Road reconstruction

While browsing through my computer I've found some pictures of road that we were reconstructing about 5 years ago. So I said to myself that those pictures wouldn't be bad to post on this blog. So here they are below.

Before the reconstruction the road was in very very poor condition. Old asphalt was cracked so badly that you could barely driven it with a bit lower car. So the municipality decided to build a better road for their citizen =)

Old asphalt was thrown out, we made a new drainage, build a sidewalk, we hardened the road and layed new asphalt surface. Plus many other smaller things that you really can't predict before the work doesn't start.

So here are some pictures during construction:

New drainage

New shafts

Shaft for drainage with a cost iron lattice

Replacing "foundation" of the road

Loading the last truck with a non-load bearing floor

Concrete curb for a sidewalk

Laying curbs

Finishing the road before laying asphalt

Now after 5 years road is exactly in the same condition as it was at the first day when it was reconstructed. And in that condition should stay for many more years/decades.

Paving a houseyard (fast)

This houseyard we paved few months ago. First we had to make a finalization of terrain and then we started to lay down the pavement. This one is brand Semmelrock which I can say that are definitely one of the best on the market. You can see two movies below but don't think that we did all that in such a little time ;=)

And one more thing: this pavement is heavy almost 25 kg / piece (one element) =) Thickness is 8 cm. Fortunately we ate good every day so we could transfer those heavy elements!

And some pictures of the same yard:

Starting

Still starting =)

Almost finished

Cutting at the edges

That's it. Pictures and movies are copyrighted by the owner of this house. So here goes special thanks to him for that media =)

Be good! ;=)

Exterior arrangements

In this post I will show you how we arranged the exterior of two residences. They are located in the same village I live in. They are both made for real-estate market and built under very high standards. Their investor didn't save money on materials so at the end he got two very "green" buildings. Our task here was to make the exterior look modern, simple and quality. Exterior is yet not finished because the investor wanted to have his buyer enough free space to customize his own backyard and frontyard as he wants. All the pavement bricks are brand Semmelrock which are known by very good quality (and high price of course =D ).

I know that in my other article I told you that the best looking shafts are the one with inox cover on top but in this case the investor decided to have some standard covers that are usually used for asphalt surfaces. But still, if you cut the bricks accurate it still looks pretty good. 

Now you decide how these two buildings look like for you =) Click on the picture for a bigger version.

Natural stone 1

Natural stone 2

Wood 1

Wood 2

And you can believe me that the interior is also amazing. Plus the view that you get from the upper floor and balcony... just great ;) Unfortunately I don't have those pictures but I think you can imagine =)

Protecting a concrete wall

During several years of exposure concrete to weather conditions (sun, rain, snow, ice,...) we have to take care of concrete as good as we can so it can be like new for next 10, 20 years. It is hard to rehabilitate the concrete so quality that we can guarantee those 20 years. But it can be done.

First (and probably most important) thing is to clean the surface the best we can. Here is highly required a pressure washer. And not some hobby line program ;)

Next. In most cases we have to protect the steel reinforcement first (if there is any to protect, if not, then skip this part). Here we used Mapei Mapefer 2K anti-corrosion cementitious mortar for protecting steel reinforcement rods.

Then we prepare the surface for applying the mortar. We saturate the surface with water but not so much that it stays on it. Now we apply the mortar as final layer. We used Mapei Mapegrout BM. It is 2K thixotropic mortar with low modulus of elasticity for the repair of concrete.

If we do all of these steps right and quality, the concrete should look like new for many years or even decades.

And of course, here you have few pictures:

When surface is cleaned, we apply anti-corrosion mortar.

Funky blue ;)

Applying main mortar for repairing the concrete.

Final look.

There are a lot of different manufacturers of those concrete-repairing mortars. In this case I decided to use Mapei. You can use the same or any other as long as you know it's quality is not questionable.

Covering the shaft

We all know that the shafts in our outdoor house area are necessary. Electrical, drainage, sewage, plumbing, etc. All of these things need sooner or later a shaft. When the direction is changing, when there is a 90 degrees angle or just simply for accessing the channel for maintenance. And there is a good way in the house yard with which upper cover can we hide this shaft as much as we can. It is a sort of INOX cover (made from stainless steel). We usually get them in most often dimensions: 30x30 cm, 40x40 cm, 50x50 cm, 60x60 cm and 80x80 cm (and also others). With those dimensions we can usually cover mostly all of the shafts.

The best thing of these covers is that the aesthetics is not corrupted. If it is well installed you can barely see the cover. We use these kind of covers usually when we are laying the concrete bricks or plates but can be also used when laying other materials.

Chech lower pictures for a better understanding (these house yard was made approx. 3 months ago):

A cover is installed (layed on a concrete) and we also fill the inner part with a concrete. Along the sides of a cover we cut the bricks so they fit to the cover.

We start to lay down the inner bricks

Almost finished

All the bricks are layed now.

Grouting...

Done! There is a cover on this yard. Can anyone find it? =)

Ok, you've probably find it. But still, pretty good looking isn't it?

In this case we couldn't install the cover in the same direction that the bricks are layed down because of the shaft. But that really isn't such a bad thing. All you have to be carefull is that you use a strong concrete in the cover so it can be driven over a car (or something bigger =D ).

Have a great day! ;)

Raising the concrete wall

Two weeks ago we had to reconstruct and existing road. Along the whole road there was also an existing concrete wall that was on one part (20 meters) too low for us to be able to make a good looking road (and safe). So there was only one way to make this right: raising the concrete wall so we can raise the whole road. Unfortunately I don't have any other pictures of the road when was finished so for now I can show you just the ones on which can be seemed how we did that "project" of raising the wall =)

1st: cleaning
2nd: drilling the holes for steel reinforcement
3rd: installing steel reinforcement

Another look from the other angle =)

Then we had to install the formwork

 Unfortunately I don't have the pictures of concreting the wall so let's skip that step and go on the finish:

Finished and raised concrete wall

 

Another angle...

... and from the other side ...

... and this one for the end.

We drilled fi14 holes so we could put in fi12 steel reinforcement. The depth of holes was about 20 cm and we were installing the steel bars with a help of Sika AnchorFix-1 that is made for anchoring the steel reinforcement into the concrete (or many other materials). We used a concrete C25/30 0-16 with a hardening accelerating admixture with antifreeze affect (TKK Cementol B Novi) because the temperature at the time of concreting was a bit low. Besides, I was worried about the temperatures at night (when they got to low for a concrete to dry nice) so I didn't want to take risk.

So that's all for now ;=) Questions and comments are highly recommended. Bye!

First one on my Blog :)

Hi there every'n'body ;)

That's my first blog so I hope you won't blame me for all my "amateur mistakes" that we noobs do. I decided to write a blog mostly to show you what and how I work. Plus I think it's a good way to fill your free time especially in rainy days (like today =D ). And before I write further just one more warning: I'm not a very good english speaker/writer but I'll try to hide as much I can the fact that some of the words in my post are... translated... by... ... google translator =) I'm pretty sure that you will notice that

Few words about me? Well, I come from Slovenia (NOT Slovakia! =D ) which is located somewhere in the Europe, if you try hard you should probably find it on the map =) My name is Damjan and I come from a family that is earning it's money for almost 40 years now.


And now just a few words about my work (the longer version will be written in "about me" subfolder (have I written it right?). We construct backyards/frontyards of houses, parking areas, playgrounds and that kind of stuff. We also make roads (from ground zero or just a reconstruction) and we make sure that they look good after many years that were made (that means that we maintance them and clean the snow in the winter).

So that's it for now and as soon as possible I will post some pictures of the things I do for my living. Cheers!