Sheepdogmarine
Active member
Well, finally after 42 years on this earth, we are getting underway with my very first garage! No more rent.
My goal is to have it complete by the end of April. Permit process was a slight pain and by the time I finally got it, we had 5 straight weeks of rain. Winter came and I sort of wrote off doing anything until spring. I got a call last Monday that we were digging footers Thursday and pouring Friday. I couldn't believe it. Finally!
It was 28 degrees while digging footers. Our ground water is very high here and after the 6th bucket we has a gusher. We found a stump that I had paid to get rid of years ago.
That slowed us down for an hour and a half. The hole it left made a nice place for a sump to drain off the water. We ran a two inch pump all day. What a pain!
The building inspector was way cool. He just came by and measured the hole to be sure we were right. Minimum is 8" deep and 18" wide. He then continued to say that he went to a cold weather concrete class and said it was okay to pour even over an inch of ice. The water in the hole was not a problem, just push it around to the sump and keep pumping the water off.
I did order a pump truck as well because the ground, while frozen, does not work well with big trucks in the muck.
I really get envious of you guys digging in nice, dry earth.
Footers are a little overbuilt to deal with the cold/water. They are 24" wide and 10" deep. Two rows of 1/2" rebar. We used 3500 lb instead of 2500. I trusted everyone to add the correct additives and it seems to have worked out.
The were two little streams of water coming in the entire time we were pouring and about an hour after finishing the pour, the footers were covered with water. By 10 that night, they had 8" of water on them. The block guy said this was good as it would help cure the concrete. He did not want me to pump the water off as it would help it cure and insulate it. After 54 hours in 26-28 degree weather, there finally was a little ice on the water. He had said the heat of the concrete would keep it from freezing.
I sure hope this all works out. I have been very nervous about doing all of this now, but am glad to get it done.
This morning, we are going to break off the ice and pump off the water to see what is underneath. The block man is doing this as he wants to do the block this week. Tomorrow, our weather is going to be 40 or above for a week or so. Pretty scary, but we will see how it turns out.
Now, I'll try to get the pics up.
Have a nice day,
Eric
My goal is to have it complete by the end of April. Permit process was a slight pain and by the time I finally got it, we had 5 straight weeks of rain. Winter came and I sort of wrote off doing anything until spring. I got a call last Monday that we were digging footers Thursday and pouring Friday. I couldn't believe it. Finally!
It was 28 degrees while digging footers. Our ground water is very high here and after the 6th bucket we has a gusher. We found a stump that I had paid to get rid of years ago.
That slowed us down for an hour and a half. The hole it left made a nice place for a sump to drain off the water. We ran a two inch pump all day. What a pain!The building inspector was way cool. He just came by and measured the hole to be sure we were right. Minimum is 8" deep and 18" wide. He then continued to say that he went to a cold weather concrete class and said it was okay to pour even over an inch of ice. The water in the hole was not a problem, just push it around to the sump and keep pumping the water off.
I did order a pump truck as well because the ground, while frozen, does not work well with big trucks in the muck.
I really get envious of you guys digging in nice, dry earth.
Footers are a little overbuilt to deal with the cold/water. They are 24" wide and 10" deep. Two rows of 1/2" rebar. We used 3500 lb instead of 2500. I trusted everyone to add the correct additives and it seems to have worked out.
The were two little streams of water coming in the entire time we were pouring and about an hour after finishing the pour, the footers were covered with water. By 10 that night, they had 8" of water on them. The block guy said this was good as it would help cure the concrete. He did not want me to pump the water off as it would help it cure and insulate it. After 54 hours in 26-28 degree weather, there finally was a little ice on the water. He had said the heat of the concrete would keep it from freezing.
I sure hope this all works out. I have been very nervous about doing all of this now, but am glad to get it done.
This morning, we are going to break off the ice and pump off the water to see what is underneath. The block man is doing this as he wants to do the block this week. Tomorrow, our weather is going to be 40 or above for a week or so. Pretty scary, but we will see how it turns out.
Now, I'll try to get the pics up.
Have a nice day,
Eric
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