Alongside these routine activities one extraordinary one was quietly taking shape. All day long the shuttering for the plinth that would support the water tanks 2.5m in the air was being prepared. This was no easy task as we would only get one chance to pour the concrete and the framework had to support the 2 tonnes of wet concrete until it dried. Once dry, the reinforced slab would have to support the 9 tonnes of water that we planned to put on top of it – no small feat.Whilst the concreting of the courtyard, painting and the beginning of plumbing all went well, the shuttering took far longer than expected and other cutting of the steel reinforcements was delayed when our hacksaw and one blade became almost impossible to use.
The concrete was going to need 3 days to set before we dare place the water tanks on it so it was crucial that we lay it today. When it reached 5.30pm and we still hadn’t poured any concrete this seemed quite unlikely. Had it not been for the fact that the concrete was already mixed this may well have been left until first thing tomorrow. Pouring started at about 6pm in the end with the light about to fade. Very quickly light became an issue for us and our very helpful bus driver (who mixed concrete all day for us anyway!) moved his bus so that we could illuminate our work area with his headlights.
There was a certain amount of Dunkirk spirit at the end of the day as we worked in the darkness to pour the last of the slab. The boys were dog tired but in tremendous spirit even at the bitter end. Although they had worked a 10 hour day with time only for a packed lunch they were in better humour in the bus on the journey back to the hotel than on any previous day.
The slab was the last major engineering hurdle and provided we can devise a clever way to get the solar panels up on the roof the project is well placed to complete all the tasks we planned to.
Excellent to read your news - great to see that the work is progressing well!
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