Construction> A Case Study  A Good Old Fashioned Barn Raising (Part 3) Day 7 Arches are Completed Fourteen courses are stacked at the front of the building allowing all of the arches to be drawn, cut, and the press board inserted. Blocks are stacked high enough to allow formation of all arches   Day 8 Block Stacking is finished The scissor lifts come in very handy when you are working 20’+ off of the ground. The front of the building is completed to its finished height. Diagonal rebar was inserted above the three middle arches to provide additional roof supporting strength. The side walls have the same slope as the roof. The blocks are stacked, glued in place, and then a chalk line is snapped for the cut line. An electric chain saw is used to make the cut. The work crew also prepared for the second pour doing those things listed in the first pour such as inserting the vertical rebar and patching any voids in the block. Day 9 - The Second Pour Same preparation steps as the first one except with zero blowouts. What we learned on our first pour regarding the arches paid off with no leakage of wall-fill concrete during the second pour. The sloped side walls were poured from the bottom to the top, with care being taken to move up as cement appeared in the sliced horizontal tubes behind the fill. We have more to show you rather than tell you. Day 10 – Finishing the arches – And Done! The second pour was on a Friday so we let the wall cure until the following Tuesday before we started removing the arch support material below the arches. We also did some rasping or smoothing on the inside walls to remove any excess glue from our spot gluing process as well as blend any blocks together that may have shifted during the stacking process. Remove the fully contained pieces Remove what ever possible by hand Cut away any excess with chainsaw Chip away small concrete deposits       The Finished Structure 10 days from slab to roof-ready structural walls with arches! Not bad for a group of 4 rank amateurs – especially when you consider that we got a late start on the first day and spent most of the fourth bracing against storm winds. All in all, it was exciting and fun to see how quickly the structure took shape and, best of all, there was no “pour day trauma” we had heard about from people who had tried other ICF products. The Front & the 5 Arches   South Side with two windows North Side with the Entry door West Side to block the sun