Construction Process

Picture 01-04. Measuring and cutting the Hebel blocks (with hand saw) according to proposed design.

Picture. 05 Kangping and Angelo were leveling

Picture 06. Dean was mixing the cement. According to the instruction, it was mixed with 250g cement and 1.25L water. 

Picture 07. Angelo and Dean were laying the first layer of Hebel blocks (Number 1-3). Cement were put on both sides and bottom of the blocks.

Picture 08. Angelo and Kangping were laying the second layer of the Hebel blocks (Number 3-5). 

Picture 09. Feng and Dean were laying the third layer of Hebel blocks (Number 6-8). We changed the design a little bit at the site. By switching Block 7 and Block 8, we now have the gaps between every two blocks aligned with the centre of the blocks above and under.

Picture 10. The “brick” layer of the RBV construction.

Picture 11-12. Dean was putting up timber sheet and blocks as temporary bracing to support the wall before the cement sets.

Picture 13. Angelo and Dean were cutting the redundant window frame.

Picture 14. Window after frame being trimmed.

Picture 15-18. Angelo, Feng and Dean were assembling the new plywood window frame.

Picture 19. Angelo was measuring the distance between the window and edge of frame to ensure the window was fixed vertically and was located at the desired place.

Picture 20. Angelo and Dean were nail the window onto the new plywood frame.

Picture 21. Kangping and Dean were measuring and marking the timber for stud construction.

Picture 22-23. Angelo, Feng and Dean were cutting the timber with drop saw.

Picture 24-25. Angelo, Kangping and Dean were assembling the timber structure with nail gun.

Picture 26. The finished timber structure was then nailed to the base plywood board.

Picture 27. The nogging was fixed to the timber studs and window was put into place.

Picture 28. The rest of the Hebel blocks were laid according to proposed design.

Picture 29. A piece of timber was fixed onto the top of the Hebel block wall as roof batten. And temporary bracing was put up to support the structure before the cement sets.

Picture 30. Kangping and Dean were measuring and cutting weatherboards.

Picture 31. Additional two timber members were put up next to the sides of window frame for weathers to be fixed onto.

Picture 32. Angelo and Feng were fixing weatherboards onto the timber frame with nails.

Picture 33. The front of the wall with weatherboards installed.

Picture 34. Angelo was cutting the corrugated roof sheet with disc grinder.

Picture 35. Holes were drilled and the corrugated roof sheet was fixed to the roof batten with nails. We overlapped the roof sheets to provide better protection from water.

Picture 36. Kaiping was sealing the gaps around the window with silicon.

Picture 37. The wall construction work was then finished. Temporary bracing was set up again to stabilize the wall. We can now wait for the cement and silicon to set so we can start the water test.

Note: As Feng Jiang was keeping a record of the construction process, she appears less frequently in the photos. However, all construction work was assigned evenly for each group member.