www.ConcreteCottage.com
Main Home Current Home for Sale In
Peninsula, Gulf Shores, AL
First Course of DAC-ART dry stack hollow concrete blocks
This is our first load of blocks that our house
is going to be made from. Quality control was assured by the manufacturer, so we
accepted delivery without inspecting the blocks. We later determined that some
of the blocks were too big and some were too small. Some were suppose to have
electrical boxes pre-cast from the factory but they were not.
The long blocks weigh over 1000 lbs. and must be
lifted and positioned by very heavy equipment. We used a Lull initially and
later switched to a crane as the height of the house increased.
We had to put small plastic spacers (shims)
underneath the blocks to make sure that there is a place for grout and to assist
in leveling the blocks. When the backfill concrete is poured into the block's
interiors there is a lot of
pressure. You have to make sure that the grout that goes in the space between
the blocks is good and hard to prevent
any seepage between the blocks. Also, with a house this tall, we have to be
really mindful of keeping things level since if we were off level at all, the
error would be multiplied as we go higher.
The above photo shows the small plastic shims that
are used to level the DAC-ART man-made stone blocks.
We are installing the first course of blocks
before pouring the slab. The blocks themselves will serve as our form to hold
the slab in place during pouring. The slab is 8 inches thick and reinforced with
very thick rebar. This is to allow heavy equipment to be driven onto the slab
during construction. We had to block the openings for both the functional garage
doors and the fake ones on the other wall during the pour.
People often wonder what the cost of DACART
Blocks is. For this house the cost of the blocks alone is aprox. $238,000.
Photos by Jerry Nasello
You can support this website by
starting all Amazon purchases here, just click thru our link :o)
04/27/2008
Site Map
Privacy Policy
Copyright 2005-2008
Fort Morgan Web Development,
Inc. -- All Rights Reserved
FortMorganInc@gmail.com
