VM AT MESC 

VM LEGENDS pour a concrete slab at MESC 

In our VM, Personal Development Skills class, William, Nolan, River, and Ochre have been helping out the MESC Grounds Worker Tim Dalziel with projects around our school.

A couple of weeks ago we boxed up an area beside P13, for the purpose of concreting a slab to hold a 5000L Water tank.

The boxing was made out of 200x50mm sleepers.

The area was dug out, sleepers were assembled into place, then steel reinforcement bars were put into the slab. The steel is probably the most important aspect of this as the reinforcement bars lock the concrete together, so if a crack develops, it doesn’t break away.

To calculate the amount of concrete needed for the slab, we multiplied the length by the width, then multiplying the purposed depth, which gave the measurement of 0.82 square meters. However, the minimum amount of concrete we could order was 1 square meter.

On the day of the pour, we transported the concrete to the slab with wheelbarrows, then started screeding the concrete. Firstly, getting the height correct then making it flat and smooth, and to stop the edges cracking/chipping off, we used an edging trowel, which curves the edges of the slab.

This hands on learning experience couldn’t have happened with the support of the Legend TIM.