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Thread: Man cave digout

  1. #61
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    Didn't mean to hit need pictures. Fingers too big.

    Ross

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  3. #62
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    We poured the concrete slab on Saturday. I was originally planning to get a contractor to do the slab, but in the end decided to go cowboy and do it myself, with help from two brother-in-laws. Once has some concreting experience, which was invaluable, and the pump truck guys were great. The concrete pour was completed in two hours. I did fall foul of a miscalculation in the volume of concrete (I have to take responsibility for this), and ran out 90% through the job, but a second truck came to the rescue with more concrete, and the job was finished with no ill-effects, other than a hole in my pocket. We did some hand polishing of the concrete, and that worked really well, so it’s looking pretty nice. Now I just have to water it for the rest of the week.

    Here some photos, before, during and after.

    IMAG1332.jpgIMAG1351.jpgIMAG1355.jpg
    Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.

  4. #63
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    When you water it, use a fine mist, if you use a hard spray it dilutes the cement out of the surface and the finish ends up chalky and also don't over wet it either as this will reduce the surface hardness and instead of 20mpa it will come in at 15 mpa or less in the top 20mm of the slab.
    The person who never made a mistake never made anything

    Cheers
    Ray

  5. #64
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    if you can cover it with a sheet of plastic after misting the surface, even better
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  6. #65
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    The slab has dried out nicely, and I’ve built the block walls. I’ve started core filling the walls, and bought some crystal-based water-proofing admix for the concrete. The block wall has a waterproof membrane on the outside, so that should be fine, but the other two walls and the ends of the block walls could do with all the waterproofing they can get. The admix should sort that out once and for all. As usual, there’s no entry for anything large, and the ‘slab’ walls need to be done in sections, so it’s not cost-effective to go with ready-mix and a pump-truck, so I’ve borrowed a mixer and I’m bucketing the mixed concrete into the room, and pouring it into the walls. I’m all set up and ready to run now, so this weekend should hopefully see some good progress on the remaining concrete work.

    G0433688.JPG
    Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.

  7. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by surfdabbler View Post
    ..... As usual, there’s no entry for anything large, and the ‘slab’ walls need to be done in sections, so it’s not cost-effective to go with ready-mix and a pump-truck, so I’ve borrowed a mixer and I’m bucketing the mixed concrete into the room, and pouring it into the walls.......
    Oh my word. You are doing every thing manually again.

  8. #67
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    Along with the core filling, I've been working on the rest of the concreting, to concrete the other two walls. These other two walls were dug down below the existing walls, and so the exposed rock needed to be stabilised and made nice. You can see the vapor barrier and reomesh in the photos. Adding the concrete involved wiring some formply onto the reomesh to hold the ply in place, and then filling behind it with concrete. I also did some sections just trowelling on the concrete directly to the wall and smoothing it. Because of the size of the wall, and the fact that it’s not totally flat, I decided to work it in sections, and move the formply as I progressed. This worked fairly well, but due to the dry mix, filling behind the formply didn’t always work so well. As soon as the concrete had setup enough to hold its shape, I removed the formply and worked it with a trowel to smooth it. I also allowed me to fill any holes while the concrete was still wet.

    I wouldn’t really recommend this way of working. Trying to get the perfect time to remove the formwork was quite tricky. Too early and the concrete slumps down too much. Too late, and it’s impossible to work it to smooth it. Also, even if you do get the perfect point, reworking the concrete can encourage it to slump back off the wall and crack. It’s probably better to work with a wetter mix, give the concrete the extra time to set before removing the formwork, accept a messier job of filling any holes (although this will be less of an issue with a wetter mix), and then render over the whole lot at the end to give it a nice finish. Anyway, the big concrete wall will be covered with a workbench, so the finish doesn’t matter. You can see the divide where the lower half was done a day earlier, but this will be covered by the bench.

    There is a section near the door where I did a whole section without formwork, because the surface is quite curved. This only worked because it’s at more of an angle than the rest of the wall. There were a couple of other smaller sections that were done outside the formwork, but even with a dry mix, I could only work about 100-200 mm up outside the formwork before the slump became a problem.

    Anyway, the concrete is all done now, and I could turn it into an indoor swimming pool if I wanted to.

    I’m waiting for the termite barrier to go around the top of the block wall today, and I then I can start adding the stud walls to the top half.

    IMAG1371.jpgIMAG1373.jpgIMAG1374.jpgIMAG1379.jpg
    Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.

  9. #68
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    I had a play with making some stairs today. I prototyped them out of formply, to allow me to experiment with different shapes and layouts before using nice timber. I had designed them to be a winding staircase, with different angles for each tread, and even considered rounded front edges on the treads. However, because the walls on both sides are uneven, the winding staircase just looked wrong. I think to look neat, it just needs nice even, straight treads, and then the ends can butt up against the uneven walls without looking messy.

    The other issue I came up against was the drainpipe, which was in the way of the second-to-top tread. With my original staircase design, the second tread was not an issue, but it turned out to be in the way of the new straighter design. I had to heat up the pipe with a heat gun, and then push the top of the pipe down flat to make room for the tread.

    I now have a prototype staircase to walk up and down during construction work. It’s pretty messy due to the prototyping process, but that doesn’t matter – it’s solid, and the fronts of the treads are in the correct position. Once most of the messy boots stuff is done, I’ll replace it with a nice hardwood staircase.

    IMAG1389.jpgIMAG1394.jpg
    Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.

  10. #69
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    If I may offer a suggestion and it also gets around a compliance with the NCC re doors and stairs.

    Make a 1000 x 1000 landing 1 step down from threshold of door then straight flight 900 wide down to floor, this will allow you to bypass the pipe and comply with all NCC codes.
    The person who never made a mistake never made anything

    Cheers
    Ray

  11. #70
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    Quote Originally Posted by rwbuild View Post
    Make a 1000 x 1000 landing 1 step down from threshold of door then straight flight 900 wide down to floor, this will allow you to bypass the pipe and comply with all NCC codes.
    I agree - this will make getting gear in and out of that space much easier.

  12. #71
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    Thanks. Yes, I did struggle with this requirement. Unfortunately, the ceiling height is also a major constraint on the stairs, as I am working to fit this in under a flight of stairs on the floor above. Placing a landing at the level of the top tread will mean I will bang my head (and shoulders) on the ceiling. Another option is to add a landing at the level of the bottom tread (i.e. make the bottom tread really big). It seems silly, but it would satisfy the requirements, as there are only a few treads above there.

    Anyway, the door there is for construction only, and will be removed. In the long run, if there is a door (and it would be nice to have one for dust and noise), it will probably be further back in the hallway behind, rather than right at the top of the stairs.
    Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.

  13. #72
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    I would try to avoid that BIG step. When using steps regularly you tend to use them without thinking. If you have one that is irregular that's the one that will trip you up every time. Don't ask me how I know.
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  14. #73
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    Quote Originally Posted by chambezio View Post
    When using steps regularly you tend to use them without thinking. If you have one that is irregular that's the one that will trip you up every time.
    Yes, I found this too, when I was experimenting with the winding stairs. I found I had to look at each step to walk on them. The straight and even stairs may not be 'awesome-funky', but they are neat, straight and predictable. On the 45, and against the angled walls, I think they will still look a "little funky". (The 45 also gives me the most headroom under the ceiling). They are slightly different size to the rest of the steps in the house (around 15mm higher and wider for each step), but hopefully this won't be noticeable.
    Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.

  15. #74
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    Termite treatment finally got done, and I framed up yesterday. The steel posts are in, and the acrow props have completed their three month task of holding up our house. Well done boys. Go have a rest now.

    The stud walls have been put in place, and I have to say it was nice to be working with wood again. I was going to start the FC sheeting the outside today, but ended up doing lots of planning, so on Monday I’ll be ready to go out and gather more supplies.

    Anyway, here's a progress photo. You can see now where the half-doors will be out the back of the cave...

    IMAG1397.jpg
    Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.

  16. #75
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    What a great job - I have a small idea of how hard this job was but you have stick to it and now you will have a cool shop in two senses of the word.

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