On Thursday, July 30, 2020 the first day of construction began. This mostly involved tearing out the old flooring left behind from the previous tenant. We had thought it would be usable for the library, but upon further inspection we discovered it was too old and worn to be able to support stacks of heavy books. Too bad it ended up being sub-par for our project, but it was worth the try.
On the following day, July 31, they (Nishiki Kenchiku (錦建築有限会社) ) laid the library’s facade concrete blocks (道路面地下ブロック積) (25 blocks x 3,500円 = 87,500円).
On August 4, they build the wooden frame for the front of the library. The front will be built based on a method called the Harukabe Construction Method, which, according to LIXIL’s website (the developer of this method), seems to be a method using proprietary adhesives and materials for building outer walls. They advertise three benefits of using their materials: 1) Reduces the risk of peeling (剥離). 2) Reduces build-ups of efflorescence (白華) and oxide films (粉吹き). 3) Reduces tile cracking (ひび割れ) (in our case brick-tiling). I’m not qualified to evaluate any of these claims, nor can I compare it to other methods of building outer walls as I simply do not know enough about this field. The total cost for this outer wall is 200,000円.
Finally, this week was rounded out with constructing the floor underlayment over the foundation. 1800mm x 600mm planks of particle board (パーチクルボード) (34 boards x 1,800円 = 61,200円) were used. This raised (sub)floor (OAフロア) is supported by reinforced loft legs (束) (120 legs x 525円 = 63,000円) such as these, and was accompanied by piping for the waterworks (給排水道工事) underneath (300,000円 – includes piping for the toilet/restroom and kitchen sink). It should be mentioned that these materials cover the entire floor space, which is 35.121 square meters.
That does it for the construction updates this time. This covers two weeks of work since the start date. I’ll have a new post each week with construction updates until it finishes (scheduled for September 18).