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To be honest, I was nervous about the flat work crew. Sure, they worked hard on the interior slab, but the cracking is beyond what I thought was reasonable.
But greater worries kept me from switching flat workers. The special additive that promises to prevent water seepage (the deck in parts is above living space) was ordered by me a month ago, but not ordered by the concrete provider until a couple days before the pour. Then the ‘chairs’ needed to hold up the mesh ran short. I ordered up a case by overnight FedEx. It went from CA to Memphis. Thank you , thank you very much – not. We improvised with ABS pipe. I think it worked.
Looking good for Friday, all things considered. Oops, somebody didn’t consider cleaning out the pump truck. The sledge hammers solved that problem.
Meanwhile, the floor grinders kept progressing on the slab work, bringing out the hidden rocks and the fish templates.
We continued the river across the deck. That’s me placing rocks. Oh yeah, that’s also me foreseeing old saw blades into the garage slab. When that floor gets polished, we should see the outline of the blades.
The day ended with the flatwork guy exposing the deck aggregate. Sugar is used to ‘kill’ the top cream and then it is removed with a pressure washer. We used Sam’s cola, because the price of molasses had gone up. Imagine that.
Three pours in three weeks. My main guy delivered the goods.
Now we tear out the shoring and start on the last set of walls.
Steve
Lots of cracking in the slab. So I got to learn about the different types of cracks. Crazing was the first diagnosis. Plastic cracking was the later predication. But, until we grind the surface, we won’t know.
Since the mechanical room was a late addition, I did not have water heat available. I used ‘home depot’ variety electric heat. Wonder if it will perform as well as the hot water tubes?
The compass templates within the template have now been poured. All waiting to be revealed by grinding. Those guys were supposed to start Wednesday, but arrived to late to do much besides check into the hotel.
Little details are so important when all is set in stone (concrete). Not the deck drain with rebar bent to match and more rebar stuck through it.
We are waiting on more special chairs to hold up the garage foam. FedEx has it set for delivery by 4:30 Thursday. We need it before pouring Friday morning. We are also waiting on the waterproofing additive for the concrete floor. I special ordered this weeks ago, but seems the ball got dropped by the concrete company. No stress for us! Not to mention, the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-90+ range on Friday. Not ideal for pouring.
The master-bedroom fireplace was ordered online. I tried to change the order before it shipped but was stonewalled. When it arrived I refused it. The credit card company backed us after a protracted dispute. Now I want to reorder the item with the change and , bummer, the price of the basic unit is now higher. So winning is costing more.
Everything is costing more.
But we’re getting closer.
steve
Superstitious? What’s to be superstitious about a concrete pour on Friday?
The pump truck drive got lost. The same company that has been to the job site almost ten times already. And got lost.
The first concrete truck had a little environmental issue. Seems the doohickey that controls adding water to the mix broke enroute. So about 150 gallons of water was added to the mix. No problem until going uphill, and then the mud spilled out. Big problem is that the job site is about a mile uphill from the valley flat. We found a backfill place for him to drain off some excess, then sent him away to deliver his soup somewhere else.
In the middle of the mayhem, the granite guys show up early and unannounced to install the Sleeping Lady. As if I did not have enough to deal with. But they worked independent and ‘she’ looks great.
It was a chaotic day. We placed the fish and the cut rock . We tossed drain rock. We ‘think’ it will turn out great. Next week we grind and see!
Steve
Ready to rock and roll!
Plumber did his thing. We did ours.
Rocks are split and staged for placement.
Compass template is aligned to true north – some 17 degrees east of magnetic north. ‘Course the declination changes annually so if we are off a smidge, we’ll be spot on at least once in our life time. You know what they say. Even a broken clock is right twice a day!
Friday is pour day. My crew. Plus the flatwork crew. Plus the pumper. Plus the cement trucks. Plus the inspection engineer. Plus the grinder expert. Lordy!
Steve
Updates should be fast and furious now.
Or maybe not. The slab pour came up so fast my main guy wanted to put it off a week. I talked him out of the delay. Then the plumber came up short on some material not available locally but totally needed before pouring the slab. That pushed us back a day, but Friday is superstitious I am told so not a good pour day, and Mondays are never good pour days so Tuesday it was to be. But the grinder guy couldn’t adjust that late without then having to put me off until even later, so back to Friday we are (at least for the moment).
My engineer reminds me that 53 yards is not 50 tons; it is closer to 108 tons. Pretty amazing that we suspended that in old Styrofoam coffee cup forms supported by 4x4s.
Our second youngest worker quit, saying the job was too hard. I doubt his ancestors built many pyramids!
I am mid stream polishing the landing with the fish ladder. I photoed it ‘wet’ to get the intended end look. The rocks look great. The fish is perfect. The glass is supposed to look like white water, but maybe not so much.
Terry is busily slicing rocks like sandwich bread. We hope to place those as part of the main floor riverbed.
Now if only the plumber comes through on Thursday, and we get it all together, then Friday should be a good day.
Steve
Thursday came . . .
. . . And Thursday went
But the beam pour went off as scheduled. Yeah! You have to realize, we are pouring 53 tons of wet concrete onto what is essentially a Styrofoam form held up by two levels of 4x4. Was our ‘08 contractor nervous? Uh huh.
Precision water jet tested their template for the downstairs shower. The outline is of Sleeping Lady. The blue tape is not to be polite, but is to hold the template in place. Admired by one and all.
We backfilled the garage area using a sand throwing machine. Saved the backs of the workers. Stressed my wallet instead. Not sure about using that again. But it sure is efficient.
Next Thursday is the main floor pour with all the fish. I am testing the system and I poured the landing between the top floor and the middle floor. It has one fish template in it. You can make out the shape looking closely. I will grind this on Monday. I was going to call this the ‘fish that got away’. But my cabinet guy said I should call it a ‘fish ladder’. So I put the fish in pointing ‘upstream’ and I used tumbled glass block to create whitewater.
This week the slab. Next week the deck. Then the garage. Then the last walls. And then and then and then . . . .
Steve
I am writing this just hours ahead of Thursday, the promised 53 yd beam pour. It is still scheduled, but I don’t get to be there as I am appearing in court doing my best Perry Mason imitation. Did my contractor plan it that way?
Our engineer came out for a site visit and gave the appropriate blessing. Although he stopped short of cracking a bottle of champagne against the bow.
Our windows arrived on schedule; but much earlier then we need them. It was my idea to combine several windows into one. So much easier to install. But oh so much heavier.
My father-in-law helped me install the deck posts. So when you visit and lean against the railing, well . . .
The electrical contractor took offense at all the black pipe (plumbing) and all the white pipe (HVAC) and so decided to make his own spaghetti puzzle out of gray pipe.
C’mon Thursday!
Steve
Maybe would have been cheaper to just pour molten steel for the main floor! The engineer keeps saying it is the hardest working floor in the house. Only in this house would the top floor work harder then the lower floor?!
But the light at the end of the tunnel might not be an oncoming train. My main guy set a date certain for pouring the beam channels. Next Thursday. Bank on it. Oh yeah, I already am. The slab itself would get poured a week later.
Trish from the plumbing supplier stopped by to finalize some things. Seems what I picked out for the master shower accounted for 25 gal/min. Not only would the hot water heater not keep up, but the 2’ drain would overflow. Our plumber, Ben, affectionately called it the car wash.
We are trying out a company that does water jet cutting of granite. They use a computer on-site to program a template that is EXACT, then bring back a finished product. The jets use water at 65,000 Psi, essentially doing the work of nature but in a few seconds what takes nature a millennium to do.
Working with mortar takes hands tougher then mine. But the results behind the fireplace look good to me.
Steve
Sweating bullets one day. Rain the next. But nothing dampens the optimism.
Wire mesh finally went onto the floor. Another layer done.
I sodded the yard at our other house, and with the left over I did the area outside Katie’s future bedroom. Bring on the umbrella drinks!
We chewed up the ‘riparian’ no buffer zone in front of the house. Planted seed and we will let it grow wild.
Met with a couple that wants to learn green roof landscaping. It would be nice to hire that out and not have to think that one through.
Until next time.
Steve
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