Upper Floor Slab Prep + Pool Stage 2

It's been a productive couple of weeks on the block. Yay!

Firstly, we had the formworkers complete the wooden framing and prop work for the upper floor slab. Next, the sparkies from Custom Electrics and the plumbers have been out to do some preparation work prior to the steel workers arriving (mainly downlight canisters and some basic plumbing provisions that will need to go through the slab). 

Toward the back end of last week, the steel workers arrived and started forming up the grid mesh that goes into our upper floor slab. They were back for their third day on site this morning. The sparkies were also back today to lay their electrical conduit through the steel work grid for all the electrical circuits that are either under the slab or feeding the upstairs.

If that all wasn't enough, over the last fortnight we've also had Mark from Blue Star Pools come out and start of Phase 2 of our pool rehab. This involved jackhammering off all the old plaster, waterline tile and bullnose tile, core driling through the shell to put in the three new return jets, cutting channels into the shell for new electrical provisions for the two new lights, concreting up the old skimmer box and cutting in a new one on the other side of the pool, as well as making a new 1.8m bench seat in the shallow end and a 1.0m bench seat in the opposite deep end corner. He also laid all new piping and ran that into our new pool equipment room at the back of the house, including plumbing in a waste pipe to our new soakwelll.

An engineer is also due out to certify all the work that Stannard have done and then it should just be a matter of getting the concrete poured to complete this next step. We did go up and have a sneak peak at our view from the second floor and we can indeed see the city off in the distance, as well as lovely views down to our local park. Very happy and can't wait to have a slab party to celebrate!

Formwork!

In what has felt like forever, finally I'm able to make a new post about actual progress. That's right, the form workers have arrived!

Just one day after receiving an update that our formworker was still a couple of weeks away, I received a call today from our design consultant from Stannard stating that form workers were on site and form work was going up. Shortly after, the construction consultant also emailed to share the great news. It seems there was a cancellation so we got bumped up the list. 

I was able to pop past the block on the way to picking up the kids from school and had a quick chat with the guys. He said he got back from xmas break and had 14 jobs waiting, has a yard full of form materials but simply doesn't have the labour to put it up. He's down to just himself and his son whereas he used to have five crews, blaming the mining industry. 

The two of them wasted no time getting started with the framing, with most rooms already having several props with wooden frames set up. Probably a few more days ahead of them based on the pile of wood and props still out the front. So just like that, we're back to moving forward with our build. 

In fairness I should mention at some time in the last few weeks, we've also had the plumber out to mark up the downstairs internal and external plumbing and someone has been along to cut all the brickwork for those pipes too. So we have been inching ahead, but the arrival of the form worker is a more significant progress milestone. Fingers crossed we can keep the momentum!