Sunday, February 27, 2011

Building Mexico Update



Almost a year ago I did a post on the typical building style here
which is a concrete post and beam with brick infill.

Please refer to Building Mexico from February 23th, 2010
 to see the beginnings of the above house.

In this post we will concentrate on the bond beam.



They must have stopped construction till this winter
 because they had just started back working 
when we got to Alamos, Sonora back in January.

Construction loans are not common here 
so what seems like a long time 
and stopped construction is merely waiting to save
 more money for the next phase.

The photo above shows the rebar in place
 ready to form up for the concrete bond beam.


This is the standard style of building here
 so they are quite adept at tying rebar.

Notice how often they have the ties
 connecting the four strands of rebar.


The posts are tied in with the bond beam.


Next the form boards are put in place...


...and adjusted for the pour.


As is common all the mixing is done on the ground by hand,
using 5 gallon buckets to haul sand, gravel and the mixed concrete.


The concrete has been poured
 and the form boards have been removed.

The unfinished post below the end of the bond beam
will be poured after the brick wall on the left is finished.

More in the next post.