One Floor Up

December 27, 2008

Yesterday was the big day for the 1st floor pour. The crew had been framing it up and placing rebar for days (including two fellows working on Christmas). They used some planks and lots of plywood supported from below with rough-cut 2x4s and some small tree trucks as the horizontal surface, and wove in the criss-crossed rebar, tied into columns and previously-poured beams, and Alvaro the plumber/electrician placed the ceiling light boxes and related conduits.

Yesterday morning they worked on framing up the edges and the part of the terrace that overhangs the beams. That portion includes the steel for the round concrete posts for the railing, so I had to assure that one strategic post would be strong enough to support a hammock someday. There was a crew of about 12 working, double the usual. I went home to lunch with the intention to return to watch the pour.

It is a bit traditional to feed the crew after the pour, so I put off returning until after 3 PM, and made my way downtown to buy seven roasted chickens, 7.5 liters of pepsi, and 2 kilos of tortillas before heading back up. The crew had grown to about 18. It was like watching a machine, or a dance of hard labor. Five guys worked continuously loading up the gas-powered small mixer. #1 dumped it, turned it back and threw in a bucket of water. #2 swung a bucket of sand up onto his shoulder, carried it over and threw it in, then repeated this 4 more times. #2 and #3 filled buckets with round river gravel, lifted them and dumped them in, while #1 was adding the bag of cement it 2 halves, another 1/2 bucket and a bit more water, cutting open the next bag of cement, and watching the mix. #5 was bringing up water from the storage tank (tinaco) for the barrel #1 was emptying. #1 would crank the turning mixed up and over and dump it on the ground on the other side, and the process would start again. They used 40 bags of concrete.

On the other side of the mixer, two workers with square-front shovels continuously lifted mud into buckets, and five or six more guys swung them up on their shoulders and carried them over to the growing edge of the slab pour. Two masons plus Alvaro worked there, throwing water on the forms, rodding around with bits of rebar to work the mud into the columns, etc., and roughly working the slab surface flat. that only adds up to about 16 guys, but nobody was NOT working hard except me. All of this was done with virtually no discussion or orders. I'm sure there was some of that before I got there, but when I was watching everybody knew their job, and simply did it over and over without comment or complaint. Lencho wasn't even around most of the time, as he had to go get another load of water, and then one more. The only time the crew took a 15 minute break was when the water ran out and they HAD to wait.

They all use what appear to be normal 5 gallon buckets, but have been modified with a single dowel spanning a chord across about a third of the mouth. Using the dowel they can swing one up onto their shoulders in a single practiced motion, which looks efficient but lifting 20+ kilos to shoulder height is a lot of work no matter how efficient you get. One had leather shoes or boots, one had running shoes, and the rest had standard Mexican Construction footwear -- fully protective flip-flops. Nobody has gloves.

I think the slab weighs about 15 tons, and every ounce of it got lifted three times: on the way to the mixer, off the ground to the buckets, and again on the way to the pour. it sure seems like the local cement truck (there is one in town now) would be able to displace a dozen or so laborers cost-efficiently but maybe not, and what's the harm of providing jobs?

I assume the pour started about 2 PM and most of the work was done by 5:15, and I broke out the chicken and such. Since the crew had grown from the morning, I should have had a few more chickens but they were appreciated anyway. The masons did a rough troweling, to leave the floor fairly flat but rough enough to accept tiles (if it is too smooth they will chip it away later so the tile mortar can grip). They finished up and last of us left at about sunset. I have a floor, and the walls will start growing fast now.

It's been a while since I put in this link to pictures of the process so here it is again: http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/djlandwehr/Mexico%202008-9/