Roof over First floor

May 25, 2016
Wow, I can't believe it had been seven weeks since my last post. The house detailing and Interiors is keeping me really busy.
The Boveda ceilings (the exposed brick ceilings) are going in. It is a long, tedious process, as the brick is installed one by one and they form a flat arch between the steel beams, which are no more than 36" center to center.
The areas where the brick is going to be the visible part of the ceiling, they use a special brick and they tool the joints as they go.
The Kitchen, bathrooms, closets will get plastered for a smooth white finish and they use normal brick and do not tool the joints.
The cost of the two ceilings is the same as the price of the plastering is made up in the labor for tooling and the special brick.
Steel mesh for reinforcement and 3.5" of concrete is poured on top of the Boveda structure for the final "slab".
However, this is not done until the electrical wiring and plastering of the walls is done.

The strength of the Boveda structure is AMAZING. The next day after is built, they can stack PILES of brick on it... down right scary...

This is the Terrace ceiling. As there is a second floor over it, the brick is set on the edge for increased strength.

May 30, 2016

Finished Terrace ceiling.

They pour a "milk of concrete" on top of it and it is good to go. As you can see, the two architects below use it as a drawing surface.

Oscar and I are on top of the Terrace, Jim's future Study Room. The volume in the back is the Master Bedroom, to receive
the Guest Room on top.

June 13, 2016

The steel for the Living Room sloped ceiling is in.

Detail of the steel. It has steel pegs welded at the top on outside of the concrete beam to prevent sliding and continuous rods of steel across the whole roof to connect the beams to each other.

Living Room ceiling with the Skylight opening.

Boveda over Living Room and the storage/Bodega of the garage on front right.

Close up of the Living Room roof. The brick is on the lower flange of the steel beam, the concrete milk on top.
When the wire mesh is put over and the 8 cm of concrete poured over, the half top of the steel beams become incased in the concrete for a very strong concrete slab.

Lupe started few weeks ago the electrical conduits for the first floor. He is the electrician and plumber. Lupe worked for many years in Houston and is very familiar with American construction standards. He is a very nice and skilled man and also very creative.

He cuts with a rotary blade into the brick and chops out for the conduits.

On the first floor, one can not run conduits on the ground from one location to the other because of potential humidity from the ground. On the second floor you can go across the floor, on top of the Boveda brick, to be later incased in the concrete. 

This is the West wall in the Kitchen with the power conduit installed.

We are moving on the the second floor. Hurray!!!!!