Day 23: Cleanup, control joints and more

Today was a welcome low key day after the pour. We removed all of the wooden forms around the home. We began to lay a 3rd course of APEX block. We also began building a door buck with the 3X8 pressure treated wood delivered last week.

Cesar from Diamond D Concrete arrived to cut control joints in the slab. These joints are about 1/8 inch wide and 1 inch deep and should be the first locations where shrinkage and settling cracks occur. The idea is that the crack is hidden at the bottom of the joint and runs straight instead of randomly across the slab. I chose where I wanted the joints located. Cesar snapped chalk lines to identify where to cut. Some joints will be hidden under interior walls and cabinets, and some will be exposed. The joints are usually filled with grout and can become a decorative and defining feature of the floor pattern. Cesar used a SOFF CUT saw to cut the long joints as shown in the pic below.

Then he used a hand held saw to cut joints in areas that were difficult to access – see vid below.

Finally, Cesar rinsed the slab to wash off the concrete dust produced during the cutting process. Here is a pic of the joints near the center of the family room.

For the next several days I will sprinkle water on the slab. This helps slow down the concrete drying process resulting in a stronger slab. Here is a pic of the wet slab from the East at the end of Day 23.

Green comment for today:
When cleaning up on the job site, sort out all recyclable and compostable materials. Try to think of another purpose for materials that would be sent to a landfill. We say we are throwing things away, but there really is no such thing as “away”.

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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.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.