In Good Form

We have one more day of work on the formwork! Or, I think so.

Yesterday it chose to rain most of the day. Despite the fact that this is California, and it is late May. It's even supposed to rain on Wednesday this week, which is June. I have no words for this. Anyway, the weather was quite reasonable today, so we set out to finish the formwork.

Making the 45-degree corners

The first thing to make were the column faces for the two 45-degree turns. These were made easier with the help of both the 45-degree framing square, and my adjustable square set to 22.5 degrees to help determine the correct location for the wall beginning and ending. I guess I'm kind of glad that box of drafting supplies never actually sold on Craigslist.

The other 45-degree corner

We had to dig out some more on the sides of the trenches, just to fit the formwork, but apart from that the column faces went very smoothly.

Putting form liner into the corners

I glued in the EPDM form liner, and we let them cure up. (Check out the heat bubbles on this one; they appeared just after the working time on the glue was over.)

Assembling the last sled

Then we assembled the last bits of formwork: the front sled and the back formwork for the slanted section of the wall. It's longer than the other segments of the wall, so for the front we used two pieces of plywood; they will be covered up by the form liner.

Last sled with drying glue

If it weren't for the glue, we could have been done today; instead we left things to finish curing up overnight and will continue tomorrow. We still have to get the formwork centered on the rebar, then level it, then attach it to the footing and seal off the bottom to keep the concrete in. I need to tape up the seams in the EPDM (I looked into actual EPDM tape and it was ridiculously expensive, so I'm experimenting with some other tapes).

The roses are blooming