As some of you may be aware, Da and I had a short break back in Oz in the second half of April, first stop Sydney, then down to Melbourne to spend some time witth my sons and their families - loved seeing my grandkids again, and my 2 yo grandaughter for the first time. Cheapest flights to Sydney were with Jetstar ex Phuket, so we had a four day hol there before heading to Sydney.
- The reason for the Sydney trip
I am the old geezer wearing the mortar board. So chuffed that one of my best mates of 25 years (a General Manger at Sydney Airport) and his partner took time out of their busy schedule to spend the day (and night) with us. Back to the build:
Thought that with the simple instructions I left, they would be able to proceed with three courses of blockwork on the wall while I was in Oz. But no - here is the pic that the builder sent me to show the progress. Where are the vertical starter bars? Where are the weep holes in the bottom course? No mortar between blocks, just the keyway plugged. Blocks stacked, not offset - WTF?? STOP. Don't do any more - wait till I get back.
There are always work arounds, so this is how we addressed these issues. We inserted the starter bars as we core filled the blocks (which I had wanted course by course). We cut holes in blocks in the bottom course to accommodate 80mm drain pipes thru the wall, supplemented by a slotted longitudinal pipe draining out into the paddy field.
As the blocks are reinforced both vertically and horizontally, and core filled with concrete, the stacked blocks will be OK. In contrast, this is what I asked for (and got in the back wall, after I returned).
A couple of pics of pouring the 40 x 40 cm garage columns.
And finally, the garage wall columns wrapped in plastic film.
One of the locals came over and, seeing the size of the columns, asked (tongue in cheek I'm sure) if we were building a temple. 555
OK, now you have it completely up to date - the rain gods have intervened again with an early wet season - I am not sure when we we can move forward again.