17 1/2 yard gloat

[Jason Thaxton]

I finally started my shop. I was going to do this last year but some budget issues caused me to hold off. My uncle and his son came over to help me get the concrete down and I finished it myself. I did a monolithic poor with footings and slab poored all at once. I did this because I had to have a pump truck pump it over my back fence and didnt want to pay him twice. It was a ton of work to dig the footings and poor the concrete but I think it will be worth it. the shop will be 30x28. sorry for the crummy camera phone pic.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Looking great! That is a lot of cement to pour all at once. I am sure you are itching to get started on walls and such!

[Bryan Nuss]

Jason, it looks like you're off to a great start on your shop! A 17 1/2 yard pour is a good day's work.

Be sure to keep the concrete moist for the next week or so to get a good cure and lessen chances of cracking. :D

[Dan Forman]

Man, that's a lot of grey stuff! This is going to be quite a shop.

Dan

[Russell Svenningsen]

I just want to preface my comments by saying that in no way do I mean anything at all negative. It must be the lighting or something....but am I the only one who looked at that camera phone picture and thought...."Man that looks like Mr. Rogers' neighborhood?"

Must just be me. It's been a long week........already.

Best,
Russell

[Dev Emch]

Hey Jason...
I am surprised you can still type on the toaster to post these photos! How do your arms and back feel today? Almost 18 yards... that is two trucks isnt it? How did you like it when the concrete came down that pipe. Its like drinking from a fire hydrant. My hat is off to you. And you and your uncle and his son were the only ones doing this?

That is impressive. It sounds easy to do this folks but this is one area where hired help really helps. These guys have so many minutes to unload that truck and the pump trucks work on a semi hour basis so once its show time, its show time! The concrete is coming at you in mass and your working to spread it out, vibrate it out, work the cream to the surface and make things nice and purrrdddddy.

At the end of doing a monolithic slab, your going to hurt and as soon as you sit down, your out until the next morning. So hats off to you guys and congrats on a good pour. The hard part is over. Now you can take a bit more time to do the rest.

Good Luck!

[Dev Emch]

Oh by the way! You forgot one very very important thing.

Concrete cures to 80 to 90 percent its strength in about 28 days. In order to really make the floor strong you need to help it out. Get some burlap material and cover the whole slab with this stuff and keep it wet for this 28 day period. It sounds like a true pain but its true. If you let the cream layer dry out, you will not get maximum strength.

The pro guys dont do this because its a pain in the rear and takes lots of extra labor so you will hear all sorts of belly aches about it not being needed. But if you want a really strong slab, do it. I also understand that this sounds counter intuative, but ask the really *GOOD* concrete guys and they will confirm this.

Sorry I forgot this.

[John Renzetti]

Congrats on getting the concrete slab poured. Fond memories of when those concrete trucks let loose and all that concrete flowed out. Things get real busy.
How thick did you make the slab and did you use mesh or rebar for reinforcement.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you to cure the slab properly.
take care,
John

[Jason Thaxton]

thanks everyone. My dad is a general contractor so Ive been doing this my entire life. I did a 6" slab over the footings. All concrete was 6 bag engineered mix. The footings are reinforced with rebar and the slab is reinforced with mesh. Its been raining almost nonstop since the poor but if it does dry out I go out and soak it down with the hose. I do concrete on the side and the first thing I tell people is I guarantee that it will crack, anyone who says different doesnt know what they are talking about. You can try and minimize cracking by joints , reinforcement, solid base and slow cure but its going to happen. Just a fact of life.
Russel, thats funny you say it looks like mr rogers neighborhood. The houses behind us are actually a group of retirement condos over 50 of them. My wife and I also call it mr rogers neighborhood because the houses all look the same and they all have the same landscaping.

[Dev Emch]

Your right, concrete does crack. Its great in compression but anything else and its crack city. When I am not using woodworking machines and trying to cut my fingers off, I actually rebuild *AND* build woodworking machines. I have a rockford 72 inch openside metal planer which weighs 15,000 pounds and DeVlieg 3B-48 horizontal jig bore milling machine which weighs somewhere between 20,000 and 24,000 pounds. One day, when I get to it, I hope to restore a 36 inch Bullard turret lathe which weighs 14,000 pounds. When you put these toys in your shop, your floor strength takes on a new dimension. I am also planing a new shop and according to the rockford drawings, they want the immediate section under the planer to have 24 inches of concrete with machine bolts coming up through the floor. So I will also use a type of mono slab with the machine slots having more under foot than say the walking floor. But they also recommend that you wet cure for strength. Will it crack or can it crack? YUP! But more significant is the compressive strength when you have heavy machines. For the most part, woodworking machines dont need this. But if your going to build your own shop, why not do what the big boys do. Done right, you can have a few spider cracks but the strength is still there.