June to February 2012 Part III

Here's the April post a month late.

Simple tools accomplish the job

Regardless, this is still a recap of what happened last summer and fall. So this post is going to showcase getting our garage floor poured!

The first thing we did was to get a bid for the work. We decided to go once again with the same flatwork contractor that poured our basement slab and porch cap back in 2008/2009.

Also at this same time we thought that if we wanted to have a drain in the garage, the time to decide that was now. The first thing Shawn did was to dig a hole in the center of the garage where the drain would go.
You can see Shawn here is using a 4x4 to compact the bottom of the hole to make sure the drain would not settle.

And the drain we chose is that black square box you see in the picture. The top grate comes off so we're able to vacuum out whatever debris will go into the catch basin.
 
The problem with deciding to add a drain to the plans is that there was no way of getting out of having to dig the trench for the pipe.












 


Also, Shawn had to drill through the concrete footing so that the pipe could daylight outside. He used a hammer drill to drill a series of holes in a circle, then chipped away the concrete in the middle until he poked through to the outside.

It's hard to see in the picture, but he is wearing a respirator since it was quite a bit of dusty work.

It was also hot. This was around the same time that we installed our A/C that I previously mentioned in the last post.

Ah, yes... no lack of digging on this project

After he finally poked through the wall, Shawn went outside and dug the trench for the exterior pipe.

Then it was time to set the drain and to install the pipe. We needed the drain to be installed 2" lower than the outside edge of the slab so that when they poured the concrete, the floor would slope towards the drain.

Gluing pipe, and Evan with his flowers

After getting the drain set, Shawn glued the drain pipe, and in the next picture you can see him working on gluing the pipe on the outside, while Evan showcases the lovely bouquet of flowers he found. I don't know their name, but it's a nice weed that we seem to have in abundance around our yard.


After the drain work was done, it was time to level the ground and to run a compactor to get the floor nice and compacted so it won't settle. Evan got to run some of the power equipment and had fun helping.

So strong!

You can also see in the next picture how big of a helper he was. He helped stack the pink boards of insulation that we decided to put under the garage slab.

The insulation under the concrete will help keep the concrete from sweating in the summer and  water pressure from the ground from wicking up into the inside of the garage. Also, in the winter time it should help once the garage is all finished and insulated to help regulate the temp. inside the garage.

And, if Shawn needs to run some heat in the garage so he can tinker with something or other (or if I ever get to have wood shop started and projects running!) we can work comfortably in the garage and help keep whatever little heat we may use.

The next step was to get the insulation down, seams taped and we were ready for concrete!
I wish I could say that it was easy as that. Unfortunately because of adding the 2 inches of foam that we had not originally planned for, and switching from a 4" slab to a 6" slab when the contractor came to shoot elevations, we realized that there would not be enough room at the new elevation to make the steps onto the porch on the outside work quite right. We could have gone with a 4" slab and made it fit, but we wanted to have the stronger, thicker slab for extra factor of safety.

Here you can see what the floor looked like before the concrete was poured. You can also see the rebar installed to help when the slab does crack (and it will! It's concrete!) the pieces don't pull apart. We did have control joints (saw cuts) into the concrete to tell the inevitable cracks where to go, rather than let them crack randomly where they will.

This was just after they poured.

Nothing like a concrete truck to fascinate kids!

Who could resist running on a fresh slab?

Evan loved all the construction

The kids had a good time watching the crew work. Evan was excited to see the concrete truck come in and do its thing.

Here Evan poses after the concrete was just poured and one of the workers is left smoothing out the surface. You can see the bullfloat behind Evan.

And after we came home from work, the new concrete was irresistible. You can see Bianca running around testing the new concrete floor.

The contractor came back later to do the outside slab. You can see in the next picture where the forms are set, and the steel reinforcement is already installed. That night, Shawn and I worked on getting the catch basins for the eave spouts installed.


He also installed a bronze cap to the sewer clean out that is right under the porch.

Here you can see Shawn working on gluing the clean out.

 

Here he is working on hooking up the black drain pipe we installed for draining the eavespouts. We're using a catch basin so that leaves will get trapped here, and only water will go in.

Here's a view of the slab after it was poured.

After the slab was dry, the contractor came back to form the front step, and then it took a couple of weeks for him to finally come back and pour the step.

But here you can see the step. Because of adding the 2" of foam and switching from 4" slab to 6" slab for the garage and driveway, we only ended up needing 1 step.

 

I found this picture where Bandit was showcasing last year's early birthday present for me from my in-laws. On one of their trips to come down and help us while siding the back peak, my in-laws stopped by Menards and bought some pavers. You can see the small patio right off the back slider door. It's great to not have to step into mud anymore! 

That's it for this post. I probably have one more posts to get caught up. Then I can update on what's happened this year!