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| Refractory floor for rebar production |
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| Last week I worked in a furnace for the production of reinforcing steel. I worked in the repair of the floor where the billets are heated before the steel is shaped. |
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| Refractory lining and resurfacing |
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| I have been working in a siderurgy applying a covering of refractory concrete to two walls. The new layer was 20 cm thick so it required shuttering and pouring concrete in the same way as when a new wall is built. |
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| An arc furnace |
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| I have been working in the refractory lining of a new furnace to reduce silicon. I have had the privilege to participate in different tasks of refractory lining within a metal formwork, applying different lines of mortars, tars and bricks to build the refractory floor and sidewalls of the furnace. |
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| The water wheel (III) |
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Finally the water wheel with a new shaft was set and fixed. |
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| The water wheel (II) |
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A new framework had to be built, too.
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| The water wheel (I) |
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Former paddles were made of oak timber. Pine logs from our own woods were used for the new tub-wheel.
Hadrian drew a model, went to the wood, cut the pines and shaped the logs to build 20 replica paddles. |
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| The building (II) |
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The roof was overgrown with ivies. All the tiles had to be removed and brushed. |
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| The raceway (II) |
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Earthy matter and weeds in the flume. To shovel! |
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| The raceway (I) |
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The head race was also filled with weeds and mud. |
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| Tail race and spindle |
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Rear wall. Tail race covered with mud and woody weeds.
Inside: vertical axle and remaining parts of the wheel. An almost archeological-excavation approach was needed to save the remaining pieces and measure them. |
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| The building (I) |
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The building to be restored: rubble stone front-facade. Doorway with monolithic jambs and stone lintel. Third stile from the left is broken, the fourth is not: the hole is the cat's door!
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| Building restoration |
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For the past eight years I have been working in several construction companies mainly in the construction of new residential buildings, more industrial facilities such as malls, and a terminal airport in the past two years. I can only reckon now three projects where the main process was restoring: rebuilding the roof of the main building of a farmstead, the interior of an old urban house (slabs and inner walls), and the walls of the garden of a country house (rubble stone with mortar).
The range of buildings to be restored is broader than residential dwellings, of course. And it can require the construction of elements that are not currently manufactured and have no specialists devoted to their production. This year I could witness (I didn't take part) how a water mill and its former functional facilities were restored. The waterwheel in particular. My brother, Hadrian, undertook the building of an horizontal-waterwheel as a leisure activity. I followed with some amazement the evolution from drawing drafts, to cutting pine logs, to the final assembly of a tub-wheel.
This is a collection of pictures of this restoration. I asked permission to Hadrian to publish them here. Both pictures and text are adapted from an album originally created and published by Hadrian. |
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