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22 April 2009 – Ring Beam Me Up

April 22, 2009 Greg Traverso Uncategorized

Hello out there,

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In my continuing, and only partially successful attempt to fill in the gaps for you in our construction process, here’s a look at how we made the ring beam. It had to connect all the interior and exterior walls and the thirteen posts in a continuous 200 x 300 mm (8″ x 12″) reinforced concrete structure that would tie the whole building together and give it lateral stability and weight bearing capacity for what was to go above it. It’s right on top of the walls and lintels and just below the gables.  Don’t worry, it will make sense as we go along.

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You remember that the poles look like this.

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We had to cut them all to the exact same height.

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And begin to connect them with 1″ x 8″ boards. Chiseled to mate with the round poles.

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This at times looked more like group dancing than carpentry.

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And involved a certain trust on the chisel holder’s part.

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Eventually, we had a very long, very high bench. Which one could sit on,

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or stand on,

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or invite a friend to.

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Before long it had sides

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and the bench became a flume.

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We added the steel reinforcing.

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It was time now for George the electrician to run the plastic conduit to all its places in the form.

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Meanwhile the excavator kept at it,

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and one late afternoon, we had a deepened and de-silted dam

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both of the building foundations excavated,

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a finished ring beam form,

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and the electrician was laying in the last of the conduit.

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We all called it a day and went home to eat and sleep and get ready to pour the ring beam concrete the next day.

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You can read all about that here soon.

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Your construction beat reporter,

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David

Comments(10)

  1. REPLY
    Ed Richardson says
    April 22, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    Dave,

    Outstanding job you guys are doing! Great photos and info on the on going project. keep up the good work!

    Ed Richardson

    • REPLY
      david says
      April 23, 2009 at 1:53 pm

      Hi Ed,
      Thanks for the encouraging words…out here where the buffalo roam…David

  2. REPLY
    Ed Richardson says
    April 22, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    Dave,

    Outstanding job you guys are doing! Great photos and info on the on going project. keep up the good work!

    Ed Richardson

  3. REPLY
    Ed Richardson says
    April 22, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    Dave,

    Outstanding job you guys are doing! Great photos and info on the on going project. keep up the good work!

    Ed Richardson

  4. REPLY
    Bob says
    April 22, 2009 at 7:06 pm

    If your ring beam compares to your sunset, you’re good…Bob

    • REPLY
      david says
      April 23, 2009 at 1:57 pm

      Hi Bob,

      I’m hoping that our ring beam, while not quite as beautiful as the sunset that day, will last a little longer. I’ll keep you posted, love,

      David

  5. REPLY
    Mandy Murray says
    April 23, 2009 at 8:53 am

    Beautiful…just beautiful. I wish I could be there to help.

    Mandy

    • REPLY
      david says
      April 23, 2009 at 1:58 pm

      Mandy,

      We’ll be here when you can slip away, and we’ll find you a pair of work gloves.

      David

  6. REPLY
    Bonnie Neuer says
    April 23, 2009 at 11:15 am

    Hi David,
    I am Greg’s Aunt Bonnie (Peggy’s sister) and I want to congratulate you and all the contributors to this construction! Your pictures are fantastic and I love watching this all come together.

    I also wanted to tell you about a young man I met recently at a meeting of an organization in Santa Barbara called “Network 4 Africa”. The young man that sat next to me was a Rwandan who is attending Daystar University in Nairobi. I showed him RROP’s news letter and told him all about RROP. He was very interested and I wrote down your name for him, as he knew where the other site of Daystar is, and therefore, knew pretty much where the orphanage is located. I’m telling you this in case he comes by to say “hello”. His name is Michel Nsengiyumva and he is a very nice young man. He was here visiting for three weeks, and it was his first time in the U.S. Hope you get a chance to meet him.

    Stay well, and we are all so grateful for what you are doing.

    Sincerely,
    “Aunt Bonnie”

    • REPLY
      david says
      April 23, 2009 at 2:03 pm

      Hi Bonnie,
      Thanks for keeping up with the goings on here. I’d be happy to meet Michel. If you are in touch with him, you can have him call me…0726 770 329.
      Best to you,

      David

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