Finally the concrete for the foundation of the main house is poured.

It's a matter of checking the weather forecast for our area on a daily base and checking the strength of the main dirt road to our site and at the land. 

The strip-foundation (40 m2, 20 cm thick) needed nearly 8 m3 concrete (all together around 20.000 kg). Reason we discussed with the concrete firm to deliver with 3 instead of 2 trucks (3, 3 and 1.9 m3). Safety first. Afterwards it worked out to be the right decision. 

Yesterday evening I checked with the laser again the formwork planks to be 'spirit level'. Had to do some repairs after the strong and heavy rains of the last weeks again. 

Tonight the forecast is we get heavy thunderstorms again. So, again all good things come in threes) I decided to pour concrete today. Phatsamon was not really happy with it and worrying a lot about the strength of the dirt road and the land. 

We are waiting now for over three weeks for pouring concrete and other orders (like hollow core slabs prestressed floor elements and wall blocks, are waiting to be delivered. 

There is also an 'emotional' aspect. We/I wanted to start with the main house in November this year. A lot of unexpected things that brought a delay (the extreme wet weather, the French drains that needed to be installed as we discovered during the excavator work, etc.)

We ordered an exceptional strong quality of concrete (nr. 8 out of 11 classes with 375 kg cement per cubic meter). Even the concrete factory asked us what we wanted to build ;). It's 'Russian attack proof' and actually used for high rising buildings here in Thailand but, only for a little bit more money, I wanted to use this quality. It worked out in a couple of hours it was already very strong (so called 'Green strength' and I showed Phatsamon this evening it's also very warm, nearly hot, because of the chemical process going on.

We ordered the trucks at 1 PM, 2 PM and 3 PM.. The company was amazed by that because we only worked the two of us. The first truck arrived on time. The second took a half hour longer (happy to have a short break working at a temperature of 35 degrees C in the shadow (what about climate change?), and we had to work in full sun. 

The concrete vibrator helped a lot to take air out of the concrete and make it stronger. Phatsamon was again of great help and did a good job. 

The first truck (nr. 63) driver was the same we met during pouring concrete for the workplace/storage. Very calm, listening, an good experience. It worked out the road and our site were strong enough to carry the weight of 7.5 tons of concrete and the weight of the truck. 

The second truck (nr. 60)  driver we met around one year ago. Also a good experience although he arrived a bit too late (The first pouring already started to dry) but we managed. 

The third truck (nr. 58) arrived around 4.30 PM so very late and... got stuck in the land at our site. 

A bad experience, Phatsamon was right. Partly we could use an extension gutter to pour the concrete. After that... wheelbarrows again. With this temperatures not a nice experience. 

Phatsamon, as well as I, were very tired already. It worked out we got a lot of 'left over' or 'spare' because the company wants to be sure they deliver the amount ordered. So this time 3 times 'left over'. A lot of concrete. 

During pouring the concrete of the second truck... again rain. It felt more as a blessing from above. 

At a certain moment, after we finished the job and we also finished some 'extra' small jobs (two concrete platforms for the sewage system /septic tanks and an extension of the back site floor of the TED's), I decided to drop the left overs in 'Elephants poo hills' around our place I can cut into pieces to strengthen the dirt road because of a loss of energy. 

Afterwards a bit sad because we had enough 'free' leftovers to pour a small entrance road to the house of Phatsamon's mom. Next time. 

The rice farmers were drying their harvested rice at the road where the trucks passed. Sitting, drinking Thai whiskey and having a good time. 

Every time I went on the scooter to accompany every truck from the provincial road to our site. 

The third truck amazed them. Our village soon thinks we are building a huge house (not true) and we have lots of money we can afford three concrete trucks at a time (also not true). Just new energy to feed the village story of us. We love it. 

After dinner, in the dark,  I leveled the concrete again to make it more easy to do the block laying in about a week. It worked out the foundation already is very strong. No problem for the next thunderstorm to arrive. 

Now we go to sleep. I think we will sleep as a baby. 

We just discovered Kadhow walked through the just poured concrete behind the TED's. Not possible anymore to get his footprints out. Maybe later a place to remember ;). 

Update Wednesday morning November 30 2023/2565:

This morning is curing the concrete over and over again. I will take the formwork of and clean it for the next user as quickly as possible because the temperature is very high and the concrete is in full sun. After that we will put tarpaulins during the daytime for a couple of days after watering the fresh concrete. During the night we take it off so the concrete can breath a bit. 

Kadhow and Cupid are relaxing and following all we do.  

Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Extreme wet 'dry' season

Yesterday it seemed today all signs were getting 'green' for pouring the concrete for the foundation of our main house to build. 

We made pre-arrangements with the concrete factory in ordering three trucks for delivery this afternoon. We repaired some too big holes in the road to our site, put collapsed electricity lines of a house at a road in the village up so the trucks could pass and last night checked and leveled with the laser exactly the formwork. 

Sadly it worked out last night the dry season did not arrive at all already. At 3.30 AM extreme heavy thunderstorms and waterfalls of rain again. This heavy rains lasted for about two hours and we can start over again. It looks like a kind of Monopoly game: "Go back to start. You do not have to go to prison". No fun but nothing to do about it. 

The road and our land are mud again. In two hours an empty bucket half full of water shows the amount of rain the soil has to deal with again. And although the drains work well the soil is oversaturated of water again now and needs time again to dry.

It's a bit sad but nothing else to do than to wait for at least another week and to put ordered deliveries on delay. Dry days will come again so the work can and will be done. A trigger at resilience...

Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

 

Not sit still but we have to wait till long time dry weather.

Yesterday evening again heavy rain showers. Late afternoon we went with the truck to buy some steel for the roof construction of the workplace/storage and to bring the garbage away to the city. On the way back black clouds and another more than one hour waterfall that changed the road to our site to a mud field for days. Again we have to wait longer for pouring concrete for the foundation of the main house. 

We need three trucks and the weight of the trucks is to much for the dirt road and the road at our site to carry. 

Today we finished the wire mesh and rebar steel braids Great results. Thick plastic to protect water of the fresh poured concrete to flow into the underlaying soil. We even, with a magnet, took the left-overs of steel wire we used to braid out of the form. 

The only thing to do now is to close some small gaps still there in the formwork with special concrete plywood. We need to wait with that till around one day before pouring. Otherwise the termites already eat all this plywood.

We finished the inside roof of guest pyramid II and worked on block gluing of the workplace/tool storage. This place we need to be covered with a roof and place the door (already arrived) to get rid of the storage in pyramid II so we can finish this one. 

So, working on three things at the same time. Not really my/our thing but it just happened to be so because of the weather and we want to go on making progress although the weather circumstances are bad. 60 x 8 cm 

Last week we ordered 33 sheets of 'prestressed hollow core-slab" elements (400 x 60 x 8 cm with 8 pre-stressed steel bars each) for the ground floor. A special production order that needs one month to be delivered. We think we need a special crane for placement but first need to install the foundation blocks (already arrived), basic sewage system and electricity lines, one week after the concrete pouring of the foundation.   

 Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

 

Start of a second rainy season this year?

Let's start with good news. Unexpected the boss of the Orbortor (Local government with (not only) the responsibility of checking and granting requests for construction work) visited us late afternoon of Saturday November 5th. He was very interested in our progress and made some pictures. Also he wanted to know the situation of the dirt road to our site. Who knows some progress will be made next year. Nice he came to visit to experience with his own eyes what we are doing at our nice place. 

A bit sad news, especially for the farmers, is that for two days again we got heavy rains during the late afternoons and night. Sad for the farmers because they are in the process of harvesting and drying their rice on the streets in the village. A hard process as everybody can understand during heavy thunderstorms. Rice is floating instead of drying and three days of this weather is enough to destroy all the harvest. Also sad the straw left overs after cutting the rice in the fields, needed for the cows during the period they have to be in their stables, will start to rot. 

We think, brand-new and who knows thanks to the climate change, the second rainy season of the year started. We are in lockdown again... two trucks today (one of them with a rice harvest machine who had to unload because of heavy weight) were stuck in the mud at the dirt road and also we cannot drive the scooter through the thick layers of mud. It feels a bit being back in monsoon time again. 

During digging of the construction site for our main house we discovered the extreme amount of rainwater this year had problems to leave our land. Reason why I thought about a solution to get rid of it in a good and quicker way not to disturb the foundation. Instead of a so called 'French drain' I made a modified 'French drain' construction with pipes with inspection possibility that we put deep underground surrounded by gravel and connected with a drain-pipe to drain the groundwater to the rice field. Today we finished this very hard job of digging and installing up till 1.5 meters under the surface of the underside of the foundation to pour. We also discovered, thanks to the rain, the system works great. 

We intended to pour concrete last Friday but did not succeed to finish the drain system. Temperatures of 36 degrees C did not support us to dig nearly thirty meters of pipe by hand deep into the land quickly. And after that... the rain stopped us to place the formwork we rented. Still we have to put the wire mesh and rebar in. With the weather and road conditions this present moment we will have to wait a long time to get the road and our land strong enough to receive three concrete trucks we need. So, we have to wait for a weather change and rent the formwork a bit longer. Something that does not give any problems. It's not possible at all to pour concrete for the foundation now. 

Writing this blog now it's nearly 10 pm and our land is flooding again. And rain will go on. The weather forecast shows starting November 20 another week of heavy rainfall is arriving. We hope the forecast is wrong. This is totally unusual for this time of the year. 

Already two weeks we are waiting for a quotation for the hollow-core pre-stressed concrete slabs. Also no problem because we cannot place them at least within one month. 

Our main water pressure pump broke down. Happy this pump has a special safety for overheating and switched off. I had to take apart the pump piece by piece and finally discovered the inside of the pressure switch did not function anymore because of chalk. All together this took nearly three hours to repair but it's working great again.   

Wonderful to have no schedule so no stress only a bit sadness because after a long period of stop and go during the rainy season we want to go on now again. Still lots of other work to do in our process as well. No time to sit still.  

Working modified 'French drain' system

Morning of November 15 2023.
Collapsed rice at Phatsamon's rice field after the thunderstorms of last night. 

 Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

 

All good things come in threes

For the foundation and the workshop walls already we ordered blocks, glue and also already the DOS 50 liters underground grease-trap for the main house to install. Delivery had to wait because of the poor condition of the road and our land after the monsoon. 

Two days ago we got a call if delivery was possible. I thought it would not give a problem anymore also because of the experience with the concrete truck last Monday afternoon. The company asked us if a truck of 6.2 x 2.4 meters could enter our construction site. No problem and, the same company delivered to us before so they know the place.

Yesterday morning a truck arrived. It worked out the truck was over nine meters long. Only the loading space was 6.2 x 2.4 meters. Just a matter of miscommunication. The driver tried two times but not possible to enter our gate. So he had to go back to the company site to reload for two deliveries with a smaller truck. 

In the afternoon the first smaller truck arrived. It worked out the load was too heavy and one rear wheel sank into the land because nearly all the load was at the rear axel. Two pallets had to be unloaded again at places not logic in relation to the block laying process. But it is the way it is.

All good things come in threes. This morning the third truck came to deliver another three pallets without much problems. So we are surrounded by six pallets of blocks at our land now. 

We are working on the second pyramid guest room again and creating the small 2,5 cm thick cement spacers for the rebar and wire mesh for the foundation of the main house to create.  

The concrete workshop floor is doing great after three days watering and being covered with tarpaulins during the day. 

Truck 1 (over 9 meters)

Truck 2

Truck 3

Spacers

Grease trap

 Frans Captijn

email:   pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com