Stargate Command Croydon

[Starglider]

It's out with the structural engineer now, so we'll get to see how good my guesses were on the support calcs. Of course I would need at least 10 times more concrete and rebar to meet the minimum Heavy Armor Brigade standards for a potting shed.

[Sea Skimmer]

As far as I can tell most of the reason for using expoxy rebar is that its very good at keeping the material from rusting while it sits outdoors waiting to actually be built into the structure. That's not a great concern building a single house foundation, but it becomes relevant on larger projects. Its certainly not great for protection after installation.

Stainless steel would only ever be relevant to high salt/corrosive environments. at that point you can find rebar as well as structural steels all the way up to 60% chrome by weight, making the definition of steel iffy.

It's out with the structural engineer now, so we'll get to see how good my guesses were on the support calcs. Of course I would need at least 10 times more concrete and rebar to meet the minimum Heavy Armor Brigade standards for a potting shed.

Obviously this is only the construction of an elaborate deception structure, after the completion of which you will commence construction of the actual bunker underneath its roof. Just flush all the dirt down the toilet and keep your faucet going.

[Starglider]

Slight redesign with sliding pocket doors for the lower level, to increase usable space. I would have used Star Trek style split linked pocket doors - you can even get them with automatic motorised opening - but those only come in standard wooden and glass varities, I need stainless steel fire-rated doors.
Also increased length by 20 cm for better stairwell alignment, and depth by 5 cm so that the structural engineer could fit larger support beams. The stairwell design is now cast-in-place R/C platforms with support columns and a small amount of brick to support the steps themselves (precast concrete); this increases usable storage space over the previous design.







Tree protection barriers are up; I ignored the wimpy mesh panels that were specified by the consultant and went with RB2000 traffic protection barriers. These things are big plastic tanks that interlock and take half a ton of water ballast each with a mesh panel that slots into the top; they're common in central London and are designed to stop buses from crashing into scaffolding/equipment placed in temporarily closed lanes. I've cut down all the small trees / shrubs in the target area and emplaced half inch steel protection plates rated for a 2 ton point load over all the nearby manholes. Just need to rent a shredder + a skip and get all the branches and other junk sitting about removed, then we can proceed with the first phase of excavation.

Utilities search confirmed that power/gas/water/sewer lines are clear of the excavation area but it appears good old British Telecom has no knowledge of where the phone lines are. So I may be knocked down to 4G backup connectivity at some point by backhoe fade.

[Me2005]

Gotta say, I'm still blown away that you're still doing all this in (essentially) paint. If you can, post pics when the interesting stuff starts happening.

[Starglider]

Did some detail redesign e.g. clearances, door positions, vent and cable penetration locations. I'm considering upgrading the cargo handling capability from a 800kg single point electric scaffolding winch in the center of the stairwell (original design), to a four-point suspended platform with 1000kg capacity (assuming adequate couterweighting);



This will be the elevator music.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Excellent choice on the music. Now I'm going to watch that film again. Sure it was silly, and implausible and absurd, but gods-damnit it was fun.

[madd0ct0r]

yeah, you don't need stainless, even on the sump. The only things I've specified it for so far are linkslabs on a viaduct and some railway work. The former because they are designed to crack and have to put up with gallons of highway salts dripping through for 120 years, the latter because the extra 30 quid per bar on 12 bars is nothing compared to closing the railway for repairs in the future. I think unscheduled overruns can hit something like £10k a minute...

The holes in the slab and sump will need some extra tie bars. Just make sure the contractor puts them in.
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/imag ... XTDSe-2bEw

fAre the ceiling beams designed to work compositely with the ceiling slab? If not, for the weight of concrete and planter above them, I'd expect a third. I've not done any calcs here, that's just a gut feeling. The beam directly under the planter might well take the weight, but you are relying on the slab to take the across section moment and provide buckling restraint for imbalances and then 2nd order effects (slightly off balanced creates moment which deflects strucutre to be slightly more off balance und so weiter). Bloody planters weigh a tonne, and you have to account for when they inevitably fill up with water during a storm too.

Your dome cap ventshrooms need adding to the elevation drawings.

[Starglider]

The holes in the slab and sump will need some extra tie bars. Just make sure the contractor puts them in.

Octagonal rebar pattern, good point, I will check.

Are the ceiling beams designed to work compositely with the ceiling slab? If not, for the weight of concrete and planter above them, I'd expect a third. I've not done any calcs here, that's just a gut feeling. The beam directly under the planter might well take the weight, but you are relying on the slab to take the across section moment and provide buckling restraint for imbalances and then 2nd order effects (slightly off balanced creates moment which deflects strucutre to be slightly more off balance und so weiter). Bloody planters weigh a tonne, and you have to account for when they inevitably fill up with water during a storm too.

No they are standard RSJs. The structural engineer may well specify additional beams, we shall see.

Your dome cap ventshrooms need adding to the elevation drawings.

Ah, well the elevations were done for planning permission and I didn't mention that I was actually building the evil computer bunker from Superman 3 when I submitted the planning. If they ask I'll just say 'oh, buildings control insisted on lots of ventilation'. The caps won't actually look like that anyway, it's just a placeholder.

Speaking of the council, those damned elf-bloods continue to insist that the tree protection fencing is for the benefit of the trees; every dwarf knows that it is actually to protect the fortress from the aboreal meance;



At any time, or at least if any druid should happen to be in the vicinity, they might become animate and attempt revenge for the massacre of their comrades via BranchShredder600 and TreeMutilator9000.



A few stumps are resisting, but they will soon change their tune when I introduce them to Mr Chainsaw.



Meanwhile, I have employed the magic of pocket sliding doors to redesign the Relaxation Vault to support a wet bar (for pre-deathtrap entertaining of captured government agents) in addition to its primary purpose of storing and sustaining test subjects (homo sapiens): now increased from two (2) to (3) specimen capacity.



I have also redesigned the Test Chamber. The original design was polished white marble floors + walls with continuous diffuser panel ceiling, for that 'featureless white void' effect. However I have now changed it to a more useful (for machine vision purposes) 600 mm isogrid; black marble tiles with inlaid white LED channels, uniform across floor / ceiling / walls (11 units width x 11 units length x 4 units height). Any resemblence to TNG Holodeck is purely coincidental.

[Starglider]

P.S. For entertaining the Croydon & East Surrey Council of Villainy (meets twice a month, rotating location depending on Interpol intercepts), my plan is 25 x 200kg rated black ceiling hooks (5 x 5 grid). Aside from supporting bundles of SFP+ Direct Attach cables, they can also on-demand support either;



or



For bonus ominuous council of ominousness points, I can put little LED lights in the chairs so that only delegate's faces are lit when the isogrid lighting is off. I just have to decide between the 60s Modern vs 80s Cyberpunk aesthetic.

P.S. Is it actually possible to use a hedge trimmer without doing 40K commisar impressions, or is that just me? Die, xeno branches. The actual chainsaw is a bit too cumbersome to stand in for a chainsword; and besides, that is better used for DOOM comic re-enactment.

P.S.S. If anyone from the council is reading, what I meant to say is that I am maintaing only the highest standards of site safety in compliance with all local, national, EU and Illuminati World Government regulations.

[Starglider]

I think I am still technically meeting fire regulations even if the Relaxation Vault is classified as 'habitable space'; given the fire doors, the stairwell counts as 'protected'. However it is possible that the health & safety types might notice that I have three 20KW oil-filled transformers in there and the potential for a moderately impressive electrical fire in the only egress route. I have decided to plan ahead for this by making it possible to retrofit an alternate fire escape route easily in the future.



"But Starglider," you might exclaim, "I didn't think you were the type to give in to those snivelling do-gooding beurecrats, especially preemptively." Ah, but you see, the fire escape is a trojan horse; it actually functions as a multipurpose docking port allowing the addition of further pressurised modules to the station in the future. Such as this concept for a biological experiment pod;



As the Citadel Station incident proved, comprehensive biological research facilities can be a valuable addition to any machine intelligence laboratory.

[Sea Skimmer]

Around here alot of the recent surge of cheap housing construction does basement access via a corrugated half pipe on top of a piece of slab, with a ladder mounted on it and a metal grate on top. Access to the inside being a small door, though it varies and some are more big windowlike.

If you wanted you could backfill with sand over a trapped door for protection and a pit for the sand to fall into, that's how the emergency exits on the Maginot line worked.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'm trying to work out if you're contemplating adding an observatory/lounge or an artillery position. Maybe you should see if you can find a de-milled Bofors or something to make it authentic.

[Me2005]

Around here alot of the recent surge of cheap housing construction does basement access via a corrugated half pipe on top of a piece of slab, with a ladder mounted on it and a metal grate on top. Access to the inside being a small door, though it varies and some are more big windowlike.

Depends on how generous the builder was being with the egress opening. The IRC requires an opening of 5.7 s.f. (IRC R310.2.1), with an exception for grade/below at 5 s.f. They also need a 9 s.f. (3'x3') minimum well outside the window (R310.2.3).

Sometimes builders go bigger, but usually that's more of a comfort thing and less of an egress-specific thing. Unless it's an uninhabited basement (not heated), in which case all that's moot and you have a required access to the basement/crawl but it's about the same size IIRC.

[Starglider]

I'm trying to work out if you're contemplating adding an observatory/lounge or an artillery position. Maybe you should see if you can find a de-milled Bofors or something to make it authentic.

The wife wants it to be a home rainforest sauna. I will accept this proposal only if the controls can be locked into an inexorably rising steam temperature, enough to cause certain death in 7 to 9 minutes; unless said individual happens to have a concealed gadget that can shatter the perspex dome above. Still working on the witty one liner for this.

Ideally the roof dome would be retractable, for launching drones, sounding rockets, and with, an elevating hydralic platform, death rays.

The wife also convinced me to delete the ventilation mushrooms, complaining about their aesthetics. By this I assume she means that they make it too easy to guess the true purpose of the facility from satellite photography. In truth there are clearance problems excavating near the treeline anyway, so I respecified them as 900mm x 700mm inspection chambers (immediately sub-grade) with a catwalk grid cover. These will contain the 500mm axial fans; I'll need to use IP56 sealed fans and have a drain in each chamber to cope with the weather. Will also mean a lot of clearing out leaves from the intake filters, but it was necessary; reduces the total excavation width by 1.5m.

[Sea Skimmer]

The machine is too wide digging I take it, and you wanted to dig directly against the trees?

Two layers of metal screening will keep the leaf problem down for long periods, make boxes of two different sizes so you can remove the top one alone.

You could also protect the air entrainment devices primary grate from the leaf enemy by covering it with a properly arranged pile of big rocks, optionally set around a length of preforated pipe. This is how the air intakes for nuclear bunkers are protected against the atomic debris surge. This also helps reduce the direct blast effects through drag loading before they go down the pipe. Might still fail in the face of enough leaves though.

[Elheru Aran]

I'm trying to work out if you're contemplating adding an observatory/lounge or an artillery position. Maybe you should see if you can find a de-milled Bofors or something to make it authentic.

The wife wants it to be a home rainforest sauna. I will accept this proposal only if the controls can be locked into an inexorably rising steam temperature, enough to cause certain death in 7 to 9 minutes; unless said individual happens to have a concealed gadget that can shatter the perspex dome above. Still working on the witty one liner for this.

Ideally the roof dome would be retractable, for launching drones, sounding rockets, and with, an elevating hydralic platform, death rays.

How easy are demilled Bofors and such to come by in the UK anyway?

EDIT: I mean, it would probably be easier for me to knock up a faux Vickers out of some PVC pipe than it would be for me to come by a demilled weapon in the US, though admittedly that's more a matter of money than it is capability...

[Starglider]

Strike the earth!



For Armok! For Palelabor!



Dwarf Steve requires alcohol to get through the working day.



All utilities were supposed to be clear of the excavation area, but unsurprisingly the BT map was way off and I narrowly missed a backhoe fade incident. I'm going to have to put a temporary splice in the telecoms cable to route it around the dig zone.

[Starglider]

The machine is too wide digging I take it, and you wanted to dig directly against the trees?

No, the previous design had the eastern intakes literally in the outermost part of the hedge, because the gap between them and the building had to be wide enough for a wheelchair-accessible side path. The disguisting biophiles and foliage fetishists at the local authority did not specifically authorise this and would no doubt complain about the violation of their precious fronds. More importantly, I'd have to unlink and remove some of the protection barriers and that's a real pain in the ass now that they're weighted down with many tonnes of water ballast.

You could also protect the air entrainment devices primary grate from the leaf enemy by covering it with a properly arranged pile of big rocks, optionally set around a length of preforated pipe. This is how the air intakes for nuclear bunkers are protected against the atomic debris surge. This also helps reduce the direct blast effects through drag loading before they go down the pipe. Might still fail in the face of enough leaves though.

Intriguing idea but alas not practical here, because the east side intakes and exhausts will be literally in the side path; need to have a flat at-grade high-grip-but-not-too-bumpy surface.

[Zaune]

If you find an adamantine vein down there, we'd all be grateful if you made sure it was ready to be sealed off by drawbridge just in case.

Even if it does look like one of them already got loose and became site leader the other day.

[Me2005]

Intriguing idea but alas not practical here, because the east side intakes and exhausts will be literally in the side path; need to have a flat at-grade high-grip-but-not-too-bumpy surface.

Can you have a flat-plate cover over a trench that is wider than the path with gutters on either/one side? That way air can get under the path to the vent, but leaves and debris should stay properly out of the air system.

[Starglider]

Can you have a flat-plate cover over a trench that is wider than the path with gutters on either/one side? That way air can get under the path to the vent, but leaves and debris should stay properly out of the air system.

That sounds a bit restrictive and tricky to build.

Interior wall design;



The plenums and bathroom dividing wall are all steel studwork, the only wood in the entire building is the bathroom door and that's only because I haven't found a suitable aluminium one yet. I went for a linear vent design rather than a square one, partially for more even distribution but also because frankly it looks better. Don't really need to use two twin compartment boxes instead of a single quad compartment box per utility point, but again it looks better if it is symmetrical. Not visible on this drawing but I've added channel drains at the door thresholds so that if there is a sink overflow it can't make it into the main room.

I will also put HDMI and power in the ceiling for the obligatory ominous hanging secondary screens showing consantly scrolling source code and/or a selection of digital countdown timers.

[Sea Skimmer]

Can you have a flat-plate cover over a trench that is wider than the path with gutters on either/one side? That way air can get under the path to the vent, but leaves and debris should stay properly out of the air system.

That sounds a bit restrictive and tricky to build.

Yeah an easier option is put a fairly course mesh screen under the top of the grate, and denser screen box around the air intake, elevated above the bottom level. Something like that should be able to go a long time without cleaning normally, though fall heavy leaves all bets are off.

[Starglider]

Well, the structural engineers came, made three significant changes. They want all the structural beams to be reinforced concrete (cast in place) instead of steel, they want to use individual rebar rods instead of mesh for the slabs, and they want the soakaway to be a big cube of stacked geocrates buried a few metres downslope from the building (under the drive) instead of adjacent to the front wall. Oh and they said footings were unnecessary for a double reinforced floor slab at that depth in solid chalk, and can be eliminated. Concrete beams mean that some of the thickened areas that were acting as padstones and other point-load-relieving features can be removed. Also took out the corbels and replaced them with galvanised angles. So overall slightly cheaper and simpler which is good. Unfortunately they said that casting the pocket door housings into the walls is impractical, so that will just be a wide opening with steel studwork concealing the pockets.

[madd0ct0r]

Sorry to hear aboit the loss of the door, but congratscon a simpler build.

[Starglider]

I'm considering the primary display; I previously ruled out front projection (too sensitive to ambient light) and specified a 100" class 4K TV. However it occurs to me that for the cost of that, I could add the necessary space for the optical path, a 2000 lumen 4K projector, and a 135" rear projection screen. A low-gain screen will have good contrast even with lights on (equivalent to a late-gen rear projection TV). Aside from the screen being 80% larger (area), this would be more upgradable since the projector can be replaced separately from the screen. This would require a 3m wide x 2m deep bay added to the north wall directly under the main entrance, plus a slightly tilted mirror for an optical path length of 4.5m. Clearly this would be closer to my lifetime goal of reproducing the NORAD set from Wargames, which used rear projection for all the big screens.