The house was a hive of activity today: we had Umberto, Bogdan (I finally asked him how he spells his name!) and Jimmy working on the arch, and we had no fewer than 6 people working on the intonaco. I don't really know how to describe intonaco other than plaster? Stucco? It's an interior finish surface that consists of a lower, cementitious layer that bonds to the stone walls and an upper layer (composition tbd, but I'm told it's white, meaning I expect that it's plaster-based) that is perfectly (we hope!) smooth and ready for painting.
By the end of the day, the three had finished one of the arch's columns up to the capital, and the second just to the base of the capital. Tomorrow will see the arch finished, I think! So exciting.
The intonacisti have done the lower cementitious layer on nearly the entire space, with the exception of the living room, final portions of the dining room, the attic spaces, and other small sections. They expect to be finished with this phase tomorrow afternoon (or possibly Thursday morning, since they have to use a special mix for our bedroom).
The intonaco is fascinating to watch. Essentially, they have a little mixer outside with a grating on top divided by a jagged baffle. They break the bags onto the jagged baffle, and the cementitious mix falls through the grating and into the mixer. The mix is then combined with water (I assume there's a hose hookup, but I haven't inspected carefully enough to declare that with complete certainty), and pumped via a hose slightly larger than a garden hose to the final destination. The mix is squirted onto the walls like toothpaste (toothpaste under pressure, that is), and then smoothed after a few minutes using enormous floats. The workers started by coating the walls only up to their working height without scaffolding, then let the concrete cure. After that, they erected scaffolding to finish the job.
Love,
Alexandra
By the end of the day, the three had finished one of the arch's columns up to the capital, and the second just to the base of the capital. Tomorrow will see the arch finished, I think! So exciting.
The intonacisti have done the lower cementitious layer on nearly the entire space, with the exception of the living room, final portions of the dining room, the attic spaces, and other small sections. They expect to be finished with this phase tomorrow afternoon (or possibly Thursday morning, since they have to use a special mix for our bedroom).
The intonaco is fascinating to watch. Essentially, they have a little mixer outside with a grating on top divided by a jagged baffle. They break the bags onto the jagged baffle, and the cementitious mix falls through the grating and into the mixer. The mix is then combined with water (I assume there's a hose hookup, but I haven't inspected carefully enough to declare that with complete certainty), and pumped via a hose slightly larger than a garden hose to the final destination. The mix is squirted onto the walls like toothpaste (toothpaste under pressure, that is), and then smoothed after a few minutes using enormous floats. The workers started by coating the walls only up to their working height without scaffolding, then let the concrete cure. After that, they erected scaffolding to finish the job.
Love,
Alexandra
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