Construction Begins

So, construction began at our building a little over a week ago and I finally have time to show you all the progress we have made.

The first step was to remove a large section of concrete in the middle of the building where all the tanks will eventually stand.

The next two photos show the jackhammer at work. They filled up 3 or 4 dump trucks with concrete waste and it took them about a day and a half to do it. After they removed the concrete, they sloped the the earth in the resulting hole toward the future trench drain.

The next couple photos show the trench drain before and after it was installed.

After all of the drains were installed, the vapor barrier and mesh was laid and we were ready for new concrete.

Pouring concrete took all day but in the end the concrete came out perfect. The floor in a brewery is just as important as the rest of the equipment. It must be strong enough to hold the fluctuating weight of the tanks (my tanks will weigh 1,500 lbs. when empty and 10,000 lbs. when full) and maintain its integrity under constant water and chemical abuse.

This is probably the best photo of the slope in the floor. The slope will insure that any water that falls within the boundaries of the new concrete will make its way to the trench drain. Water gets sprayed everywhere when brewing and the sloped concrete will be a big help when trying to control where all that water goes.

These last photos were taken the day after the concrete was poured. It was hard enough to walk on and I can't wait to get the tanks stood up in a couple weeks!

Watch out for more construction photos on this blog. And I will be posting more photos on Facebook shortly.