Column Construction: Rebar, Footers and Concrete

The guys are making some great progress on the cabin foundation. The concrete stuff is all new to us, so it has been quite the learning experience. Since we can’t actually drive to the cabin site, we opened up the fence in order to be able to drive the truck halfway there. This saved a lot of time, labor and heavy breathing going up and down and up and down with just buckets and a wheelbarrow. Though there was still some of that too.

Loading the rebar
Driving through the formerly fenced area

They worked a few days on the rebar for the columns, then they loaded them onto the truck as far as they could go and then carried them to the site.

Cutting rebar Stair work benchBending and cutting rebar for the column skeletons

Then they set and measured them to make sure everything was level again.

Rebar columns
Rebar columns

Truck down below
Unloading the truck and taking the sand two buckets at a time

Truck loaded up
Good thing we have a truck! It was super filled with sand, boards, and concrete

Finally, they had unloaded everything to the flattest part of the quebrada under the canopy and by a pretty mango tree. Here they built a mixing platform and began to hand mix the concrete. Luckily the three hoses reached because we had hooked up water to the turkey coop!

Mixing concrete
Mixing in the shade


Sounds like the start of a good joke: Four guys and four turkeys make concrete in the jungle…

And then they were able to load up the buckets once again and haul them up the hill to the site where they dumped them into the holes to make the footers.

Footers
Zapatones/Footers

We had a huge rainstorm that caused a bit of a delay, but they were able to finish all the footers in one day. Next in line will be the column molds and repeating the hauling and mixing process for them as well.

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2 thoughts on “Column Construction: Rebar, Footers and Concrete

  1. Eggy

    Guys, I suggest making a trip to homedepot and rent out an electric cement mixer for a couple of days. It’ll save you quite some hassle. Take care and remember, safety first always…

    Reply
  2. Britton

    We definitely wanted to. We don’t currently have electricity to the site and when we talked to the guys they said they didn’t want one anyway! Plus the sturdy mixers are quite heavy because they are built on their own trailer. There isn’t a road that goes all the way to the site either. So we have a few complications that make doing it the old fashioned way the best choice. I had a moment where I envisioned how the Aztecs built their temples, with hard work thru the jungle…lol

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