete is mixed and poured.  The bond beam is poured in one shot with no seams.

Bond Beam Pour

One local trick seen above is to fill any large gaps with wet paper for the cement bags.  This is executed only where the bond beam dimension exceeds the minimum that is specified 20cm.

Week 9

Week 9:  This week interior and exterior walls block-work are completed (for the most part), four structural trusses are fabricated, and the bond beam formwork is installed and ready for concrete.  It is also James' last week on site, leaving John, Ethan, Giorie, Julie, Joao, and Eder.  A cold streak has subsided at least for now.  

Bond Beam Build

The bond beam formwork is made up of the column formwork that was salvageable.  A streak of cold and cloudy weather made it so more formwork could be reused.  The blistering sun often saps the moisture from the wood causing cracks and splits that compromise the integrity of the formwork.  (Note)  On the same note during the hot and sunny days, when formwork is dismantled it is beneficial to wet the exposed concrete a few times a day for a few days so the moisture is retained at a pace that increases the strength of the concrete.  Formwork joints are staggered from exterior to interior and a gusset is installed at each joint. 

Bond Beam Build

The thickness of the bond beam is consistent with the column at 15cm.  The wall thickness is 9cm.  Therefore the 6cm caibro (wood member) will suffice in padding out for the void that is created.  It is screwed to the bottom of the formwork on the interior side of the wall.  4/2 rebar is drilled through the formwork and bent over on each side to prevent a lateral blowout.  Additional cross members are screwed to the top and wire is wrapped completely around the formwork.  All formwork is flushed to the top and leveled from the top to ensure that the trusses and roof system plane out properly.  Shown above is the bond beam and metal retention members being bent with a pipe found on site.   

Bond Beam

The bond beam rebar infrastructure as shown above being installed by Ethan, Julie, and John. Each section is pre built by Joam and contains about twice as many retention rings as the vertical columns. Each vertical column has four rebar stub outs that tie the bond beam to the column and the bond beam will contain rebar stub outs that tie each truss to it.