It's dry, very dry. And not even that, it's hot, very hot. Although still winter..., temperatures raised during daytime to 40 degrees C (104 F) already. We are not looking forward to even higher temperatures soon with higher humidity as well. It is what it is and we have to deal with it.
We finished the steel framework (main beam structure) of the big 'middle' roof. Only some small anti corrosion painting work has to be done today. Because of too high temperatures we need to wait till around 5 PM because the steel is too hot.
Some explanation about this structure for people who are interested in the way we are building.
So, as told before, we made a kind of floating steel roof structure. Around the center part of the house the steel is connected with heavy anchors. The load bearing outside walls got a reinforced concrete top beam. Part of this concrete beam is a 2" x 1" steel beam.
The 'floating' part is constructed by welding a 1.1/4" x 1.1/4" square small pipe, on each side of the horizontal steel roof frame beam only connected to the steel beam being part of the concrete wall topping.
So, because of the high temperatures and the changing of temperatures the horizontal beams can expand and extract. To guarantee the beams long term doing this we installed Under each horizontal beam a slice of 4" x 6" nylon.
One of the pictures shows the details.
The corner structure is on the South-East and South-West side made of a double steel beam. Both 25% thicker steel than used for the other beams. Both sets of beams got a anti rust coating first before also connected together with bolts.
All the welding is done for this middle roof now. The still visible joints in the finished house got a special grinding and two components putty already. As told before, all the inside steel got a special red coating. The steel on the outside an epoxy grey coating.
So, we are ready to start this week with the higher roof. The roof in the middle of the house above the first floor (yoga/meditation) space. Yesterday we bought the steel for this part already. We need to clean and put the first layer of grey coating first and build a temporary safe construction to work. And again, because of the high temperatures we need to slow down.
Just after Carlien and her boyfriend left we went to the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) in Surin to check and be sure about the asked advise from PEA in Mae Rim some years ago.
Because of that advise we installed the (310 meters long) electricity lines in 35 mm2 aluminum and with a 15 Amp. electricity meter.
The same information we brought in two weeks ago in our discussion with PEA now told us actually this was not the best primary advise. To connect our house as well on the line we need to have higher electricity capacity. 2 New cables of 50 mm2 aluminum and a 30 Amp. meter. A bit sad because we could have saved ourselves not only money but also all the new effort again.
Because the house is not at all ready yet (will take about 1,5 more years) we do not need this to be done immediately. For now, we have enough capacity.
But still... because it's very dry now, trucks and a crane can reach our private electricity poles 'easy'. So we asked our former installation firm to come to discuss the best option and maybe will put the cables in within two or three months.
Frans & Phatsamon
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