Good Morning Friends,

The art of woodworking is not just in the building of houses or cabinets or furniture but, there are methods used in the building of forms that are used in the building of large buildings while using reinforced concrete as the basis of the construction of said buildings. First there are the base of said buildings to support them regardless of how high the structures will be so over the next months and for those interested I will be offering how to build the different structures and their foundations.

 

So folks if you wish to learn simply ask any question on how these processes are done that others might learn as well or at least get a general idea on how these buildings are constructed all around the nation and world.

 

I will start with this segment by explaining foundations; First off all structures must have a good foundation in which to rest on so over the years they won't become another leaning tower of Pizza.

 

One has to determine how deep the foundation must be in order to support a structure of let's say 24 stories. A story is normally based on a ten foot rise between floors so if we are building a 24 story building it will most likely be 240 feet above the finished grade of the terrain surrounding the building. So with that in mind one would have to dig, drill or drive casings down till they hit bed rock to give the solid foundation of said structure then and only then will it be safe to construct the building. The foundation on the Lincoln and Morel Towers at the Ohio State University have footers that are 4' wide and 6' deep into the ground in order to support these two structures with reinforced concrete of cement and steel as well as on one section of one of said towers that had to drive piling down 165' before they hit bed rock strong enough to support one corner of said tower.

 

The paragraph above is just one portion of the building of large buildings through out our land and all over the world and should any one wish to expand knowledge in this phase of construction just reply with any question you may have and if I can't give you a good answer I will locate the answer for you and then we both can learn a little more than we did before we asked the question.

 

Respectfully,

 

Ralph Jones

Looking forward to this Ralph, the one you did on Balloon Style Walls was great!

Ralph, might I interest you in posting this in the Blog area, this way it is easier to retrieve in the future. If you'd like, I can give you a call and walk you through the blog process.

Hello Friends,

I have transferred this thread to my blog and I hope you can follow me there were I will be posting daily or when ever I have time. Later I hope to add some pictures.

Ralph

Well Folks it has been a few days since my last posting and I almost forgot about my blog but, here we are today to explain some of the features in the construction of forms and beams. Now if I can find some pictures to help illustrate what I am talking about for a better understanding of the construction.

This picture shows the footer trench before any forms were installed.

This picture is showing the forms as they were set to accept concrete and with forms of this nature one can never have too many braces to hold the forms in place because concrete can exert 1500 PSF at the bottom of the forms when first dumped into the forms and if the forms are not braced securely they can bust open and really cause a mess.

In this picture you can see what can happen if the concrete is not wet enough or properly vibrated or puddled for it leaves what is called honeycombing, which is the lack of the slur in the concrete to hold it together and leave stone and gravel exposed. It truly does not weaken the wall but would look better if it were poured correctly. Now with a situation as this you have to come back and make a slur of cement and sand to fill in the open areas and coat the voids.

Things like this can happen if the concrete is poured too fast or too dry and the workers can not keep up with the pouring of the concrete due to the driver of the truck not listening to the instructions of the foreman.

I will try to find some pictures of different methods of setting forms whether they are constructed on site or rented factory made forms.

I hope the pictures show how and what can happen if things are not done correctly during the process of constructing the forms.

This will complete this portion of the form work of a concrete pour.

Respectfully,

Ralph

Good Morning Friends,

This morning being 10 December 2010 we find ourselves ready to continue in woodworking in heavy construction. When one mentions woodworking one would first think of hobbies, building of houses, furniture and many other such items however, woodworking goes much farther as I mentioned above and there are a lot of carpenters who's choice of making a living is in the field of heavy construction by working with on the job made forms or renting of the metal and wood forms with all of the equipment needed to put them together.

Now would be a good time to add some pictures but, I haven't mastered my new printer,scanner, copier yet in order to scan some pictures to post so I beg your patience while I learn how to do it.

As a footer is poured for the start of a structure that will be mostly concrete and steel one would think, where do the woodworking come in? Well folks it had already started for the hole or trench was dug wide enough for workers to get in the trench to make the forms for the footer to be poured which would be twice the size of the wall that would be poured.

For instance, if a wall of concrete and steel rebars tied together and the wall was to be 8" wide the footer would need to be 16" wide or twice the width of the wall as indicated above. Now you are thinking what has rebars have to do with woodworking? Well actually it doesn't for the iron workers are normally used for that job however, there are jobs that the iron workers were not included in the planning of the job so the woodworker or carpenters on the job must know how to tie the steel bars to be included in the job. Building forms and or using rented forms is a dirty job right from the start of the job for sometimes the trenches will get filled with water and had to be pumped out so you could get in the trench to set the necessary forms for the footers or to start setting the forms for the pour. One thing about heavy construction is when you finish the job that would be form work and there are no more forms needed for the job you cold count on getting into another muddy trench on the next job.

When setting forms according to the blueprints you should use a spray of oil on the forms so the concrete would not stick to the forms and you can look forward to getting muddy and dirty by the oil used on the forms. As you set the forms in the wall line you would set one side of the forms with what are called snap ties. Which are metal rods with washers on the rods that would rest against an indentation so the forms would stay in line with the correct thickness.

The snap ties as they were called would stick through the forms just enough so you could put a 2 x 4 under the rod and one over the rod and then you would place a metal keeper over the rod with a button on the end so when you drove the hairpin (as they were called) it would snug the 2 x 4 boards tight against the forms. These boards when placed on the wall forms were called whalers and would run continuously the length of forms being used for that wall.

These whalers would normally be places every foot on center on the side of the wall forms, which would help hold the forms together. Then the line of forms on that section of the wall wold be braced and plumbed so the wall could not move or fall over. The forms on the other side of the wall section would not usually need any braces but would still have the whalers attached on the other side if the forms and snap ties in the same manner as the ones on the braced side of the forms. I hope my explanation has given you a mental picture of what we are trying to explain.

This concludes today's segment of form woodworking. Look forward to more in the future.

Respectfully,

Ralph

Hey Ralph, I thought you were blogging this? Just curious.

Hi John,

I thought I was too for I clicked on my blog and proceeded with what I wrote yesterday and today. What happened?

Is it on the regular forum or what?

John,

I just tried to copy and paste it into my blog and everything showed up but the pictures from yesterday and I didn't try to move the one I wrote today.

After I went to my blog I saw where I should have typed the topic from yesterday and this morning but, now I have it all messed up. Still learning how to run one of these things.

No worries Ralph, I got you taken care of. I went ahead and inserted your blog with the pics that you posted yesterday here, and all you have to do now is copy paste the latest entry you did into your blog. Since it is all text, you should be fine with that execution. It's confusing for me at times too, but we'll make it together Ralph!

Hi John,

Thanks buddy I really appreciate your help.

Ralph

Hey John,

I did as you said and it ended up above what I typed yesterday for it wa son the 9th and the one I copied and pasted was for today. One of these days I'll learn how to run this thing.

Ralph