Textured concrete stair wall

The ground floor walls are practically complete awaiting the formwork for the first floor slab. Whilst that gets underway there will be time to attack the main stair wall that unites each floor of the house. The wall will be cast insitu concrete with an exposed timber plank texture. Given the recent disastrous pouring of the ground floor walls (one panel has been demolished twice) The Architect is just a wee bit apprehensive and has asked for a sample panel to be poured for approval before giving the go ahead.

The inside of the formwork, for the wall, will be built up of roughly sawn 10cm wide planks which will imprint their texture onto the concrete surface.

The main stair wall will be a physical witness to the birth pains of the project. The two known major flood levels of the nearby river will be forever marked by horizontal hollow joints. At some future unknown but inevitable date, someone will watch the murky waters rising up the stairwell and comment on the foresightedness of The Architect in providing such a handy benchmark, ‘look darling, we’re almost at the same level as in 1910!’.


The Client has not passed comment on this element of the project. In her opinion all of the British, and especially the English, are eccentric at least once a day. She is reserving her judgement for the finished work.