Hows that for a title? Well if you know anything about pouring concrete, you'd know what I mean by "vibrator." It is not for getting a massage after the work is done... It is for moving the concrete around the reinforcing bars within the formwork. Check out the columns in these pictures of the project across the street. In two pours they built the columns because they only had enough lumber to do 5 or 6 at once. After two days, they took off the lumber and formed the others. They mixed the concrete up on deck with shovels, then filled buckets to dump it in from the top. Unfortunately, when you look closely, you'll see rebar in several places through voids created by air-pockets. Had they used a vibrator (see bottom photo), the air would have bubbled to the surface. What bothers me most is that this is a part of the continent that gets a lot of major earth quakes. Well, maybe they'll fill in much of the column spaces with concrete block walls and grout the voids. That'll fix it!
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Also of structural interest is the beam they've "poured" between two columns. They've used a rebar cage just like went into the columns. I watched and don't recall the bottom having any extra bars in it to resist tension in the lower half of the beam. Furthermore, they only filled the formwork half way. I guess they'll build a slab across the top of this beam to form the next landing of the staircase. Hmmm.
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I told my office mate that this is about how I'd have built my concrete house if I was doing it with no more help than a few friends and in-laws. It will be just fine and strong enough to last my lifetime... as long as there aren't any major earthquakes. Gulp!
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What should also bother me is that the house I live in now was probably built just like this!
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