Concrete Floor Poured

 

We have a solid floor! The days of digging inside the foundation are officially over. 

It was a long 11 hour day for our contractor but he opted to do the whole thing in one long day of work instead of breaking it up into 2 days.

The complicated nature of calculating the amount of concrete needed made him decide it was just easier to pull in his whole crew and do it in one shot. The floor needed to have 4" of concrete in some areas and 6" in others. The domes not being full circles further complicates the math problem. Our contractor, JC Concrete LLC, was correct in his estimate that 30 yards would get us almost enough. The 30 yards did all but the last bit of the final dome. The total came to just under 37 yards for the floor. They worked super hard all day and did a nice job.

There are some imperfections but most of those will be ground away when we polish the floor or be hidden under walls (around all the pipes sticking up). The larger issue was the tie beams. They ended up not being flat and an inch too high compared with the ring beam. This added some challenges to pouring a level floor between the tie beams and the exterior ring beam. The grinding will help some with the uneven tie beams but I am pretty sure they will always have a rougher industrial look. All said and done we are happy with the floor. They did a far superior job in one crazy long day than we could have done taking a week to do it. Experience is key when it comes to concrete. We stayed and watched all day so we could learn the timing of the different steps for when we do our countertops.

Luckily, the contractor had time to squeeze the job in before a week of rain making it too muddy for cement trucks. This brings me to the cement trucks. I find watching cement trucks drive around on uneven, hard to access areas super stressful. It is amazing to me what they can and will drive on without a concern in the world. The interviews for cement truck drivers must require that they willingly drive off road, along cliff edges, in muddy unknown conditions. I spent about 8 hours last week in the skid steer making a smoother easier path around the house for the trucks. What I couldn't do, was make the newly filled in ground solid enough for them to drive on and not sink. The skid steer is about 8,000 lbs so it can compact the dirt pretty well but a full cement truck weighs around 70,000 lbs. For comparison, cars weigh less than 3,000 lbs. Most of the path around the back of the house is solid undisturbed subsoil which is perfect. The problem is when they drive inches away from the house where I just backfilled.... sinking, tipping.... c a n ' t  w a t c h! 

There were more than a few times I just had to walk away. One full truck got so close he got stuck and was leaning over enough that the barrel of the truck was touching the wooden buck on one opening. He had to turn off the barrel rotation because it would be rubbing. Thankfully he was able to get out once he was empty and it didn't do any damage. I couldn't watch that part either. Every time he turned the front wheels to maneuver he sank deeper. What this also means is that I have absolutely ZERO photos or video of it happening. All I have is the after photo of the giant holes left behind but photos of dirt ruts never do the situation justice. This is the second time a cement truck has gotten stuck. Go read about the first time here!

Tire tracks of the stuck cement truck that was leaning a bit on the house. It was a close call! His back wheels were maybe 8 or 10 inches from the wood.