Rattray foundation Head office

 Rattray foundation head office

Our most challenging project yet where we had to build on a gradient and the base was all clay

Obviously rammed earth adds some additional challenges to this type of construction

Embedded in the clay was huge granite rocks that had to be burnt and cooled to break before we could get

Down to foundation level

All foundations in the basement are reinforced 1m x 0.8 with 16 mm rebar

Olso tied to these vertically where tie bars for the retaining wall  this had to be done as 

three sides of the wall are holding back the clay

The vertical bars that will run up the retaining walls to create a stressed member

Shows the bars that will run all the way through the wall to the top of the slab

Then two lines of bricks 300 mm apart with our Steal  in the cavity we can lift three lines at a time and then

Fill with concrete

The following pic shows how the slab beams are being put into place  these will hold the

Blocks that will form the base of the concrete

 Two things to note the double plastic membrane

And the top of the walls the concrete and the reinforcing to tie into the slab

The same time we where doing that we started the curved foundations for the front walls

The auditing part when the first shutters come off  .The wall smells so good when you first take of the shutter it's a moist smell like inside a cave

The coloring was made by washing clay with water and extracting the red pigment

Then using the pigment stained water to make the mixes of sand 

Here you can see the process as the shutters are moved up the wall till the wall is complete

The colors will be further intensified by washing the wall with an acid wich removes all   

The cement coloring

As we get to the under slab level all the bottom ramming must be completed