Suspended Concrete Slab - Complete

The suspended concrete slab for the garage has been poured!

As hoped, I was able to push up the date and we poured at 11 AM on Monday.  Hi Def Concrete and F&F Pumping did a bang up job and by 12:45 the pumping was done and by 2 PM the fat lady had sung and everyone had gone home.

Everyone was thrilled to be working below tarps and plastic covered awnings as mother nature let go.  The rain fall at the site over the last week I am sure will be record breaking.  The original plan was to take down the tarp over the garage and put back up as soon as the concrete was poured, but the pumper truck driver stated leave it up and he would just run a longer hose.  The placing crew were very happy with this decision!

We also poured the hefty 30′ x 6′ 10″ footing for the basement walkup stairs foundation/landing.

Something that was a surprise is how warm the concrete gets as it is setting up.  I new it got ‘warm’ but this 35 Mpa got really warm.  Remember is is only 5-7 C out during the day.  The top surface was 19.5 C (even when being flooded by cold water) and the bottom surface was 22.5 C.  That is pretty incredible.  My legs attest to how chemically hot the mix was.  I have significant chemical burns on both legs as a band around where the top of my boots were rubbing my legs.

Best practice for a concrete slab include hydrating the concrete for at least three days after the pour. It allows the concrete to develop maximum strength and especially helps harden the surface of the concrete to make it more durable.  The burlap works well for this as it captures the water and makes it available to the cement molecules on a continuous basis. The only downside is that it can stain the concrete, but as I am applying a epoxy paint later anyway, this was not a concern, and so far it does not look like it stained anyway.  I found the burlap at a very economical price at Burnaby Bag and Burlap.  There cost for the 7 oz 5′ wide roll was $0.09 a yard.  This is less than half the cost from Richform.

This completes the floor surfaces for the first storey and is a great milestone from a psychological point of view. It is thrilling to know I will not have to be climbing around on the jungle gym of a scaffold anymore. I will now start trying to dry things out so that I can finish the foundation waterproofing and backfill at the front of the garage if the weather cooperates. In the meantime I will spend some time catching up on more office chores and cleaning up at the job site including stripping the top forms.  The shoring below will have to stay in place for three weeks.

For those who missed Monday’s excitement, her is the time-lapse video of the events:   https://youtu.be/l5gYZslDTwY

I also did a site visit video providing an update prior to the pour: https://youtu.be/1MY6K8sgdhA

Finally check out the new Roving Cam – Interior Feed that will be used to capture indoor activities up close and personal as I progress through the build.  I have removed the Container camera feed from this site as it is now dedicated to security and is pointed away from the build.

Thanks for visiting.