2006 House Addition - August 25th
Garage concrete pour
The dirt floor of the garage was leveled and tampted down last week; there are no photos
since I was not available. On the left, heavy plastic is laid down as a vapor barrier.
On the right, two holes were cut in the new bedroom floor to pour concrete into the
crawl space wall forms.
I took the photo on the left to show my morning coffee and newspaper bistro which served
me well for a few weeks once the roof was on. On the right is the first delivery of
concrete.
The concrete chutes extend into the garage to a pair of wheelbarrows which are used
alternately to get concrete into the far corners of the garage. A red line was marked
along the inside block to indicate the desired concrete depth of four inches.
On the left, the first wheelbarrow has been emptied; on the right, the chute is moved
to the empty wheelbarrow while the other wheelbarrow is emptied on the floor. Scott, John
and Chris did all the work.
On the left, a large, straightedge board is used to strikeoff the concrete to the correct
height and slope (towards the drains); on the right, hand troweling is done along the edges.
On the left, half the garage is poured; on the right, the concrete mixer operator controls
the flow of concrete.
Scott uses the aluminum screed tool to smooth the floor before excess bleed water reaches
the surface. On the right, the second load of concrete is used to fill the last quarter
of the garage.
Hand troweling the edges ...
Here the chute is positioned over the holes in the bedroom floor leading to the wall forms
in the crawl space. We had concerns that the wall forms would give way, so a little extra
bracing was added.
After a period of time for the concrete to set, Scott ran the power troweller for the
final finish (left), while John uses "walkers" to move around and hand trowel where
required (e.g. the drain area).
At the end of the day, Scott sprayed on a concrete sealer. The floor will never be as
beautiful!
Four days later, on Tuesday, August 29th, the same crew came out to cut grooves in the
floor with a diamond saw. A huge amount of concrete dust was created, making for neat
photos but a messy clean-up. After they left, I borrowed Bill's wet/dry vacuum, hosed
down the floor and got rid of all the dust.