Blown away!

I was at my computer at 8.00 am this morning working on yesterday’s video when I was surprised by not one, but two enormous ready-mixed concrete trucks arriving outside my caravan.

One drove down forwards and the other backwards so they ended up being parked back-to-back. The reason was that the first one was equipped with a concrete pump while the second contained the concrete that would be delivered into the column holes from yesterday.

The idea was for the second truck to pour its concrete into the hopper of the first which could then deliver it where needed through the long boom of its pump.

The driver of the first truck initially began pumping the concrete into the column holes while controlling the whole operation using a portable remote controller. About half an hour after he’d started he was joined by the foreman from the contractor who was accompanied this time by a different No. 2 who assisted and also became very busy adding the steel reinforcing as and when it was needed.

As soon as the pumping was completed the second truck left for its next job leaving the pump truck behind to be cleaned up before it too departed. The site was then ready for the next operation.

This consisted of inserting vertical reinforcing rods into the now-curing concrete columns that will be used to connect them to the horizontal beams I expect and setting up marker strings around the outline of the house and what will be the positions of the beams ready for the next stage.

Everything was over and done by just after 10.00 am, so yet again in just over two hours. I am blown away by the speed of progress over the last few days and how quickly and thoroughly things have been done. Amazing!

Here’s the video that tells the story of today.

The other thing that blows me away is to see something that was originally just an idea in my head and a design on my computer actually becoming a reality right in front of my eyes. It’s an extraordinary experience, one that I’ve not experienced before on such a scale and incredibly satisfying 🙂