1st Pour Day!

It finally arrived! After years of waiting and a few delays in the process, we finally poured some concrete! Actually, a LOT of concrete! 54 cubic yards, to be exact! I had a great crew with me, including Kyle and Evan, Mark the Pumper, and, thanks to the recommendation of my neighbor Ernie, 4 great concrete finishers!

The crew arrived at about 7:30 am to prepare for the first concrete truck at 8:00. He was a little late, so the boys played ball with Mark for a while and we all rested in anticipation. Once he first truck arrived and we started pumping, there was very little down time!


The first 4 truckloads (36 cubic yards) basically did the footings around the edges, it wasn't until the final 2 truckloads that the top of the slab started getting filled.


From then on the finishers did their magic, first "screeding" the slab flat, then using a variety of tools, they finished it to a nice smooth surface!




It is really great to have a clean level surface on the lot, having spent 7 years climbing around on the dirt and rock!

Here's a little video of the day:

STEEL!

Finally, after all these weeks of playing in the dirt, it was time to start laying the rebar in! The garage footing is massive, and has taking longer than I thought, but I finally hit bottom when I reached a point 4'-6" below the Garage slab, that's a 2'-6" deep footing and slab, plus a 2' deep "key" underneath! The "key" is used on the retaining walls to lock in the footing so it can't slide. Believe me, this hunk of concrete is NOT going ANYWHERE!

Here is a picture showing the side of the garage footing before steel:


Here is Evan with the first 2 day's worth of steel rebar installed!

Lots more to come!