Roving Room Roof Fully Completed

My roving room roof had finally been completed. All the plastering are in place. Plastering cannnot be done in one shot. The cement plaster have to stick to the chicken wire mesh first. The workers have to dab the cement plaster to the chicken wire and wait for the cement to set before continuing on the second dab and subsequent plastering.

Plastering work in progress - Back View

Plastering in progress - Frront View

As solid as a rock after plastering

Plastering completed - Back view

Plastering completed - Front View

Completed roof seen from a distance

Close-up of the completed roof

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Roving room roof ready to receive a coat of cement plaster

I have been busy this few days supervising my workers putting up the roof covering over the roof structure. It have been a tedious job having to work above the air well. In future, having to do it again I would rather do it on the ground and using a mobile crane to lift it up provided there are working space on the ground. The shape of the roof resemble a turtle. Perhaps this can overcome the nostalgia of the missing turtles at Rantau Abang and the turtle at the roundabout in Ladang. So, if you miss the turtles, welcome to The Hollow. I am waiting anxiously to see the cement being cast onto the top of the roof. I have taken quite a number of shots on the process of putting up the roof covering for the readers to see together with shots of the surrounding works in progress. I intend to turn the surrounding into a garden with ponds, fountains and fishes. This is my dream and I hope will become a reality soon and I hope the swiftlets will share my dream and help to produce more nests. Since the roving room have been covered up. I did a test on the temperature and humidity by placing a hygrothermometer on the 3rd Floor and the result shows 28 degree celcius for the temperature and 85% for the humidity. This is achieved without the internal drainage, the pools and the fountains.

View from the back. Aluminium foil on top of pvc sun-shading
mesh. The main intention is to keep the aluminium foil taut
and aslo unintentionally act as double heat protection

View from the front. Aluminium foil is placed
on top of pvc sun-shading mesh.

View from the back. Aluminium foil
and chicken wire mesh in place

View from the front. Aluminium foil and
chicken wire mesh in place

View of the top entrance. Actual entrance partly hidden

View of the bottom entrance. the swiftlet can choose
either way to enter. Top or bottom.

Entrance into roving room and air-well below. Wall to block light
from entering building. There will be a door in between the wall

Inside of roving room

Flower trough and pond in front of the entrance

Plastering of flower trough and pond wall in progress

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Roof structure over roving room completed

At last, the steel roof structure over the roving room and air well has been completed. What is left is to cover up the roof structure. I intend to place a layer of pvc mesh over the roof structure followed by a layer of aluminium and then a layer of chicken wire mesh before a layer of cement plaster is laid on top of it.

At last, the steel roof structure over the roving room and air well has been completed. What is left is to cover up the roof structure. I intend to place a layer of pvc mesh over the roof structure followed by a layer of aluminium and then a layer of chicken wire mesh before a layer of cement plaster is laid on top of it.

Roof structure taking shape.

Roof structure completed. Front View

Roof structure completed. Back view

View of roving room roof from a distance

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Work on roof top roving room commence

My workers have commence work on the roving room at the roof top. All the steel pipes have been delivered to site aand they are putting them together. Meanwhile another group of workers are about to complete plastering of the internal trench. This trench will be used to regulate the temperature and humidity in the BH. 1/2" pvc pipe with pinholes hanging about 3 feet above will spray water into the trench and the water in the trench will flow and overflow down to the next level through 4" diiameter PVC pipes which is then reduced to 1/2" pvc pipe and the same process will repeat until the 1st floor where the water overflows into 4" diameter overflow pipes which drain into the water storage tank below the BH. Water from the 3rd floor will be supplied
by water pump at the roof top through pvc pipe with pinholes which will spray out the water into the trench On the 2nd floor the pvc pipe will carry water from above by gravity. The intensity of the spray will be controlled by the water pump that will operate only during the daytime.

Worker marking the dimension of the roving room

Worker jointing the steel pipes

Internal trench surrounding BH completed. Observe the
pvc pipe above with pinholes at intervals above the trench.

Another view of the trench.

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Roof already topped-up

Today, my workers finished topping-up the roof. My next move is to construct the roving room above the void on the roof top. Besides the roving room my workers will also construct the flower trough surrounding the roof and the separation walls for the pools. I will have pools and moat around the roving room. Watch up for these features in my future post.

A layer of BRC laid on aluminium foil

Roof ready to receive concrete

Concreting in progress

Roof finally topped-up with concrete

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads." - Erica Jong

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