Fortress Update

I still can't quite wrap my brain around the fact that our safe-house is actually being built. After eight months of inactivity, suddenly (and completely inexplicably) my contractor has decided to finish the job. I mentioned earlier that I witnessed my contractor negotiating the job with the masons. Later I got to know the masons just a little bit better. It's a family affair: a father and his two sons. The father's name is Davey (at right, just before going home for the day); the older son Eduardo. I checked in a few times during the day today to see what progress there was, and if anything was needed. Each time, it was a pleasure to watch these men work – they clearly have a lot of experience as masons, and the way they make the job look effortless is a testament to their skills.

The work started with some careful measuring and calculating. From what I could tell, the main objectives of all this was to figure out exactly how many blocks were required on each layer (“run”) of blocks, to figure out where their outer edges should lie on the slab, and to make sure the vertical pieces of rebar were all in the right place to poke through the holes in the block. A complicating factor was the doorway; one piece of rebar had to be bent slightly to make that work. Then the tangible work commenced: they laid a first run of block down all around the building.

It was fascinating to watch carefully how the masons laid those blocks. They make it look so easy! The starting point was a single block, set down into a lot more mortar than was actually needed. Davey tapped this block gently into position, paying the most attention to the height of the block (I suppose to make sure the grout thickness underneath was correct). This block's height then became the reference height for all the rest of the blocks.

For all the subsequent blocks, the masons followed a pattern. First the blocks were set on end near where they'd be used. Then they would put some grout (again, much more than actually needed) on the top end. Next they would lay down heavy lines of grout on the slab (or later, on the underlying row of block) where the blocks would go. Then, one at a time, the upended blocks were turned sideways and set roughly into place. Then Davey would work his magic, carefully maneuvering the block by gentle taps until it was in exactly the right place, as determined by eyeball, straight-edge, and level. The last step was performed by the youngest son: cleaning up and removing the excess grout from the inside of the joints (as you can see in the photo above right).

Thinking like a nerdy engineer for a moment, it was interesting to note that he moved that block with all six classical degrees of freedom: forward/backward, left/right, up/down, and rotation about all three of those axes. That's quite a feat of spatial manipulation, but he made it look effortless and easy. I know darned well that were I to attempt such a thing, the result wouldn't be nearly as pretty…

On every second run of block, something slightly different occurs: a horizontal piece of rebar is run through all the blocks. They accomplished this by manually notching the three lengthwise segments of every block on that run. At right you can see Eduardo making cuts in those segments; later the youngest boy uses a hammer to carefully knock them out. After one of these notched runs is complete, the masons bend rebar as required to run it completely around the wall.

By the third run of block, there was very little of the original vertical rebar pieces left showing. Yet the plans call for vertical rebar running all the way up the wall. On asking, I found out that this requirement will be satisfied by placing vertical pieces of rebar in place when the wall is completely built. This is much easier than trying to thread every block through 8 feet or so of rebar!

At right you can see Davy using the level as he completes a corner. This extra care is need to make sure that the runs of block along each wall meet up on the corners correctly. I watched him do this several times; he's not satisfied until the error is invisibly small.

The end result is a perfect block wall. Well, at least it is perfect within the capacity of my eyeballs to detect error: I cannot see anything out of whack on these walls. In the photo at right, you can see the first three runs on the south wall – everything about it appears to be straight as an arrow and perfectly aligned.

Davey and his sons are due back on the job at 7:30 am tomorrow morning. I don't know them well, but I know them enough to have developed a sense that Davey is a reliable, straight-up kind of guy (unlike someone else I might mention). When he tells me that he'll be here tomorrow morning, I'm inclined to believe him.

What a nice feeling that is, and what a refreshing change in the context of this project.

I'll end with these scenes of three skilled masons at work…