The Simple, Yet Mystifying Construction Experience

The class has been in the construction phase of the project for about two weeks. In the way things played out I was one of the first people to be on the site all day, and I've seen the process from the very beginning from laying out strings and measuring to pouring concrete, to where we are today about halfway through. I feel like even in this limited amount of time I have learned a significant amount about what it takes to turn a 2D drawing into a 3D reality. And here is some of that sage wisdom.

1) Having all the measurements of a design before you start building is really helpful. There is a certain amount of fixing in the field that I thing happens on any site, but really having nailed down the first time is a plus.

2) There is going to be a lot of shoveling. Dirt, gravel, crushed rock, sand, different colored gravel etc.

Yay shoveling!

3) Wafer cookies are absolutely necessary for a productive work environment. We buy them in a square foot package.

4) Gloves, wheelbarrows, even shovels cannot be precious. I've already gone through three pairs of gloves. One wheelbarrow popped a tire, the frame of another gave up after about the 1000th load of concrete.

5) Concrete, or at least the type we use is 12 scoops gravel + 6 scoops cement, with a splash of water and a cherry on top.

6) As far as I know the hole that a footing is without concrete is just a hole.

7) Once you put concrete in the hole with the intention of building something above it, it becomes a footing.

8) The metal part that holds the wooden post off the ground, away from the concrete/soil/moisture is called a post anchor.

9) Sawdust is the most heavenly smelling thing on a construction site.

10) Try to keep anything wooden off the ground so it won't come in contact with standing water and rot.

11) If a former patient who is now a maintenance guy invites you to his lair..(ahem) workshop to drink homemade Rakia, just say no. A lot.

12) If you crush a finger under a stone while building a wall, swearing loudly WILL make it feel better. Mythbusters proved it.

13) Wearing a tool belt with tools in it, even if you don't know how to use them all will make you feel like a badass. Knowing how to use them makes you an actual badass.

14) Don't breathe cement.

15) When your professor asks you to figure out the square footage of something, don't give him the linear feet. You will feel like a damn fool.

16) Curved structures, walls, boardwalks, plazas are WAY harder to figure out how to build than rectangular or linear structures. Curves are awesome and look very cool, but man, do they create a lot of issues in the field.

The design has a central circular paved plaza, to the right set into the hill is terraced stone seating with a larger upper paved area that will be under one a covered structure we have yet to start. A boardwalk will curve around the other side of the plaza meeting the seating area, also between the boardwalk and the plaza is a water feature. That's the simple version.
 We dug out pretty much everything with a backhoe, shoveled crushed rock into it and stomped it down. Then built the stone walls, poured concrete for the plaza, water feature and upper covered area. Then got most of the paving done in the plaza and and upper covered area.

We have a few volunteers that are very high functioning patients from the hospital. They are helping us as part of their occupational therapy so most of them have backgrounds in masonry and construction. For the most part they have been extremely helpful; they have built almost all of the stone steps in the seating area, a feat better left to professionals for sure. They show up in the morning, around the time we finish setting up, work hard and diligently all day and produce beautiful results. The work, they say (and I'm paraphrasing) gives them something singular to focus on, the only thing to worry about is exactly where to put the rock to make it fit. I'm pretty sure all of these guys are here for PTSD from the war but they don't like to talk about it much. They are mostly very friendly and excited to teach us how to do the work better.

We end each day about when it starts to get dark at 5:00pm, clean up, pack up, make sure all the sharp things are put away. But I've noticed that the further we get into the project, the more dangerous the site becomes. We keep it as safe as we can but still, at this phase in the project it's not exactly a safe place to be. So another thing I've learned is that construction, by nature is just plain dangerous. No one has gotten seriously hurt beyond a few squished fingers and some hauling soreness, focus is so incredibly important a second's inattention could have disastrous results.

With the stone and concrete more or less finished we have started moving into carpentry. The part I may be the most excited about, and I'm not going to lie, it's mostly because we get to use hammers. Now just hear me out about this. Hammers are one of the required tools we had to bring with us. Most people didn't bring them and bought them here instead. I however packed, schlepped on an airplane, hauled and lovingly carried my entire tool belt to the site every day since construction started. I need to use this freaking heavy piece of equipment.

We started building the forms for the concrete walls in the water feature this week; they are built out of plywood and boards and will act as a mold when we pour the concrete over the rebar. At the end we should have a beautiful set of walls. And I got to use my hammer, so I'm happy.

Aside from the forms, the boardwalk is starting to take shape, though it's held together with gigantic screws instead of nails. We have the vertical posts in, on top of which will go the horizontal beams, then the I guess z direction joists that connect the beams, with the boards on top of that. (woot vocabulary).

All in all, it's coming together, slowly but surely. We passed the halfway point this week and have five weeks left of construction, with one at the end for travel. I'm getting a little nervous though, the famous winds we've been hearing about started last week and have only gotten stronger. We took one morning off and Daniel gave lectures instead; but we can't substitute for construction every time there is a strong wind or we'll never finish the project. We might just be braving it in the end though.

This weekend we head on our longest road trip thus far to Osijek and Vukovar, and the weekend after is a wonderful surprise!