Building by Hand
One of the important lessons of this experience was learning how to build by hand and how to use the tools available, without the conveniences available back home. Of course we had some power tools, such as saws for cutting rebar, but a big part of our work was hard manual labor.
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My first day on site I had to learn how to set out a building in line and parallel to the adjacent one, using just a piece of string and some measuring tape. Constructing scaffold framing around the entire building and ensuring that it is safe, building formwork for all concrete pours and ensuring that member thicknesses are consistent, cutting and bending rebar by hand for all reinforcing (beams, columns and roof), using string and a water level to check levels across large distances, unloading trucks with construction materials by hand because a lot of the times they didn't tip. All of these experiences made the work that much more challenging but equally more interesting and rewarding.
Setting out the location of the adjacent school in Prithvi using string and measuring tape, going off existing columns.
Mixing concrete by hand and checking for mix consistency for each batch.
A couple of boards nailed across the forms for beams ensures uniform width of the beam.
The way to ensure uniform thickness of the concrete floor is by tying strings from one wall to another and checking that they are level.
Putting in place reinforcing for beams and columns on ground floor.
Brick delivery- unloading the truck by hand. Sand, gravel and rock deliveries also had to be unloaded by hand.
Final concrete band before roof gets installed, attaching rebar and doing quality control. Next step is installing forwork for the band.
Rebar bending station. Volunteers are trained how to bend rebar for columns and beams using a wooden board, a couple of nails and a crowbar.
Photo by Rahul Madrid
Photo by Rahul Madrid
Photo by Rahul Madrid
Photo by Rahul Madrid
Photo by Rahul Madrid
Photo by All Hands Volunteers
Shoveling gravel into buckets for each concrete mix.
Photo by All Hands Volunteers
Photo by Rahul Madrid
Photo by Helene