Up on the roof
To get the award for ‘best insulated roof of the world’, the chief director of the project invented a pack of advanced materials. Layer by layer they will be applied.
Lovely Leca
The roof must be gradient, so the rain will flow to the corners of the roof and into the drain pipes. The builders make little piles of stones. They use ropes from center to the corners to make exact gradient height measurements. Along these lines Leca will be poured. You may know and use Leca as a filling for your plant pots. Now these ecological and sustainable clay pebbles are mixed with a light concrete. This layer is not too heavy but already provides good insulation. It will last forever. And of course the bushing of all technical equipment on the roof must be ensured. So this gets a special little brick wall.
Layer by layer
Huge bags of materials are delivered for mixture with water. The big machine helps to lift the product to the roof. There they spread it, ram it, and flatten it, bit by bit, under a blaring hot sun. The last cover is a thin cement layer to flatten it all to a smooth surface.
In the meantime unfortunately the red machine broke down. A part of the machine had to be ordered from Belgium and needed a specialist for installation. The builders couldn’t work for a couple of days, as it was impossible to carry the Leca bucket by bucket up the ladder.
Drafty house
Some four weeks have passed since the poured the concrete for the roof! Now most of the jack posts cab be removed and we have the best wall-less building ever. A bit drafty, though… But with lightning speed our builders continue. They are laying the bricks for the walls of the additional building. Once up they can use the building as a site hut, and be more protected for the sun and heat. Their building style is very neat, with these special hollow bricks, a shame the building will later be covered up. These bricks, from Artebel, also have Leca in their composition. A wall of Leca, with a thickness of 15 cms, has the same insulation value as a normal brick wall of 50 cms thickness!
Luís measures his heights again and again. Even though he will not be able to change anything. But when you consider all the layers of material that still will be installed on the floor, and against the ceiling. Oh well, we’ll find a way to wriggle ourselves inside the house.
