STEPS Romania  16 - 22 July 2007

There were 7 people in the STEPS July team, aged between 19 & 31, from Manchester, Hull & Finland.  For most this was their first experience of Romania, and of construction work.

The team comprised David Atkinson, Ben Bridgeman, Mark Hammonds, Emily Jolley, Joe Jordan, Henna Palojarvi & Dan Slack. Simone Charmant, who acted as translator and guide, is also in this picture.

Work carried out

The team worked exclusively on the first floor of the new extension of the building.  Their task was to prepare the room for the plasterboard walls and ceiling. This involved installing the internal insulation, and creating the necessary support structures for the plasterboards to be attached to wooden frames on the walls and metal struts on the ceiling.

The insulation consists of three layers; an initial coating of waterproof silvering, followed by a 50mm layer of fibreglass and a further 100mm layer of fibreglass topped with reflective foil – held in place using wood staples. These three layers were put between the wooden beams of all the vertical walls, and on the underside of the sloping roof up to the level of the ceiling beams. Above this height, the waterproofing layer was attached, and the fibreglass layers were placed directly above the plasterboards in the loft space.

Despite a heat wave which made working very difficult, they completed the insulation of the walls, and began the work of attaching plasterboards to the ceiling.

   

The team was also able to visit the Roma village of Tarlungeni near Braşov.