Cajun Siding

Have you ever had blackened catfish?  Its good - blackened siding is too.

Typical of Bramel's approach to innovation and anything but production methods, the siding at ground level is cedar that has been charred with a torch.  Excess char will be wire brushed or power washed off which leaves a raised grain and hardened surface that will be extremely durable.

The shiplap boards are torched before being fastening on the wall, as doing it in place would be just asking for trouble - the objective is blacked, not flambé.  The guys were joking about bringing hot dogs for lunch tomorrow though.

Front Windows at Parkview

Today the glass went into the aluminium frames on the front of the first unit.  It is in fact a commercial curtain wall which fronts both the 1st and 2nd floors.This faces Stirling Park across the street and will fill that end of the building with green views.

Phoenix Glass and Aluminium brought in a hydraulic lift to raise the aluminium frame into place yesterday and today put in the glass.  These machines are incredible and it seem to be easy to learn how to use.  Like a lot of the increasing mechanisation in construction, the efficiencies and safety make it well worth renting the equipment.

Wednesday's Pour

Yesterday was a big day on the Parkview project.  The street was closed to allow a big concrete pump truck to set up to place concrete in the next two foundations and floors in unit 3.  The floors will be heated by hot water circulating through a series of looped plastic embedded in the concrete.  yesterday the pumper delivered concrete through a window on each level where it was spread, levelled and then power trowelled.  In a couple of weeks it will be honed, but even today they look fantastic.

The next operation was placing the concrete in the Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)  forms for unit 2 and 5's foundations.  This was a little nerve-wracking as they are at least 10 feet high and if done to quickly could potentially burst open.  They were well braced and by placing a 4 foot lift first and letting it set a little, the forms were able to accept the second, top-up lift.

Windows at Parkview !

The window frames arrived last week are installed in the first unit.  There is plastic sheeting on the outside as with these high quality commercial steel frames the glass is installed in place.  This, at least made lifting the large sizes them up along the outside wall practical. These rooms will look east towards PArliament.  There is a great view of the city skyline and Peace Tower through the enormous sliding doors up in the penthouse.

Drywall is mostly complete, except for some interior walls.  The first floor, which will be the kitchen and living space is not yet primed, but with windows across the entire end wall and 10 foot high ceilings it will be a very bright space.

The next stage will be to install the heating pipes and pour the concrete floors. Then interior walls, cabinets and such can be installed.

Decking the Penthouse Floor

The penthouse on the rear of this first semi-detached building at Parkview was finished last week.  I was able to position myself there and view across to the guys working on the front side facing Stirling-Carruthers Park across the street.  These homes will enjoy calming tree house type views into the upper branches of the trees.

The penthouse walls step in from the first three floors and will sit on steel beams to carry that load.  All the joists are web trusses, which not only results in higher ceilings, as they are just 10" deep are spaced on 1 foot centres to provide the stiffness required for the heated concrete floors. The other benefit is that it will be very easy and fast to run the electrical wires as as well the high volume air conditioning ducts and flexible plumbing hose.   It looks like they are a week away from topping off the building and once the framing is inspected, we'll be seeing some other trades on the job.

Oh, and no, the carpenter poking up through the joists on the right isn't really standing on some one's shoulders - he was on a properly secured ladder.

Stirling Roofscape

The guys are starting to deck the third floor. I wasn't comfortable to climb up there to sketch so contented myself with the view form the second floor.  This will be the view from the rear bedroom. The Hintonburg roofscape is charming and the Peace tower is quite prominent. We realized recently that the views from the roof deck will include not only Parliament Hill, but likely the Gatineau Hills as well.  Spectacular.

Marty and Mike, the two lead carpenters, had hung the trusses for the third floor and rear deck and had just discovered a slight discrepancy in the side wall lengths - like an inch over 40 feet.  True to form the conversation was, "find out where the mistake is and we'll fix it".  Cabinet making 30 feet off the ground.

Hanging Steel

These buildings are complex.  They have a hybrid structure of reinforced concrete, steel beams and posts and wood framing.  The steel beams are incredibly heavy so Bramel had to bring in a crane.  They were placed on temporary wood cradles and Fluxworx welded them together.  The carpenters are looking forward to putting up permanent walls after all this temporary false work, forming and bracing.

I stood well back. I don't like being under heavy things swinging through the sky.