Today was The Big Day where we actually poured the slab for the Trainbarn! A monumental amount of work had gone into all the preparation, and now we have a superb, flat, level, super-strong slab!! The guys- Webb Concreting- did a really excellent job, really couldn't have been better!! And many thanks to our builders Altitude 950 for bringing it all together and their encouragement generally!
The weather was perfect for the pour- cloudy so that the concrete didn't dry too quickly- and with the potential of rain tonight and tomorrow to keep it a bit cool and moist for a few days.
While it's 'just' the first stage of actual construction of the Trainbarn, it is probably the biggest and most important stage. No turning back now!! We'll let the dust settle for a while now before getting into the framing. We're using normal stud timber framing which will facilitate the eventual lining etc of the inside.
No-one could be more happy or excited about a slab of concrete than I am with this one!!
It's been an exciting and busy week, with the slab for the Trainbarn all set to pour on Monday. Block walls are up, filled with 200 cubic metres of fill, packed down, drilled, etc, etc!! It certainly will be strong!
It was one of those beautiful Granite Belt Autumn days today, getting cooler each night, but beautiful clear days. Let's hope it stays that way over the weekend!
I'm installing several electrical outlets in the slab so that there won't be any cords for people to trip over around the layouts. Our sparky had the clever idea to join them together to help their alignment in the wet concrete.
Here they are with their cover plates on, which will be removed when we're ready to fit the pop-up outlets. There will also be two above floor outlets, under the two 'permanent' layouts.
Although I've been watching all the concrete preparations intently there's nothing for me to be involved in, so I've been continuing the clearing along our main vehicle track, which is virtually the 'spine' of our property. The main object is to make the cleared track wider, so that we can get it properly surfaced, with deco, and install proper drainage. I've found it very interesting though, tidying up the bush further out from the track, removing all sorts of dead wood and thinning out the tea-tree. It's quite nice bushland, but in many places it just hasn't been visible before now.
An excellent week all round!!
Continuing on from the activity yesterday, here are some pictures of the building site ready for laying the blocks on Monday. The blocks are stacked ready to lay.
A closer view of the concrete footings with the 'starter' rods in place.
I couldn't resist playing adult Lego and stacking a few of the blocks up. There will be two rows of blocks at the front and then a 200mm concrete edge of the slab, so this photo shows the approximate height of the slab at the front. The verandah will be across the front here, and with the slope of the ground there will be two steps up from ground-level to floor level.
I love the bushland area where we live, and we normally see quite a bit of wildlife, mainly Eastern Grey kangaroos and various wallabies. Lots of the gumtrees have different types of caterpillars in them at the moment, and I happened to see this 'train' of a different type this morning. It was about 6m/20' long, not sure where it was heading, or what these hairy little guys will turn into, but here's a photo of the 'train' surmounting an obstacle.
There are times in life, though fortunately not too many, when I think that I may have bitten off too much. This morning was one of those 'moments'! Despite having a fairly good understanding of the building process, the sight of so much heavy equipment and so many highly competent men operating it all and working really hard made me somewhat intimidated. All this just so I can 'play' trains!!
We had good rain on Tuesday morning which really helped settle the fill, but it also turned our main access track into a sloppy quagmire. We had doubts whether heavy concrete trucks could even access the site, but it all worked out fine.
The day started early with marking out the site, followed by Frank in the Bobcat digging out the footing with his trenching attachment.
With all the reinforcing in place, after Council inspection, it was time for the concrete. We had to get a concrete pump to distribute the concrete around the site, and it was definitely the biggest one I have ever seen!
Once the concrete was poured, it was laser levelled with various 'steps' due to the sloping site, re-bar inserted for the blockwork, and concrete blocks placed ready for building up to slab height (two rows of blocks along the front). The blockwork will take place on Monday.
I like this picture looking through the formerly peaceful garden at the concrete truck and pumper.
It's all going very well indeed and I feel very grateful and 'spoilt' that so many people are working very hard in order that I can bring my dream of a place to show off my train collection to fruition.
As mentioned in the previous post here are two pictures of the 'pad' built in readiness for the foundations and slab for the Trainbarn.
It's all very firm and laser-leveled and now needs to be marked out again for the block-wall footings to be dug. The main display area of the Trainbarn will be 18.6 x 14 metres, with a 3 x 10 'workshop' annex on one end and an L-shaped verandah for the entrance.
It is said that a shed is never big enough, but I hope this one will be, for a while, anyway!
After the great start of the Trainbarn project on Monday, everything went quiet. Each day I was expecting action, but stillness prevailed. This was all getting a bit 'old', I'd have to say, but today the Trainbarn site exploded into activity!!
As the site is gently sloping towards the back corner it had to get built up into a level 'pad', before any further work could progress. So the trenches that were dug out (of loose rock) the other day were filled in with 'fill' and the pad built up to be level. This required a huge number of truckloads of fill.
This was then levelled out by our very capable Bobcat operator, Frank, until it now looks for all the world like it's going to be a tennis court! Buckley's chance of that!!
I'll post a photo of the end result tomorrow, as it has turned very stormy and dark, which is not conducive to photography! A bit of rain will be very nice, helping the pad to settle and stabilise ready for the next stage which is the block-wall footings.
Really, really, great to see the Trainbarn progressing! Unfortunately my Dad passed away last year, but I still think about him when exciting things like this happen, and I know he would have shared my excitement at this really excellent progress.
Today was the day that I've been looking forward to for many years! We finally started construction of the Trainbarn, here at our property Whistlestop! The site has been ready for quite some time and last week I marked out the outline of the slab and verandah with flouro marking paint. Today the mini-excavator arrived and made very light work of removing all the grass and topsoil from the site, removing a tree stump, and digging out the trenches for the block-wall footings. Here are a couple of photos before all the action started.
I love watching these highly-skilled operators use these machines, it's like they're part of the machine! The first thing he did was put a pick-like attachment on to rip up all the broken surface rock. Following that he dug out the block-wall footing trenches.
Here is a photo of the site all ready for the next step, which is bringing in lots of clean fill to build the pad for the slab up to the required level. I didn't want the slab right on the ground like a normal shed, I want to be able to step up onto it.
So, tomorrow is Bobcat and dump-truck day, bringing in and compacting the fill, then levelling it all out. After that we'll let it settle for a few days. Then the concrete-pouring starts, hopefully early next week.
I've waited a long time for this! I'm sure there will be many 'milestones' along the way, but today was most certainly one of them!
