Concrete is Best

Saturday was the big day, the concrete truck arrived after 11:30, a couple of hours late. We kept ourselves busy by moving the gas line for the barbeque, well it was most Deb's dad Bill. I made sure everything was ready for the pour, all the screed lines, moving all the junk out of the way, so we'd have room to work and various other little things.


We got the truck to back in to the driveway. I had to sign a release, so they wouldn't be liable for damage. Our driveway is mostly dirt, so I wasn't too worried. We managed to get the chute in the basement window, so we wouldn't have to move the concrete too far. We had to swivel the chute as he backed up, it was a tight fit. The driver appreciated working in the basement out of the heat.


Here's the driver preparing the 4" slump concrete (it's the way of measuring how thick the concrete is). You can see the tight fit between the houses. We had the same driver as last year, when we poured the retaining wall. We ordered 4.5 cubic yards of concrete, the same a last year too, to do our 300 s.f. slab, and the small room under the nook.



Here's Billy, floating the concrete. He screeded it as well, as I worked the wheelbarrow and shovel. Deb's dad Bill helped with the shovelling too. And here's me helping to finish the concrete. We went over it 2 times, the first time to bring up the thinner concrete (I don't know how else to describe it), the second time to polish it. Polishing makes the slab stronger, and gives it a nice shiny surface.


Here's a picture after the first round of finishing. In the background, you can see our behemoth furnace, it's over 50 years old.


Today we finished up the gas line for the barbeque. We also plumbed in the hook up for the washing machine in it's new location. We're just using one of the vent pipes as a drain, until we get the laundry basin and standpipe plumbed. Now we're all exhausted, but pumped at the same time, it's just so nice to see concrete, and no dirt in the basement.