Construction News
for
October 3 - 10, 2007
Alice Delaquess, Member services Coordinator in her new office. Unpacking may take a while!
Renovation
Tom, the finish carpenter who has been working on the offices, left today.
All the trim that can be done is done. We are waiting for some custom millwork for
the west entrance to make the new fire windows look like the rest.
The electrician planned to install light bulbs this Saturday, but
his crew has been ill, and we have an extra busy day planned, so we will plan
another time.
The Japanese prints and the Meeting House model are back unscathed. They will be replaced in the Loggia as soon as we get the uproar to a more manageable level.
The New Building
There is progress, more concrete, the starts of walls.
The building Committee has been devoting much energy to ythe consideration of concrete textures. Although we all had nodded knowingly every time Vince (the architect) had said “Board Formed Concrete”, it turns out that there are many textures of board to consider, plus various concrete mixtures, plus how to nail the boards to the forms. The Findorff building on Bedford St. uses sand-blasted board-formed concrete in its interior.
Special Fireproof glass had to be installed in the area around the west doors. Careful guys!
Vince planned to used maple pallet boards to create a complex surface
with various saw marks in addition to the grain of the wood. We
got rough wood that had circular saw marks from a farmer "Up North” who
ran a saw mill off a tractor. This wood was then resawn with a band
saw to create some vertical saw marks. After several tries, we
had sample that was satisfactory, the boards went on to the forms last
Thursday, and they looked great. However, they started to curl
Friday morning when the sun started to dry them out (one of the reasons
we don’t make furniture out of pallet wood). Our foreman
was concerned that under the pressure of its weight the concrete would
insinuate itself between the boards and the forms, leaving us with
60 feet of wall with boards imbedded in it. Vince has revised
the plan to use sand blasted cedar. Just another bit of history for
our new building.
That's it for the Pithy Hard Hat News. Tours of the new buidling will
be given on Sunday at the Fall Festival. Plan to come and have a look.
Dave Weber at the podium of the new Auditorium. Or close to it, anyway.
