Richtfest

Today we had the Richtfest (topping out party?) to celebrate the approaching end of the concrete and steel work (the house is complete, just additional walls to do) and the addition of the first waterproof layer to the (flat) roof.  Classically the last roof timbers going in would be the time to celebrate, but what with our flat roof ...

Decorated tree top on top of scaffolding

Decorations on tree

Among the festivities we decorated the end of a bit of tree with crepe ribbons and the builders put it up on the scaffolding.  The branch came from the tree just in front of the house.

The owner of the building firm and his colleague then read a traditional poem from the roof wishing us luck and thanking the builders for their hard work.  After a couple of toasts and some applause, they threw their wine glasses to the floor which duly smashed, thereby ensuring good luck, health, happiness, etc.

Spectators at the Richtfest

Then it was sausage in a bun, drinks and brownies time (thanks Tom for covering for me with the grill).  The rain stayed off until most people had left.  At least it is dry in the house now.

Concrete infrastructure nearing completion

On Thursday last week, the final concrete layer was poured on the roof.

Tidying up after pouring the roof

The surrounding raised rim (roof parapet or Attika) has the re-enforcing in place and should be poured very soon.

Most of the interior support structure will be taken down on the ground floor this week so that the window maker can get decent access to things.  We signed the contract with him on Thursday last week.  Some of the props and struts look a bit improvised.

Complex engineering holding up living room window frame

View from across the road

The roof panels are all on, but there isn't much to see from the outside.

Work on final ceiling started

As the first panels for the pre-ceiling on the top floor go in, the scaffolding has gone up another floor.  This gave us the chance to get a look inside the top floor of the house from roof level.



Looking through the ceiling of bedroom

  The ceiling will be the flat roof and will be build the same way as the other floor/ceiling ... first drop a load of roughly cut pre-reenforced thin concrete slabs on to of beams held up by poles, then patch the gaps from underneath with planks and things, then use this as a base to form the remaining 30 cm of concrete and steel work.


Ceiling not quite water tight yet.



Ring anchor interface

On the top floor, some of the lintels have been poured and other (external wall) ones are on their way.

View inside the lintel holding block

Remaining lintel forming blocks, waiting to be deployed

It looks like the top floor should be completed this week, making things ready for the roof.  Let's see how th the builders get on.