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Starting Week 4

So last week saw another change of plans on site : Tuesday was the last day of the JCB on site, where it only worked for a couple of hours before having to be brought somewhere else, requested by the preparation of the presidential elections...

We're getting ready to start making CSEB anyways, I had a closer look to the soil that is being prepared and sent several emails to ask for some advice. We're going to have to go though a test phase anyways, as we're not really sure of the soil we have... it's a good one no doubt, but is it really more sandy / more silty / more clayey ? This is unclear...

This is not coffee

And the collaboration with the structural engineer is a bit hard as he still didn't really look into what we want to do. Despite all of our discussions, he keeps having in mind that we're using the same type of material that people usually use here, which are hand pressed bricks with 20% cement as a stabilizer... Nope, not the same. Ours are stabilized with 5% cement, max 6 to 8% depending on the soil... And with different dimensions. But as usual, the SE just waits for the drawings to be done in A'CAD.

I also pushed forward the preparation of the compost toilets construction as we're going to implement the same system in the dormitory building, for a toilet accessible from outside. It's getting complicated as I thought the sealed tanks could be done by fired bricks walls + cement plaster but different people tell me different things. Different people with no first hand experience of that type of thing, of course... So I've also been researching and asking around. So far I still don't really know...


I've also been working on the plans for the Family Cottages and the Dormitory, as these are the 2 types of buildings that we're going to start. We're still lacking developped designs for these 2, so I try to work as fast as possible to get them, as well as service (piping and electricity) plans done, as well as "execution drawings" for the materials, the laying out of the bricks etc... This is a bit too much work for one person but unfortunately the student I was hoping to get some help from isn't really able to do much.
 



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