01 February, 2010

Building conversations #2 - Poetic about a string


We are still at ground zero. We are going to construct the ground beams by connecting two pile heads. The concrete pile heads have been hacked to expose the steel bars. From these exposed bars we are going to tie up additional steel bars for beams and columns later. But there's something neat happening on site. At the level where the beams are to be constructed the hacked pile heads are properly boxed to maintain exact level. Now the tricky part is to place or align the formwork. For this fospa was glad that the contractor used the carpenter strings. Can't live without it.( See pictures above and below). Oh, ya mama too was curious whether the carpenter strings were aligned correctly (see inset). Now once you have the area of the ground beams boxed then later on you can place the ground beam bars squeezed in between the formwork ( not shown in the pictures here).
The earth in between two pile heads are evened out so that the formworks stay upright.

Once the formworks are erected, they need to be firmed and for this purpose small pieces of wood are used as bracing. Formwork need to be sturdy and firmly erected to support the pressure of concrete when poured later. Don't want the concrete to push out the formwork and mess the place, do we? Such hazards are costly and a total waste of time.
More formworks. More bracing.
OK, now's something going on in fospa's head. He's kinda poetic about the carpenter strings.
In fact, he has cracked a poem about it. Here it goes:
The point of it all

The craftiest of old hands
And latest survey know-how
Will meet to life's reliability,
On a busy construction site
When two strings cross
A perfect needle point
You get practical with life's problems
Through the ages of use
A philosophy of life
That answers the science of knowledge
With the simple wisdom
Of a carpenter's loving hands
Stick to the knitting
The tapestry of life
A vision statement
You would love to sing
And be practical with dreams
Like stretched yet flexible carpenter strings.
MOOD.
Remember me Inul?


2 comments:

  1. This was very interesting. Friends of mine are building a house, and now it is all at stand still as the ground is frozen solid.;)
    Have a lovely day.;)
    xo
    Zuzana

    ReplyDelete
  2. Buk Daisy, forever the supervisor... :) love u guys...

    ReplyDelete