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Paragon Compost System – The Walls Are Poured
July 5th, 2010 by peter
Last week, the walls to our newest Paragon Compost System were poured. For those of us who do not have a great deal of concrete experience, it is a fairly laborious process to set up the forms and make sure that everything is ready to receive concrete. It’s too late once the trucks arrive, so care was taken to make sure that everything is on line and all the fittings are tight. For a concrete contractor, this is a comparatively simple process and no doubt they use many “tricks of the trade”.
On Friday, June 25th, the concrete truck and pump truck arrived and the fun began. The pump truck is operated by remote control so placing the concrete inside the wall forms only took about an hour to complete. After placing the compost, Roger and Ryan used a concrete vibrator to make sure that the air bubbles were displaced out of the walls and that no pockets were left behind. Finally, the tops of the walls were finished to provide a nice top surface.
On Monday, the forms were removed from the walls and the excess concrete was cleaned up. The next step will be to connect the aeration pipes, clean up the excess gravel in each of the plenum boxes, and cut the boards for the slatted floor. Following this, we will begin to construct the roof structure and attach the gates that will retain the manure in the bin prior to starting the airflow.
It will be a few weeks between now and my next blog entry. Roger and his wife are planning a 3-week trip to Europe, so we’ll “see you” when he returns.
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