28.Ideas for roofing material

Hi,Well its been a while since ive blogged.Sorry for the sudden silence,had too much to juggle with my work and life but thank god im now a bit free.

Enough on the soap opera lets get to the real deal: roofing materials hmmmmm.... this store room project has been on hold due to the reasons that i was not given the opportunity to teach any laboratory skills recently,but now im back with a vengeance.

Recently ive given the students a simple task to recycle some materials into roof tiles and this is what they came up with.


The first group recycled some plastic bottles cut them into half's and layered them on top of each other.To make sure that the roof is water proof we even placed a layer of sarking before the battens made from damp proof plastic.

side view of plastic roof model

front view of plastic roof

The second group applied the same concept but replaced the bottles with some aluminum cans. I must say it is more esthetic but its hard to get them compared with plastic bottles.

side view aluminum roof

front view aluminum roof

27.Bali Inspired Wall Deco

The idea was developed to differentiate the laboratory so that it has a touch and a sense of a building laboratory. I and the lab technician finally came across a Balinese inspired wall decoration that is currently in trend and decided to experiment by using mortar paste to achieve the desired deco style.

Skills:

• The skills that the students and I have developed are the methods of creating molds to cast the various shapes that is a flower, leafs and some vines.
• Experimentation to fill or to cut the mortar paste was  daunting but we finally realize by pressing the shapes down on a mortar mixed has a better finishing than the other way around, it is almost like the process of making animal cookies from a prepared batter.
• We have also discovered that although fine aggregates gives a smooth finishing but the set shapes breaks easily.
• Finally the most difficult part was to stick the shapes on to the wall entrance where a thick but cohesive cement paste was mixed.
• To help the shapes to stick even better, some of the screeding and paint on the wall was grinded off.
• The finished project was then painted the some colour with the wall. 

 

26.Project Ferro cement

In the beginning this was kind of a gray area for it was something that I’ve only read in books and net. Finally after making a sample model to show to the supervisor, the green light was then given to buy the essential items that are needed for the project.

The second target is to reuse all the spoil chairs that has a metal frame and recycle them as the reinforcement for the furniture.

Skills:

• The skills to mix the right texture of mortar was developed for if its to dry it will crumble and if its to wet it will slide off. The proposed mix would be 1 cement to 1 sand and the water ratio is a bout 0.4 or less depending on the location vertical or horizontal.

• The wire mesh needs to be firmly secured to the reinforcement or it will break easily. 

• The first layer might be a thin and rough layer but the finishing needs to be as smooth as possible. I found that by using a good trowel and some sponge the final effects could be achieved.

• Using hands to compress the mortar to the reinforcement is the best method but don’t forget the rubber gloves or your hands might suffer terribly.

• The objective is to create something that is light and yet durable and easy to mold into odd shapes that concrete by itself could not achieve.