Lessons Learnt

The most important lesson is that with the right intention, it's possible to do anything include build an interesting house. If nothing else, the journey was worth the effort. And the result? Well I think the house is 'awesome'! And hey, it won an award for sustainability so it's not too shabby either.



Passive Heating
The very first lesson in the middle of winter was how warm the living room was. The sunlight flooded into the room as the patio roof had still not been installed and the floor sucked up this warmth. At night this radiated out as though the underfloor heating was on full bore.

The patio roof had always been a concern as its effect would be to block the light from the living room. After fully appreciating the importance of this heating effect, a redesign of the roof became a priority. I had always felt that the patio roof was too high (3.6m) and would it would not have created any sense of embrace or allure. As a result, we chose a rather unusual design that both allowed sunlight into the living room whilst dropping the height of the patio roof. This was fairly inspired and after it was installed completely satisfied our needs. The 45deg glass pitched section still allowed a significant footprint of sunlight into the house but lowered the roof by around one metre. The picture on the right was taken on Sept 26th, just after the equinox when the sunlight footprint was due to leave the the house. The house will now remain in the shadow cast by the roof (to reduce the heat load) until March 21, when the sun will again reenter the house to provide the passive heating we will again require. This has been so successful, we do not have an electric heater in the house. The average winter temperature was between 19-22 degrees and so far the average summer temperature has been between 21-26 degrees and we've had some hot days!


Biodigester
The biodigester does work in so far as it produces gas. It's also very combustible but there is a significant psychological barrier to using this as a replacement for existing cooking gas supplies. So at the moment I burn off some gas during a demonstration from time to time - but this really is a issue of boys with their toys. However, the intention is to compress the gas into a cylinder and then to burn it off for non-cooking purposes such as hot water heating or to use it in the hot house when that's finally up and running.

Grey Water Treatment
We constructed the water treatment bed and filled it with gravel, sand and then planted some plants. Shortly thereafter, we switched it on and my family and I went off for a two week break. The grey water then passed through the bed and was pumped into a holding tank that filled the toilet cisterns. By the time we returned, the house smelled like a sewer and the house sitter (Johan) was blamed for a variety of odours.

A greywater treatment plant is not a greywater treatment plant until you can build up sufficient microbial activity to process all the soaps and stuff in the water. It is, after all, a living filter and requires life to function. So after four months of promoting life and cleansing, the greywater treatment bed is now fully functional. The toilet cisterns are being filled 100% with recycled water and I've told no one in the house. The moment they hear this news, it'll be a matter of time before a psychosomatic smell appears in the house again.


Hot Water Solar
This is a great success. However not so when it's overcast. In fact, it would be safer to say that they do not work in overcast conditions - at all. But when the sun shines, they cook. Below is a plot of our electricity consumption for the geyser and lights only over a period of 4 days. The geyser draws 11 amps and is the block of consumption on the left of the graph during the first day. The three spikes are also the geyser getting a final bit of heating before the morning bathroom run during the subsequent days. The other little humps (less than 4 Amps or 1kW) are the cumulative consumption of all the lights in the house. Basically the one geyser element dwarfs the lighting electricity demand and when the sun shines, the sun completely eliminates this requirement. So I'm convinced they're worth the investment but we still have to get them to pass the hail test.

Roof Vegetation
This was a point of debate for quite sometime. In the end we planted some succulents on the basis that they would survive a dry spell. This was done after the topsoil was spread and initially this was our only roof cover. Then it rained and the grasses sprouted and the roof became a mottled green. In winter the grasses died back and the succulents came to fore once again. However even they were struggling just before the rains came this summer. They were seriously dehydrated so we intervened with some water. They have since made a great recovery and now that the rains have returned, the roof is again rich in green. But what's growing there is anyone's guess. I have a very apathetic view of this; whatever flourishes will and whatever won't will die. It's a bit like any ecosystem in the world.


The Garden
The worm farm is a great success. However the chickens have discovered them and the worms are now having to take some evasive action. The 'worm tea' is flowing abundantly. Not that it's all the worms doing. When it rains, the worm tea is literally leached out of the wormery and now I have a reservoir of the stuff.

The vegetables are growing well. Everything grows well in this area but I really don't have a clue about growing vegetables. Some things flourish then fail while others stumbled at first and then blossom. I do not have any idea what to expect except that when it begins to yield food, it comes in a massive tidal wave. I've even started buying books that instruct you on how to preserve food but I can't say they're a riveting read.

I raided the beehive the other day and ended up with around 2 litres of honey. I left the bees more honey than I took but at least it was a start. I've since invested in some more hives and I relocated a hive from a nearby estate into one of them. So I'm waiting on the second to become occupied and I hope this takes place soon. By next year, I should be off the honey grid.

I suppose the one lesson in all of this is that you don't just wake up one day and become food secure because that's your intention. It's a process of learning something completely new and the independence is something that takes months if not years to achieve.


The Chickens
They're a pain in the butt. They go on strike when they're put in the chicken tractor but cause chaos when they're not. The vegetables are taking a hammering and I have to ring fence each plant to save it from destruction - especially the broccoli and cauliflower. In the meantime they breed like rabbits but the chick mortality is high - not that we've seen a dead baby. I think the snakes are having a field day. The house has boycotted eating fertilised eggs as they have this 'white spot' which inevitably means the snakes are getting to eat more offspring. Not that I've seen a snake either. But we don't want to lock them up and when we forget to put them away at night, Rodney the rooster gives us the 4h30 alarm call outside our window. Rodney has nearly been turned to stew on several occasions now. This is a real love hate relationship and I'm often seen pursuing them around the garden like Mr Plod.

In - the end

Today the chickens produced their first egg. The cock discovered his crow a few days ago, so the one probably follows on from the other. It was small and perfect, but an egg nevertheless. That was after we had a lunch entirely from our vegetable garden, which was another first. On the whole, today has been a milestone but not quite as big as the past few weeks.

We moved in on the 27th of May and that was a milestone of note. The house was not quite ready, but we had to move out of our rented accommodation by the end of May and so we moved.

Johan and I had become experts in the just-in-time school of building. On the 26th of May, there were no functioning toilets - the biodigester had not arrived, but it did - at the 11th hour and that was my only real concern. I told my daughters that we would be using a pit toilet in the meantime but that was not well received. Seems toilets are incomplete without a mirror, basin and a variety of other essentials and anything less is just not funny.

Of course the rain did not let up until almost the last day. We started wet (the first rains) and ended wet and now that we're in, the clouds have vanished bar a couple of overcast days. The short overcast period taught us that solar hot water panels do not work well when there's no sun. But when there is sun, they cook! The underfloor heating is not really functional but not that it's needed. The temperature has plummeted to around 4degC but the house remains warm enough for displays of nudity - not that there's much of that with builders everywhere. But it's warm and the concept of passive heating works a treat. We've been out at various end of term functions and arriving back to a house radiating heat late at night is just fantastic. In the mornings, Johan who arrives wrapped up for arctic weather remains impressed by the residual warmth in the house. It's just great.

Molly and Dolly were an anniversary gift from Andrea who heeded some advice that we needed some sheep on the roof. Africa being what it is can breathe life even into the most eccentric of ideas. The sheep arrived and they were duly installed on the roof. They've got white bodies with black heads and stand fairly majestically at the highest corner of the roof casting their gaze over all visitors - most of whom who give a double or triple take. They're a truly African breed, made by the hands of some intrepid beadist who sells his wares at a local traffic light in Jo'burg. Being life-size, they're convincingly real - enough to stop the traffic. And they've witnessed every manic move that's been typical of the past month and most of all they love the Venda clay pots.

Jonathan and I worked together and he gave me a gift of an African pot some time ago - one made by Rebecca Matibe, a close relation. I ordered some more of these to gather my rainwater harvested water. The idea was that the water would seep off the roof and drain into these stunning pots before making its way to a collection point for treatment. It was a risk as I had no idea of the volume of water or how it would drain into the pots. There have been a few teething problems, but I've now installed a short chain from each downpipe to help guide the water without much spillage. Now they stand fairly proudly at the back of the house adding a very African feel to this earthy place.

These of course arrived as we were beginning to lay the paving and concrete panels around the house. I'm fairly keen to avoid a damp problem so we've paved and cast a 1.4m wide hard surface area all the way around the house. To break up the large entertainment area at the back of the house, we created a small labyrinth as a test of one's sobriety. If you can follow the curves, they will lead you to the front (back) door and it also makes a wonderful diversion for a stressed mind. At the moment, it's only the chickens that use it as they're the ones who can walk under all the patio furniture that now occupies the space.

The progress inside the house was fantastic. It felt like a marathon and included installing all the plumbing, the various cupboards, vanities, windows, alarm system and of course the painting, tiling etc. etc. The biggest shock in this regard is the cost of all the finishing - from the labour costs to the items themselves. It has been a sobering experience and I can now walk the labyrinth blindfolded. The significant increases in prices since our last renovation which was only a few years ago came as a surprise. Architects and builders talk of being able to do things cheaply, but this must come at significant compromises in quality - with just the cheapest of everything being installed which must create huge maintenance costs later. One of the sustainable movements' clarion calls is to invest in quality items - just for this reason. Gucci said it also when he claimed that 'quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten' - not that I carry a handbag and can testify to his quality. But it seems that quality is becoming less and less affordable and that a massive cycle of junk replacing junk lies ahead of us - until of course we can no longer afford the junk...

Of course poor workmanship remains prevalent and we encountered some more of that. Equally though, we had some fantastic experiences. The tilers, carpenters and stucco plasterers were fantastic. They were all self employed and did the work themselves. The biggest and most consistent problem seems to develop when a contractor drops off his semi skilled staff leaving them to their own devices. Despite the lack of supervision, lack of productivity and flared tempers, they seem unsympathetic. However, I suppose if your business is to make money off only your labourers' efforts and not your own, then having disgruntled clients must come with the territory.

We've still a bit to do around the outside of the house. The fencing is being installed at the moment and the underside of the roof slab is being plastered. The grass needs to be laid in front of the house and the patio roof needs to be installed. Fortunately the first patio roof design was rejected which meant that we moved in before it was installed. Now, understanding the importance of sunlight in the house, the design will radically change. The grey water treatment bed is still to be built and the rainwater harvesting tank needs to be installed. This will happen next week. Finally, the biodigester needs a gas line to be connected to it and then we'll be cooking off home made biogas.

So there remains a lot more to be said. But now I need to chase the chickens off the table and to prepare a place to eat my egg.

Fuzzy Warm

For a perfectly comfortable living space, we've installed underfloor heating & cooling. Our climate is fairly mild. It gets hot (30+deg C) and cold (5deg C), which is fairly temperate compared to Virginia for example, where you can add another 20deg to the temperature swing. A comfortable temperature for the whole year then is around 21 degrees, cool in the summer and warm in the winter. And that's where the underfloor heating & cooling comes in. This highly technical system that normally requires the input of engineers, architects and consultants actually only required a tiny bit of planning, a few coloured wax crayons and a sheet of polystyrene. And of course a few other pieces of polystyrene, pipes and connectors...

So the A-Z of our heating and cooling system is as follows (and donations are welcome): We insulated the floor of the house from the ground by laying 100mm layer of polystyrene down on the floor which had first been compacted, treated for termites and leveled with river sand. The polystyrene is what they put in into the floors of large fridges and freezers. Onto this we then laid our coils of piping which transfer the heat into or out of the slab. To ensure the heat is delivered to the correct room, we installed the delivery piping in the middle of the polystyrene effectively insulating it from the slab and the ground. When it reaches the relevant room, it is brought out of the polystyrene and that section is then cast between the polystyrene and the slab. The heat is then transmitted into or out of the slab.

Each room or zone has its own supply and all the zones share a couple of return pipes. The diameters of the supply and return pipes obviously differ, but it significantly reduces the amount of piping required.



Just to be different, heating is also provided in all of the cupboards. The theory behind this is to keep the cupboards permanently warm with ventilated air to prevent any mould build up. It's a problem here and I'm tired of mould growing everywhere while I sleep. These circuits are supplied separately to the rest of the circuits in the house.

The supply manifold is simplicity itself. There are no fancy solenoid valves with separate temperature controllers - another costly item to maintain or repair. We just have a simple system to regulate flow rate which when 'tuned' should provide just the right amount of heating and cooling to all the rooms in the house. This may take a bit of time to achieve, but it is not rocket science. And the picture is pre-manifold installation.

Currently we are busy with installing all the pipework, geysers, pumps and controllers in the 'control room'. The pumps are beautiful little things that can be set to different operating powers: 30, 60 or 90W. This is quite handy when you have different flow requirements and they are the same pumps that were supplied with the solar hot water panels.

Just to boost the heating in winter, I have ordered a slow combustion fireplace with a boiler attached. This will be connected into the system and the beauty of this is that we will be able to distribute the heat from the fireplace throughout the house. It supplements the solar heating, which is what we will be using to heat the water that will heat the house.

The benefit of the insulated floor extends to the hot water supply for all the bathrooms and kitchen. We have installed a ring supply which is also buried and insulated in the polystyrene. This allows us to circulate the hot water from time to time which has a significant water saving consequence. When you open a hot tap, the hot water will almost instantly arrive at the tap. This saves leaving the hot tap running while you wait for the water to arrive and in some houses that I've lived in, this can take ages and consume gallons of water. Being insulated in the polystyrene obviously saves significant amounts of heating energy. This means that the circulating pump need only operate for a minute or two every hour.

To cool the house, all we do is pump cool water through the pipe network. This should cool the floor down to around 15 degrees C which should make everything feel quite comfortable. The cool water is provided by a geothermal loop that has been buried outside - all 600m of it. Again this is free energy except for the circulating pump which uses next to no power even at full output. Nevertheless, considering the design of the house I expect that the heating and cooling needs will be minimal even at the worst of times.

So the only question that now remains is how well does all of this work? And that answer needs a bit of time and experience. But it will work.

Buried and Planted

I now realise that peoples area's of expertise extend only as far as the product they sell. We went off to a local company to help us deal with the poorly finished roof and specifically our concern that it may leak. This was motivated by the fact that we noticed a small 'stabilisation crack' appearing in the roof. The proposal was to seal the roof with a 10mm cementitious waterproof layer that would properly bond to the concrete roof. This is effectively cement with a waterproof additive and I did not understand the difference between this product and the 100 cubes of cementitious concrete with a fancy waterproof additive that we had already laid. But of course it was being supplied by someone different so it was sure to work. However we needed a smooth finish for this product, something we did not have. Also it was prone to crack - just as we had experienced so there was no guarantee. In the end we went for a paint-on bitumen layer - or rather several layers which is flexible and if not exposed to the sun, would last a lifetime. Well let's hope it lasts my lifetime at least.

We then agreed to lay down some 'Biddum' onto which we would lay the crushed stone. This would protect the bitumen layer from damage. Another layer of Biddum would be laid onto the crushed stone which would separate our drainage layer from the top soil. The Biddum would also prevent the roots of the plants from reaching the concrete. Our intention was to purchase a roll of the stuff and obviously cost is an issue, so we were going for the thinnest option. However, Philip who supplies us our earthmoving equipment had some lying around his yard from a previous job that he kindly supplied to us at the cost of the cheap stuff. When I compared it to what we were planning on using, I realised that we had almost made a big mistake.



Poen then installed his solar frames and the plumber connected them up. We used 28mm copper piping to supply the solar bank and this we insulated with lagging generally used by airconditioning installers. The frames are a bit of an eyesore, but I've grown used to the sight of them and in the end, I know the plants will eventually hide them.


Finally we were ready to start loading the crushed stone and soil, something that we considered to be a major milestone. It needed around 30 tons of crushed stone and then even more topsoil. Obviously this could not be loaded by hand and we brought in an excavator, the only bit of local plant that had the necessary reach. Being a fairly large machine, it does not have the finesse of something smaller so we ended up with a bit of soil mixed in the stone. I feel that this may need a few good rains to wash out the loose soil but only time will tell. On the other hand, it could in fact be a benefit. Fortunately this progressed rapidly with the whole crew moving and spreading the stone as we went. This was again covered with Biddum which made it look as if we had made no progress at all.

We had separated and collected the topsoil from when we first broke ground. This had in the meantime become overgrown with a variety of grasses and lay unnoticed for some time. We were concerned that we did not have enough, however we were surprised by the quantity we had available. This took quite a bit longer to spread than did the stone and had to do with the fact that we put on quite a thick layer.

The roof is designed to carry 450kg/m2 with a significant safety margin and we estimated that we loaded half of that. It is unsafe to load the roof to its limit due to the fact that the water retained in the soil from a rain could add anything up to another 80 odd tons to it. That's obviously presuming it becomes fully saturated.

Just to be different, we collected some rocks to make a rockery. Some of these were quite large and Midnight was dreading having to carry them up the ladder and was pleased to see them so easily lifted by the excavator. He and John then set about laying them out and digging them in. The rocks look far more natural if they are dug into the ground rather than planted arbitrarily on top of it. We tended to place these rocks over the ringbeams where we knew there was maximum strength. The rockery allowed us to create islands of fairly deep soil where we were able place plants with a deeper root structure. Generally we have covered the roof with succulents all of which can exist on very little water. These we have been propogating in our vegetable garden over the past few months and Johan kindly donated some aloes' and 'hen & chicken' to add some additional character. We will maintain just a small section of the roof as a garden and will let the rest grow wild where I'm expecting a variety of grasses to establish themselves. However without the soil depth they are likely to die back at some point and this is where the succulents will have to come to the rescue. Again, this is pioneering stuff for us and we have no clue as to how things will finally develop on the roof. But it will develop its own equilibrium which will be just fine.

To help the plants establish themselves, we set about irrigating the roof which in itself was quite an odd idea - irrigating a roof! Many people have asked how we intend keeping the soil on the roof. I've been convinced that a combination of gravity, plants and natural compaction keeps most soil in place so this did not worry me much. Well the saturation was a good initial test and it drained properly through the rainwater harvesting channels and through our edge drains. The soil did not slide off, run off, nor wash off!! But then of course a Katrina event may be different but then it certainly won't lift off - at least not all 400 tons of it.

Dawie's unsupervised, unprepared, irresponsible crew set about removing the roof supports inside the house late on Thursday evening. Andrea called in a panic expecting them to damage the walls by what was a complete lack of care in their manner. Despite promises to her and later to me that they would be careful, they did manage to leave gouges in various walls. My instinct was to get them to leave and to only return under supervision but I didn't and now I will be forever reminded of their utter incompetence by the many marks that were left in their wake.

With the props removed, we have begun to prepare the floor. It has been treated for termites and we are busy compacting the layer of 'G5' material in preparation of the polystyrene slabs. It is currently a large open expanse that is flooded with light which is fantastic. Now that the motley Nouns are almost behind us, the road ahead looks promising indeed. We have a unique shell of a house that is the pride of Johan and his crew and one that impresses every visitor of which there are many. And it still impresses me every time I see it.

A Patient NOUN!

It's been almost a month since my last post and it's all due to the fact that very little has happened. Or rather it seems that way. In the meantime, I've discovered the meaning of the word NOUN! and it's made up of in fact two words - NO as in no tools, no plan, no progress, no supervision etc. and UN as in unprepared, unconventional, uncomfortable, unable, undone etc. and that about sums up the past month.

We finished the ringbeam and then Dawie and his unsupervised crew set about replacing the ribs and blocks, installing the props and shutterboard. They were unable to make much progress and only when I took a video of their unproductive time, did I manage to convince Dawie that perhaps he should begin supervising. There was mention of lawyers, court and a few other incentives to convince him of the merits of supervising which may have helped him in his decision. Of course all of the delays were due to the fact that it was an unconventional roof, but we all knew this beforehand. Being unprepared and without a plan did not help matters, but eventually with his supervision there seemed to be a much improved output of work.

The benefits of having done the ringbeam first were significant. The surface was finished at the correct angle which made setting the ribs up very easy. It was helped by the fact that the reinforcing was fixed with the correct spacing permitting the beams to be easily installed without much hassle. The beams, which were two steel lip channels 11m in length were first welded together by Poen our retired millwright. This gave them added rigidity especially as they were straddling a large span. Since the beams were steel, we were able to weld the beams to the reinforcing which prevented them from moving when they were finally correctly positioned. This gave us a significant amount of peace of mind especially as without the concrete the roof is in fact quite light and if the wind were to get under the roof, it could easily move or dislodge it. Another benefit of having done it this way was the fact that the 600mm upstand beam was now seen as a 110mm downstand section with 340mm buried in the roof leaving around a 150mm upstand section. This would be a lot less unsightly and would permit us to cover the whole roof with planted material rather than just the section between the beams.

The process of placing the beams and blocks was quite simple and easy. One problem we encountered was that the engineer's drawing did not take into account the actual block dimension which meant that we were two beams short. This was a frustration but in his defense, he was given the incorrect dimensions by the supplier. However it meant that we had to get the additional beams welded and additional reinforcing bent, supplied and fixed. Of course, one thing that I've discovered is that when you're not paying for the items nor working to a budget, it's very easy to glibly call for more materials rather than calling for more thought.

I don't know how many props we used in the end but there were many. With the blocks on and the props in place, the site looked 'busy'. The electrician finally came in and he was very efficient in placing his conduits. These we double checked and hopefully we have not missed any out. However we are using prefabricated internal walls which are 50mm thick. This meant that the conduit pipes had to be accurately placed in position and Johan took a couple of days marking out the walls on the floor using cement. Using a plumb-bob we then checked the alignment of every conduit. For the electrician using polystyrene blocks was a first. One benefit is that he can move his conduit within the area of the block quite easily after the concrete has been cast so he has some room for error. He can also easily push his conduit through the block and in many cases did not need to install a slab box. However, where the chandeliers were due to be hung, he was worried about the strength of the block to hold up the weight. In these area's he inserted a piece of wood to which he will attach the fitting. Like all the tradesmen, he brought around some of his mates to show them this unique house, which now is not just the unique walls but also the unique roof.

Our internal walls will be supplied by Space-Frame, a Gauteng based company. These are welded wire frames with a layer of insulating material that are rapidly erected by splicing the panels together and then rough plastering them with a 10mm layer of concrete on each side. Later it is skimmed to whatever finish you require. To attach them to the floor, a small foundation is cast with Y8 reinforcing to which the wire frame is attached. We did the same through the roof which means that both the top and the bottom of the wall will be firmly anchored in place. We are hoping to install all the internal walls in 14 days which should be possible.

The unconventional part of the roof was the shuttering required on the edges of the roof. Normally the builder bricks up a small wall that contains the (horizontal) slab, but in this case the roof has quite a large overhang and the overhang itself and the edges needed to be shuttered. The issue was to support the shutterboard on the edge. If it moved, then the edge of the wall would kick and we would not have a straight edge finish. Then we had the issues of the two upstand beams that should have been shuttered to get the square finish. Despite Dawie's best intentions and promises to be ready by Thursday 4 Feb, it was apparent that there was still a lot to do. The concrete was delayed to the Monday, then the Tuesday and finally to Thursday 11 Feb. On the morning of the 11th, he was still busy with the upstand beams and by the time the concrete arrived about 25% of this work had been done. I realised that this was a disaster waiting to happen and decided that we should flow the concrete over the beam so it would look like a traffic calming bump rather than a beam. The engineer was fine with this and in the end, this is what we did. Since it would be below the soil, whatever the finish, it would not be visible so for all intents and purposes was irrelevant.

Eventually we were ready or rather the day had arrived for the concrete and any outstanding issues remained outstanding. The one major unknown was how the concrete would behave on a pitched roof. We had been told that it would run off the bottom by a variety of professionals. So we had ordered the stiffest concrete that could be pumped through a concrete pump. As it was around 30+MPa and had a serious waterproofing additive and fibre reinforcing we knew that it would want to set fairly quickly. The trucks arrived on time as did the concrete pump and we set to work. It was surprisingly fast and the concrete pump with its flexible elephant trunk hose emptied the trucks in minutes. The speed and mass of the pumped concrete began displacing the polystyrene blocks which created gaps in the roof through which the concrete poured. There were moments of joy followed by shouts when the concrete was flooding onto the floor of the house. Quite quickly it became apparent that we needed extra hands and Johan's entire team who were busy with the shed were summonsed onto the roof. We had teams holding the blocks in place whilst others were spreading the mix. We had a group retrieving the fallen concrete and this was returned to the roof. It was a mix of mayhem and order, swinging from one extreme to the other. However in the end we made good progress. What was evident was the fact that the concrete did not run off the roof. It behaved exceptionally well and when vibrated filled the cavities like good concrete should. At least it did not run like a scalded cat.

Dawie had one vibrator working and finally turned on the second unit. This promptly ran out of petrol (no petrol) and he rushed off to buy some more. We used more concrete than we had calculated and there was a big break between the last trucks of concrete that had the pump controller in a state of concern about the concrete setting in his pipes. Eventually our extra concrete arrived and we managed to fill the last cavity with a bit to spare (which we used for the worm farm).

After realising that we would get the roof up in one piece, I was keen to get the finishing done properly. Of particular importance was to get the fall to the drainage pipes correct. These pipes would be collecting our rainwater and it essential that the roof drains thoroughly to these points. While I was insisting on this, the concrete power float was started up in an attempt to get a smooth finish to the roof. The concrete was hardening quite fast. If done properly, this would result in a varnished finish that would ensure any water would easily and rapidly run off the roof. This began in a promising fashion and it looked like we might actually successfully finish the job. From bitter experience, I've seen a poorly floated floor and it would have been better to hand finish the floor rather than power float it. So I was keen to ensure that this would be done properly. It did not help when one of the floats did not work and when the hire shop was called to provide another one, we were told that he would supply one the next day!! (Noun!) While the float was busy, a crew set about finishing off the rounded upstand beam by hand and creating a perfect fall to the drainage points. There was hope yet.

So how did it end up? mmm... the water certainly runs down the gradient. It doesn't leak and considering the cost of the roof this should not come as a surprise. The fall to the drainage holes is uneven (another UN), the floated finish according to the Urban online Dictionary is as rough as a badger's arse and our solution is now to smooth it out with a slurry! Another layer of cost:) In the meantime, we are curing it by keeping it flooded by irrigating it and we're now into day four. So now it's as rough as a wet badger's arse which is no smoother than a dry one if it's made out of 30MPa concrete. Apparently the slurry might come tomorrow or it might not. Dawie's car broke down again so who knows when it will happen? But until it does not look like a badgers arse - wet or dry, I shall continue badgering.

And on the upside, at least I have a roof that appears waterproof despite it being unconventional, made out of CO2 unfriendly concrete that will forever remind me of a badger. And I'm sure there's a noun in there somewhere