For the last few days we've been pouring the patio. It has to be done in sections to (hopefully) prevent cracks in the concrete as it cures. My job is to properly mix the color. The color is calculated for bags of U.S. cement which weigh 94 lbs. Cement bags in Mexico weigh 110 lbs.
We bought a scoop, figured out the proper amount of color for a 110 bag, then took the color and scoop to the hardware store where they have a scale. We weight out the proper amount of color and made a mark in the scoop. For each bag of cement, the color is added. The stuff is a mess. It permanently stains clothes....and almost permanently stains skin.
I can't believe how hard these guys work. Each bag of cement is loaded by hand into the mixer (110 lbs), along with 4-5 gallon buckets of gravel, and 4-5 gallon buckets of sand. Each bucket weighs nearly 40 lbs. This process has been repeated 70 times so far and we're only half way done. That's nearly 30,000 lbs of material lifted by hand into the mixer in less than an hour!
Each mixer load produces two wheelbarrows full of concrete. Omar, pictured here, logged 140 trips to complete what we've done so far. I can't even describe how heavy each wheelbarrow load is:
To the left is the pour from a few days ago, and to the right...todays pour:
A decorative rock:
While the patio pour is going on, our contractor and I (mostly our contractor), are building the shade structure that will go over the courtyard. These are "knife plates" that will hold up the 4"x6" beams. I cut the metal and welded them to form a "T". They are then welded to rebar that's imbedded into the concrete.
The headers are going up. We painted the wall behind them to seal it.
Here's the workshop. All tools are being powered by the sun!
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