Post by pjm5755 on Sept 26, 2013 22:15:39 GMT
Thanks Terry, good to hear that its being read and viewed.
The photos in the one of the first posts were all side by side, rather than vertical, so is making the messages wide and need to be scrolled across, well at least they do on my computer.
Back to the build, this is stage that I ran in to problems to try and get the arch on the dome. It was difficult to get a timber former to the arch shape, curved in two directions and fixed enough to lay the half bricks. I tried but it didn't really work.
It was also becoming difficult to get the next course of the dome as it was sloping in more and the bricks didn't stay in place.
My solution, or was it desperation, was to use one of my bags on vermiculite that was fixed in the gap, firmed up in the centre and to a shape of the planned arch! A layer of dpc was laid on top to try and keep a smooth curve.
I also adopted the same method for the dome from that stage onwards by using another bag of vermiculite and getting the dome shape with smalled carrier bags of sand. The photos show it better than words with the vermiculite bags.
Once the bricks were laid and left for a couple of days, the plastic bags were cut and the vermiculite removed carefully to reveal the arch and dome inside. There was excess mortar from the joints, but it was still greenish, so scraped off quite easily.
Is it a bodge, well may be, but it got me past a difficult stage.
Paul
[
The photos in the one of the first posts were all side by side, rather than vertical, so is making the messages wide and need to be scrolled across, well at least they do on my computer.
Back to the build, this is stage that I ran in to problems to try and get the arch on the dome. It was difficult to get a timber former to the arch shape, curved in two directions and fixed enough to lay the half bricks. I tried but it didn't really work.
It was also becoming difficult to get the next course of the dome as it was sloping in more and the bricks didn't stay in place.
My solution, or was it desperation, was to use one of my bags on vermiculite that was fixed in the gap, firmed up in the centre and to a shape of the planned arch! A layer of dpc was laid on top to try and keep a smooth curve.
I also adopted the same method for the dome from that stage onwards by using another bag of vermiculite and getting the dome shape with smalled carrier bags of sand. The photos show it better than words with the vermiculite bags.
Once the bricks were laid and left for a couple of days, the plastic bags were cut and the vermiculite removed carefully to reveal the arch and dome inside. There was excess mortar from the joints, but it was still greenish, so scraped off quite easily.
Is it a bodge, well may be, but it got me past a difficult stage.
Paul
[
