More work pics

Here are a couple of pictures of a big concrete pour. What you see is a stair tower shaft. It is 16' tall and 12" thick. We poured two towers like this one and also an elevator tower that holds three elevators. The elevator tower is pretty complex because it has lots of embeds that will be used to connect the elevator equipment. They attach the embeds to the rebar before they pour and that way they are embedded in the concrete.

To pour these towers you have to pour from the top, which is 16' up. A pump truck is used to get the concrete from the trucks up to the top of the tower. They're pretty cool machines.

As you can see from the picture, the concrete trucks back up to the pump truck and discharge into a hopper that feeds into the line. The pump pushes concrete up the line and into the shaft walls. That isn't easy considering concrete weighs about 2,000 lbs per cubic yard!

This was the first of five stories. When it's all done the towers will be about 75' tall. I'm sure it will get more interesting the higher we get.

The last picture shows the workers placing the concrete. The hose hanging down is the end of the pump truck line, and if you look close you can see the concrete coming out of the end.

The guy standing at the far end is the pump truck operator. He has a little control remote hanging around his neck that he uses to direct the line, kind of like nintendo. (Maybe Brad's computer games can get him a job!) That way he can see what is going on and still direct the arm

of the pump truck.

The guys behind the worker holding the concrete hose are using a vibrator to consolidate the concrete so the settlement is uniform throughout

the wall. That way you avoid any weak spots.

I will post more pictures as we continue. We'll also have pictures of the baby's room soon. We are planning on painting this week.