Para-Sealing The Outside Walls

    A product called para-seal was placed on approximately the first six feet of the outside of the retaining walls on the north side and west side of the Community Center building. This product consists of a high-density polyethylene exterior with an expandable bentonite clay layer. The product is tacked to the concrete with the bentonite layer against the building. When the area is backfilled and the bentonite becomes wet it expands forming a seal which keeps water from the base of the retaining walls. This is just one more thing that has been done to protect the building from ground water.

    These are very important elements of the construction project. It’s much like baking a cake. If 
you haven’t done a very good job of putting together the ingredients of your cake, all of the 
icing in the world won’t make it better. It’s the same with the foundation, slab, and walls of a 
building. The backfill material you see being placed in the figures above have to meet a certain 
compaction specification. As each lift of material is placed (no more than 6”-8” thick), it is 
rolled repeatedly with what’s called a sheep’s foot roller (so-called due to the protrusions 
around the diameter of the steel roller). As the ground is rolled, the weight of the machine in 
combination with a vibrating action compacts the material to the desired spec. A geo-tech comes 
on site regularly to test the material to insure that it’s meeting the compaction spec. These are 
some of the ways we can gain a measure of confidence that we will not see failures in critical 
areas.

Gymnasium Floor

    The first half of the gym floor was poured this week. The pour consisted of a 6 thick slab 
utilizing a fiber mesh concrete. The contractor could have poured a steel-reinforced 5 slab or 
a 6 fiber mesh slab. XT opted for the 6 fiber mesh. This should be more than adequate for the 
sub-floor of the gym area. These specifications are set by Martin & Martin a structural 
engineering firm out of Denver, CO Mike Barrett, the structural engineer working on the project, 
is originally from Dove Creek, CO. We have been very pleased with the structural engineering of 
the entire project. 

    The project has been moving along very well in the last couple of weeks even with the wet 
weather. Next week we will begin to see the big glu-lam beams being erected. A 110-ton crane will 
be on site by Monday the 19th to facilitate the erection of the beams. That will be the subject 
of the next report.

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