One of the things we have observed in both Trinidad and Tobago is that mixing cement by hand, or rather by shovel is an art. You toss some sand down and some gravel and cement and water and stir it around with your shovel until you get it the consistency you need, then scoop it into the mold. This works for small projects as well as big floors or step molds. Sometimes you will see a small cement mixer, but the project in front of our house is by shovel. They are redoing the gutters for the drainage when it rains. It is tough getting out of our road onto the main road when all the workers are there. Traffic backs up a little during the busier times of the day since this is a main artery to the highway.
.
There is lots of construction going on in our neighborhood. We know that the Signal Hill area where we live has grown tremendously over the last 10 years.
These houses are along one of the routes we walk in the mornings.
In building a house, they almost always complete the top floor first even if it does sit on a hill. This provides access to the breezes, a place to park your car, hang your clothes or lime (sit around and talk). All of the support posts are of cement, of course, reinforced with steel rods. When they are ready to do the floor of the second story, they cut long bamboo poles to support the floor structure. They are amazingly strong. The walls are of block covered by a thin coat of cement. The plumbing, is often run along the outside of the walls.
For a water source; you have two choices, hook up to nearby water source, or catch rain water and have it funnel into the big barrels. Everyone has at least one black barrel to store the water and to assist with better water pressure. Our water comes through a blue flexible pipe running along the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment