Timing is everything…TIA (this is Africa)… and on and on with reasons and excuses about the time delays for the project. My permit runs out mid-November and the new timeline is February. The foundations were a learning experience and we didn’t place them the way they are meant to in order to compensate for a double wall that we used. There was some chipping away at the bricks to make them fit but again with a change in orientation we knew that would happen. Now that we are at the walls we thought it would be much faster and easier, click, click, click like Lego but that has definitely not been the case. The septic tank was built using the CMU (concrete masonry unit) and the rate of construction was 1 builder using the CMU’s to 3 builders using Bamba bricks on the walls. I thought the rate of building was faster and it is but after seeing the rate of CMU building I became worried. So we thought maybe switch to CMU’s and increase the rate of building but what would we do with all the bricks we made and we’re less than 3000 from our target of 18000 bricks. So we thought of various ways to improve the system. Part of the issue is human error, we thought about getting an electric sander or mortar grinder and fixing the bricks to uniform size but that just seemed to risky. I suggested talking to the construction foreman who is using the bricks and in charge for the construction workers onsite and ask his opinion. We told him about electric grinder and he said that it wouldn’t only be a human error problem with the brick makers but with his junior guys. He’s watched them use the bricks and their lack of problem solving with rogue bricks. He’s teaching them how to make the best use of them. He thought that the best way to minimize EVERYONE’S error is to put 5-10mm of mortar between the tops and bottoms of bricks, they’d still click but the mortar would compensate for the angle/slope/dimension and chipping issues. We thought this was a great idea but I had questions, how would they match the bricks from walls with no mortar just brick to mortar walls side by side, the change in height would be an issue, also this would change the wall height, which is not a bad thing but needs to be considered. The wall height will be fine as long as it’s shorter than the existing wall height of 3.5m we’re fine. The foreman will know how to meld in the bricks and mortar so it will work out but I’ll keep a close eye and monitor that just to be sure. So we’ll see what the new speed is and if this changes the new timeline and can we finish this by mid- November. I’m seeing doorways and window spaces that really make the building seem real, standing in the offices and seeing that this will be where someone comes everyday to work, and seeing the furniture and the layout of furniture in each office it’s coming together, VERY SLOWLY but it isJ The concrete slab is finished so we’ll see what mortar Bamba bricks look like tomorrow and Wednesday and see how much faster the pace of construction is. At the current rate of construction the contractor thinks it will be end of February until the project is complete. So hopefully adding mortar will speed up the construction process and speed up our timeline. Construction stops for Christmas December 10th and comes back January 10th.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
I have some news…wait for it… I am staying until November 14th, my permit runs out on the 19th so that leaves me 5 days. The project has taken much longer than planned and I’m sure no one is surprised. The bricks are just not the amazing invention we thought/told they would be. The brick as a design is great but the method is not so great. The machine wears and tears easily if you don’t do the process exactly perfect the bricks don’t come out right and don’t fill properly and so they don’t just click. The manual says that any unskilled person can do this and that is just not true. We’re using seasoned, experienced construction workers and they’re have a tough time and it’s taking much longer then expected. What was meant to take 6 months, we’re now looking at a year. The contractor wants to change materials to a CMU (concrete masonry unit). The septic tank is made using the CMU’s and 1 worker is working at the same place as 3 using our bricks. So we’re going to cost out a new plan if built the library using some of our bricks and some CMU’s.
Monday, August 29, 2011
So great news yesterday, we are meant to have an inspection of site after the foundation is done with the DPC (damp proof coarse) just before we lay down the concrete slab. We wanted to do the inspection in stages so we could start putting the concrete slab down so we could start putting up walls, while the foundation on the east side is still being finished. It took forever to finally get the inspector to site then he took a look at the foundations not even finished and the inspector said "keep going I don't need to see anything until the next stage" which is wait for it...the top of windows where typically the lintel goes or in our case the ring beam. The inspector is meant to take a pickaxe and hit the foundation in to make sure it is solid; our inspector did not do this. He was just so impressed with our foundations he just let us move on. That’s the good news, the bad news is wait for it… you guessed it my car. I spent almost 3 weeks in Harare waiting for my car to be fixed but I was able to make a 24 hour trip home with friends, which gave me enough time to check on site, meet a few people, love my dogs, change my suitcase, sort the house and my domestic and get in the car back to Harare. The car needed a service but the fuel pump was shot and even after they changed the fuel pump there was still a problem, which after changing all sorts of things turned out to be the HT leads the connect from the fuel pump regulator to the spark plugs, which control and inject fuel and car goes. I got the car back and was driving it along a fairly busy Harare street and fuel sprayed all over the road from the front of my car. I pulled over and turns out the hose connected to the engine from the fuel came off after it had been replaced. The hose clip was faulty and even after putting it back on every time I turned the car on the hose came off and fuel sprayed. So I had to have the car towed to a friend’s house 5 blocks away and I got a new hose and clip and fixed the car. So the project is progressing and over the next few days I’ll be able to see how fast the walls will go up. There was another issue to deal with. Our property slopes down from the existing building to the new building, this works in our favour as we can use gravity for the sewer and water. So at the lowest point is where the septic tank and soaker way are. There are minimum dimensions to the septic tank and soaker way, the contractor who is also our plumber asked if he could make them deeper and narrower for ease, which as long as they meet the requirements then it’s fine. However because he made them deeper in an already sloping site it caused a few issues when he started building them. The rear veranda now has to be lower requiring 3 steps, a retaining wall and a foundation of it’s own. As well where the piping starts in the existing building that veranda also has to have it’s own retaining wall and foundations. So a little redesigning on my part but problem solved. And that’s my life this month. I am now back and home and back to normal…well almost give me a few more days and the routine will be back and the dogs will stop following me around like I’m going to leave them at any moment, which makes me feel like a bad parent but they’re starting to relax and let me shower in peace!
Friday, August 19, 2011
Huck has been sick he developed tick fever. It took me a few days to notice as he doesn’t eat much to begin with, he started eating even less until he stopped eating, he became really lethargic and just wanted to sleep all day and he was more than his usually cuddly. I thought it was strep throat, which is common among dogs out here, so I was checking his throat and noticed over a few days that his gums were getting white and his eyes were getting whiter, he was going pale, anemic. As I was going to Harare anyways I thought I would take him with me but he started to fail fast so I took him to the Nyanga vet, who was drunk at the time it gave him the shots and the next morning he was returning to normal. I still took him to Nyanga with me to keep an eye on him and good thing I did because he was injected wrong and development a lump at his injection site that filled with fluid that had to be drained.
Harare was good, the AIDS clinic that I go to once a month was great, unfortunately one of the granny’s died in a public transport accident, which unfortunately is a weekly occurrence. I love going to the clinic because these granny’s are in their 70’s and 80’s and starting over as parents with 7 or 8 grandchildren. One granny has 17 relatives living in her home!!! Lots of the families rent out rooms in their homes to make money, so they sleep in the living room or kitchen and rent out the bedrooms. Some of the grandpa’s work as security guards, which seems a bit odd as an 80 year old man fending off robbers doesn’t seem like such a good idea. They do what they need to survive.
My car is back at the doctor, I was driving and all of a sudden the engine would rev and then the speedometer would go down to zero and the car would stop. I would just turn the key off and then wait a few seconds and then turn the engine back on and it was fine. It was due for a service so I took it in and found that the fuel pump was gone, so they put in a new one and then found that the fuel pump regulator was broken. Right for the non-car people the fuel pump regulator, regulates the amount of fuel that goes into the fuel pump which when you push the gas fills with fuel and makes the car go, so the harder I pushed the gas the less fuel that went in and the car died. Fuel pump was easy to replace, the regulator not so much so it’s been a long time and I’m stuck in Harare BUT I got to make a quick trip home to check on the project, the house, take Huck home and see Molly.
Harare was good, the AIDS clinic that I go to once a month was great, unfortunately one of the granny’s died in a public transport accident, which unfortunately is a weekly occurrence. I love going to the clinic because these granny’s are in their 70’s and 80’s and starting over as parents with 7 or 8 grandchildren. One granny has 17 relatives living in her home!!! Lots of the families rent out rooms in their homes to make money, so they sleep in the living room or kitchen and rent out the bedrooms. Some of the grandpa’s work as security guards, which seems a bit odd as an 80 year old man fending off robbers doesn’t seem like such a good idea. They do what they need to survive.
My car is back at the doctor, I was driving and all of a sudden the engine would rev and then the speedometer would go down to zero and the car would stop. I would just turn the key off and then wait a few seconds and then turn the engine back on and it was fine. It was due for a service so I took it in and found that the fuel pump was gone, so they put in a new one and then found that the fuel pump regulator was broken. Right for the non-car people the fuel pump regulator, regulates the amount of fuel that goes into the fuel pump which when you push the gas fills with fuel and makes the car go, so the harder I pushed the gas the less fuel that went in and the car died. Fuel pump was easy to replace, the regulator not so much so it’s been a long time and I’m stuck in Harare BUT I got to make a quick trip home to check on the project, the house, take Huck home and see Molly.
The foundations are done, just waiting for inspection, which I hope to do Monday so that the concrete slab can be poured, more on that very soon...
Huck has been sick he developed tick fever. It took me a few days to notice as he doesn’t eat much to begin with, he started eating even less until he stopped eating, he became really lethargic and just wanted to sleep all day and he was more than his usually cuddly. I thought it was strep throat, which is common among dogs out here, so I was checking his throat and noticed over a few days that his gums were getting white and his eyes were getting whiter, he was going pale, anemic. As I was going to Harare anyways I thought I would take him with me but he started to fail fast so I took him to the Nyanga vet, who was drunk at the time it gave him the shots and the next morning he was returning to normal. I still took him to Nyanga with me to keep an eye on him and good thing I did because he was injected wrong and development a lump at his injection site that filled with fluid that had to be drained.
Harare was good, the AIDS clinic that I go to once a month was great, unfortunately one of the granny’s died in a public transport accident, which unfortunately is a weekly occurrence. I love going to the clinic because these granny’s are in their 70’s and 80’s and starting over as parents with 7 or 8 grandchildren. One granny has 17 relatives living in her home!!! Lots of the families rent out rooms in their homes to make money, so they sleep in the living room or kitchen and rent out the bedrooms. Some of the grandpa’s work as security guards, which seems a bit odd as an 80 year old man fending off robbers doesn’t seem like such a good idea. They do what they need to survive.
My car is back at the doctor, I was driving and all of a sudden the engine would rev and then the speedometer would go down to zero and the car would stop. I would just turn the key off and then wait a few seconds and then turn the engine back on and it was fine. It was due for a service so I took it in and found that the fuel pump was gone, so they put in a new one and then found that the fuel pump regulator was broken. Right for the non-car people the fuel pump regulator, regulates the amount of fuel that goes into the fuel pump which when you push the gas fills with fuel and makes the car go, so the harder I pushed the gas the less fuel that went in and the car died. Fuel pump was easy to replace, the regulator not so much so it’s been a long time and I’m stuck in Harare BUT I got to make a quick trip home to check on the project, the house, take Huck home and see Molly.
Harare was good, the AIDS clinic that I go to once a month was great, unfortunately one of the granny’s died in a public transport accident, which unfortunately is a weekly occurrence. I love going to the clinic because these granny’s are in their 70’s and 80’s and starting over as parents with 7 or 8 grandchildren. One granny has 17 relatives living in her home!!! Lots of the families rent out rooms in their homes to make money, so they sleep in the living room or kitchen and rent out the bedrooms. Some of the grandpa’s work as security guards, which seems a bit odd as an 80 year old man fending off robbers doesn’t seem like such a good idea. They do what they need to survive.
My car is back at the doctor, I was driving and all of a sudden the engine would rev and then the speedometer would go down to zero and the car would stop. I would just turn the key off and then wait a few seconds and then turn the engine back on and it was fine. It was due for a service so I took it in and found that the fuel pump was gone, so they put in a new one and then found that the fuel pump regulator was broken. Right for the non-car people the fuel pump regulator, regulates the amount of fuel that goes into the fuel pump which when you push the gas fills with fuel and makes the car go, so the harder I pushed the gas the less fuel that went in and the car died. Fuel pump was easy to replace, the regulator not so much so it’s been a long time and I’m stuck in Harare BUT I got to make a quick trip home to check on the project, the house, take Huck home and see Molly.
The foundations are done, just waiting for inspection, which I hope to do Monday so that the concrete slab can be poured, more on that very soon...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
I went to Harare last week to have Molly’s stitches removed and to see a man about a machine.
Our Bamba brick press is a great machine, it uses manual labour creating jobs and not polluting the environment, as well for rural areas, small communities and individual jobs as it is manual there is no cost of fuel or finding fuel to think of , which sounds small but is HUGE, it doesn’t produce waste, it uses the soil dug up from the ground, the bricks interlock so there is no use of mortar and brick force (mesh that holds the bricks together), the bricks come with 2 holes from top to bottom to allow for piping and electrical eliminating the need for chasing, and the list goes on.
The downside to the Bamba brick press is we are all first time users and it’s been a learning curve for all of us, the manual is very nice and helpful but there is no problem solving information. We have a contact in South Africa who has a machine but hasn’t used it since the late 1990’s and the machine came out in 1995. The Bamba company doesn’t exist anymore, which I have a few theories about and will explain that situation later. We have what I believe is a Friday machine, this means the machine was made on a Friday when all the workers were thinking about going home and having a beer and spending the next 2 days with families or whatever and weren’t really paying attention to what they were doing. The machine itself we’ve had a few issues, we’ve had to weld cracks, add extra bits to make the job easier, it has to be oiled and greased every 10 or so bricks, etc. The brick size is meant to be 300x150x150 ours is 300x180x150, that’s a 20% difference in height, which you might think isn’t much but creates an issue in terms of integrity of a wall. The original size is that the length is twice the width and height so the structural integrity and weight distribution evens out and there isn’t stress in any particular area but with a 20% difference this makes the brick means there is more stress in the height. This doesn’t cause big issues but it’s something we had to consider. Also because the bricks are compressed manual you have to be very precise EVERY brick to make sure it’s perfect if it isn’t then the bricks don’t fit exactly like they should and we’re in trouble. Sometimes parts of the brick at the top or bottom stick to the machine and don’t come off, this can be due to too much moisture in the mix or the machine not being oiled enough. All these little variables that make a HUGE difference.
So I went to Harare to see a man about a machine, the contractor and I had thought about using a hydraulic engine and attaching it to the manual machine in order to a) make bricks faster, we make 140 a day, with hydraulics we could make 1500 a day, b) the compression would be even and each brick would come out the same. We need about 18000 bricks for this project and we’ve done just over 10200 in 6 months. The machine would be a new creation and make the machine more versatile, it could be manual or hydraulic creating options. So back to my theory why Bamba doesn’t exist anymore technology as we all know has come a long way in the last 16 years, why make bricks manual when you can make them hydraulically, it would save on time and money, plus you would have consistent bricks and take away the possibility of human error. So the man in Harare had a hydraulic interlocking brick press that he couldn’t afford to buy and thought I might be able to buy it. You can take a look at it at www.hyrdaform.com model m7twind. If you buy the machine new, including having it imported from South Africa and pay one of their workers to come to train you for 2 weeks it’s $50,000. If you buy this second hand one with a local worker to train you for 2 weeks it’s $12,000. A HUGE difference, this machine is a dual chamber meaning it makes 2 bricks at a time, you control what compression strength you want as well as the how much to compress the bricks, etc. The downside to this machine is the bricks are smaller, there are no holes for utilities and it’s a very different style of brick to what we are already using and the big one WE DON’T HAVE $12,000!!! I was originally told the man owned the machine and we were talking about renting it out for us to better our machine. Also as the hydraform has dual chambers the hydraulic engine is bigger than the size of the machine we have, where would we put it and how would we attach it??? So it was a nice idea but not what we need, so we’ll keep plugging away and perfecting the system we have and continue to learn about our manual brick press.
Our Bamba brick press is a great machine, it uses manual labour creating jobs and not polluting the environment, as well for rural areas, small communities and individual jobs as it is manual there is no cost of fuel or finding fuel to think of , which sounds small but is HUGE, it doesn’t produce waste, it uses the soil dug up from the ground, the bricks interlock so there is no use of mortar and brick force (mesh that holds the bricks together), the bricks come with 2 holes from top to bottom to allow for piping and electrical eliminating the need for chasing, and the list goes on.
The downside to the Bamba brick press is we are all first time users and it’s been a learning curve for all of us, the manual is very nice and helpful but there is no problem solving information. We have a contact in South Africa who has a machine but hasn’t used it since the late 1990’s and the machine came out in 1995. The Bamba company doesn’t exist anymore, which I have a few theories about and will explain that situation later. We have what I believe is a Friday machine, this means the machine was made on a Friday when all the workers were thinking about going home and having a beer and spending the next 2 days with families or whatever and weren’t really paying attention to what they were doing. The machine itself we’ve had a few issues, we’ve had to weld cracks, add extra bits to make the job easier, it has to be oiled and greased every 10 or so bricks, etc. The brick size is meant to be 300x150x150 ours is 300x180x150, that’s a 20% difference in height, which you might think isn’t much but creates an issue in terms of integrity of a wall. The original size is that the length is twice the width and height so the structural integrity and weight distribution evens out and there isn’t stress in any particular area but with a 20% difference this makes the brick means there is more stress in the height. This doesn’t cause big issues but it’s something we had to consider. Also because the bricks are compressed manual you have to be very precise EVERY brick to make sure it’s perfect if it isn’t then the bricks don’t fit exactly like they should and we’re in trouble. Sometimes parts of the brick at the top or bottom stick to the machine and don’t come off, this can be due to too much moisture in the mix or the machine not being oiled enough. All these little variables that make a HUGE difference.
So I went to Harare to see a man about a machine, the contractor and I had thought about using a hydraulic engine and attaching it to the manual machine in order to a) make bricks faster, we make 140 a day, with hydraulics we could make 1500 a day, b) the compression would be even and each brick would come out the same. We need about 18000 bricks for this project and we’ve done just over 10200 in 6 months. The machine would be a new creation and make the machine more versatile, it could be manual or hydraulic creating options. So back to my theory why Bamba doesn’t exist anymore technology as we all know has come a long way in the last 16 years, why make bricks manual when you can make them hydraulically, it would save on time and money, plus you would have consistent bricks and take away the possibility of human error. So the man in Harare had a hydraulic interlocking brick press that he couldn’t afford to buy and thought I might be able to buy it. You can take a look at it at www.hyrdaform.com model m7twind. If you buy the machine new, including having it imported from South Africa and pay one of their workers to come to train you for 2 weeks it’s $50,000. If you buy this second hand one with a local worker to train you for 2 weeks it’s $12,000. A HUGE difference, this machine is a dual chamber meaning it makes 2 bricks at a time, you control what compression strength you want as well as the how much to compress the bricks, etc. The downside to this machine is the bricks are smaller, there are no holes for utilities and it’s a very different style of brick to what we are already using and the big one WE DON’T HAVE $12,000!!! I was originally told the man owned the machine and we were talking about renting it out for us to better our machine. Also as the hydraform has dual chambers the hydraulic engine is bigger than the size of the machine we have, where would we put it and how would we attach it??? So it was a nice idea but not what we need, so we’ll keep plugging away and perfecting the system we have and continue to learn about our manual brick press.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
We found the answer to the trouble with the 2mm difference on the brick height. There is a king pin or roller pin that is on the arm that compresses the bricks. This roller is what keeps the lid down and holds everything together. 1 side of the pin was so warn it wasn’t rolling anymore and wasn’t compressing its side of the lid. We had a new one made and installed and TA DA the bricks are now even!!!! So I’ve been going randomly during the day and measuring bricks to check size and consistency and so far so good. The foundation is still slow and they are still working on the west side but now that they know what they are doing, there is now a rhythm and moving at a steady pace. We are still dealing with rebar issues but I am hoping tomorrow or Friday IT WILL BE SORTED! A shipment of science equipment, textbooks, reference books and wait for it… LIBRARY BOOKS came in from the UK. A brilliant NGO called School AID sent a shipment from schools across the country. My job was to go through the books and sort them and find out what was there. There was everything from reference books, to encyclopedia’s to children’s novels, readers, classics like Bronte and Jane Austen and every John Grisham book ever written. Some of them I started flipping through and got caught up reading them, this was an issue for me when I worked in the public library and had to put books back on shelves, I get caught up in books that an hour would pass and someone would come looking for me thinking I had died, blame it on my parents and their love of reading. So now we have to finish the library so we can put these books on shelves and out to the public. It was a good day!!!
So the cost of food has gone up in Zimbabwe, which is hard as people’s wages haven’t/ have gone up. The NEC has increased the wage 17.65% across the board, but this doesn’t work for beggars, guys who sell goes on the road, in the parking lots and domestic staff. This is for the “workforce”. But a litre of juice is $2.50, a litre of milk is $1.50 and veggies have just gone up. So my drink repertoire now consists of coffee and water. My veggie intake in Canada has always been great, I’m a huge fan of salad and at university had 1 a day as well as a veggie with dinner. Here in Zimbabwe with ZESA cuts veggies last a week. Since I grocery shop once a month living in a rural area my veggie intake happens at the beginning of the month, I freeze a few veggies for the end of the month for my left over chili the last 4 days of the month. Luckily this month ZESA has been a bit better then usual, why I don’t ask I am just thankful so my veggies have lasted 2 weeks. The network (phone and internet) has been horrid with the weather (rain, grey sky, clouds, and VERY WINDY) and I’m from BC so I know windy. It’s actually a miracle that we’ve had power but satellites and cables and all that communication technical stuff has just been non-existent.
I spent part of the morning on site meeting with the contractor dealing with issues like the drainage, rebar and windows. So my rebar issue is now SOLVED!! But we now just need to make it work with the budget, that’s a lot harder then it sounds trust me. There is a reason I didn’t become an accountant but maybe I should’ve taken some classes. This is also the reason that companies have many people on a project, each with their own specialty, which makes sense. I just keep telling myself this is ALL LEARNING!
So the cost of food has gone up in Zimbabwe, which is hard as people’s wages haven’t/ have gone up. The NEC has increased the wage 17.65% across the board, but this doesn’t work for beggars, guys who sell goes on the road, in the parking lots and domestic staff. This is for the “workforce”. But a litre of juice is $2.50, a litre of milk is $1.50 and veggies have just gone up. So my drink repertoire now consists of coffee and water. My veggie intake in Canada has always been great, I’m a huge fan of salad and at university had 1 a day as well as a veggie with dinner. Here in Zimbabwe with ZESA cuts veggies last a week. Since I grocery shop once a month living in a rural area my veggie intake happens at the beginning of the month, I freeze a few veggies for the end of the month for my left over chili the last 4 days of the month. Luckily this month ZESA has been a bit better then usual, why I don’t ask I am just thankful so my veggies have lasted 2 weeks. The network (phone and internet) has been horrid with the weather (rain, grey sky, clouds, and VERY WINDY) and I’m from BC so I know windy. It’s actually a miracle that we’ve had power but satellites and cables and all that communication technical stuff has just been non-existent.
I spent part of the morning on site meeting with the contractor dealing with issues like the drainage, rebar and windows. So my rebar issue is now SOLVED!! But we now just need to make it work with the budget, that’s a lot harder then it sounds trust me. There is a reason I didn’t become an accountant but maybe I should’ve taken some classes. This is also the reason that companies have many people on a project, each with their own specialty, which makes sense. I just keep telling myself this is ALL LEARNING!
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