Like a giant Meccano set

With the holiday break behind us the action on ‘The Block’ is picking up. Early January the scaffolding was put in place, then from that point on there didn’t appear to be much happening. However, we were assured there was plenty going on behind the scenes.

Sure enough, the activities during the past ten days have proved the point. Most of the steelwork has been delivered on site, and is now in the process of being erected. The site resembles an oversized meccano set with approximately 38 separate steel beams to be assembled to create the complete upper level subfloor.

Steel and timber - starting to take shape!

Interestingly, the hot dip galvanised beams which support the deck area needed extra work after coming back from the galvanisers. The C-Section beams for the deck area have the ‘tags’ for the floor joists welded on one side which tends to bow them slightly, but this is accentuated once they have been hot dip galvanised. These beams then needed to be run through straightening rollers to bring them back into line. The end result is quite amazing. Everything is fitting together like a well-made jigsaw puzzle.

While the engineers are assembling the steelwork, the builders are progressing with the internal framing for the lower level so, within the next ten days we will have the complete subfloor in with all the timber floor joists in place. During this time the bricklayers will also make a start on the lower walls, so it is really coming together well.

The scaffolding and framing going up.

The carport and ground floor are well on the way.

The troops, hard at work.