Day 22: Pouring the concrete slab

I worked late yesterday (Tuesday) preparing for the slab pour, so I did not post. Some of the tasks completed Tuesday were:

• Completed routing of the remaining 4 PEX heating circuits.
• Pressurized the PEX heating tubing to 70 psi to identify a failure if one occurs before or during the pour
• Built wooden supports for the corners and window openings to prevent them from distorting outward when the concrete is poured
• Built a variety of wooden forms to create 1) a concrete curb detail around the shower, 2) notches in the door openings for the doors to seat into and 3) a depression for a tile mosaic art piece in front of the sliding glass door
• Photographed, measured and sketched all conduits and tubes that are under locations where fasteners may be anchored into the slab, i.e. interior walls and kitchen cabinets.

Here is a picture from the end of Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the slab was poured. The folks from Diamond D Concrete, Las Animas Concrete and Pacific Coast Concrete Pumping showed up early. Diamond D used a laser level to create a line around the inside of the home that represented the finish height of the slab. I am going to let pics and vids do most of the talking. In the following vid you can see concrete being pumped in the foreground and application of a rough screed in the background.

A perforated roller screed is then used to push down the larger aggregate and leave smooth textured concrete on top (called cream).

The cream surface is then finish screed by hand.

The surface is then rough troweled by hand.

A power screed is then run over the surface.

The guys then worked the surface further twice more with hand trowels to get the finish I desired – not too rough and not too smooth…just right. The guys really did a great job! All of the hard work and preparation from the past several weeks paid off. The day went by with few troubles. I’ll close with a pic from the East at the end of the day.

Green comment for today:
Consider concrete as your finished floor. Less material is required to stain the concrete than to cover it with carpeting or wood. The results of stained finish floors are limited only by your imagination - check out Diamond D's gallery.

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Day 11: Pouring footings

The footing trenches passed inspection by Santa Cruz County in the morning. Concrete for pouring the footings was requested immediately after passing inspection. A concrete pump is used to distribute concrete into the trenches more easily than moving the concrete truck around. Here is a pic of the Pacific Coast Concrete Pumping set up.

The Las Animas concrete truck showed up soon after the concrete pump. The truck parked so that it could pour concrete directly into the inlet of the concrete pump – see pic below.

The pump was turned on and a person on the end of the hose directed the concrete into the trench – see vid below.

Approximately 25% of the Portland cement in the concrete mix is replaced with fly ash, a by product of coal combustion. The use of fly ash has several benefits:

• it replaces Portland cement - a material with high embodied energy - with a material that was once considered a pollutant and waste product
• it makes the concrete stronger
• it makes the concrete easier to pump
  

The crew followed behind the hose. People poked shovels into the concrete to help it settle. Several people hand troweled a smooth top surface while one person checked with the laser to make sure we had a level footing – see pic below.

After 2 empty concrete trucks and a couple hours, the work was finished – see pic below.

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