Iraivan Temple Lavarock Wall Update - Oct 22

Aum Namah Sivaya

Today we talked with Umut and his team from Innov8 Construction about their progress on Iraivan Temple's lava rock wall, which clads the temple's 4-foot-high concrete foundation. They are making steady progress to bring the wall to height an all sides. Currently the east side is furthest along, with the rock reaching the top guide-string on about one-third of its length. The north and west sides are coming along as well, growing higher every week. At the temple entrance on the south side, the team has begun a push to build up the stones around the entry stairway. This type of lava rock construction requires massive attention to detail, as each stone must be fit perfectly with minimal chipping and no small stones stuck in between. If chipped too much to fit, the team risks exposing too much of the lava rock's blue interior, which will be noticeable in the final result.

Umut explains a little about the wall\

s construction'

The east side

A large portion only needs top stones to be complete

These stones have been chosen to cap the wall

The southeast corner, next to the steps

The southwest corner is where the team has begun to focus

The west side has a new layer coming up

Where it meets the sample section

Umut explains the difficulty in finding perfect corner-stones. There is one corner that they are having trouble finding the final stone for.

All such stones are set aside on plywood. They are very valuable.

Umut explains that they will be staining the mortar dark which will make the stones pop

He says that once out in the elements the stones will all take on a matching dark tone which will look quite striking.

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