Finishing the outside Walls

Pointing on the south wall

Sonam Wangchuk

25. september 2008

Remember I had said we shall be doing small things till the roof ring beam is ready for the load of the roof. Today we were working on the finishing of the outside walls — a process called pointing, where you try to make the gaps between the blocks evenly filled with mortar and give it a shiny finish with a smooth object (a piece of plastic hose pipe in our case). Apart from aesthetics, pointing is also important for reducing water absorption in times of rain.

Pointing makes the walls look nice and protects them from rain

Then we also built the east and west parapet walls of the roof. And along with it we laid the supporting bars and the chicken mesh net for the ferro-cement overhang shade.

Preparations for the ferro-cement shade on the west wall

The shades will protect the east and the west walls from sun and rain and will hopefully look good also. Some of you may want to know what ferro-cement is! Well you may have to wait one more day for that. Good things don't come easy!

Left: All work no play makes a mason a dull boy. Right: And you thought our workers work hard all the time! Some rest is good too

The finishing touches

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Tip for today

Stay cool with high ceilings

I wonder if you noticed but this school building is much taller than average buildings in Nepal. The effective ceiling height inside is 3.3 meters (nearly 11 feet). This is because Bardiya being in Terai plains of Nepal is very hot and humid for many months. Temperature here in goes up to 42 C (107 F) in May, June and it is very humid from July to September. High ceilings are very good for such climates because warm air and also humid air are lighter in weight than the rest and therefore rise and collect at the highest point in the room i.e the ceiling level. This means that the coolest air in the room settles near the floor where the children would sit. Hence by having high ceilings we are separating the height of the room into a (relatively) cool zone and a hot zone, with all the hot, humid and smelly air way up above, from where drafts of wind coming from the ventilation should carry it away.

Did you know that in December and January Bardiya can be quite cold also, but for that we already have our south windows, and also another feature which I shall tell you about on later date.