Garage apron tomorrow

[Diesel Dan]

All formed up and ready for morning pour.
Doing 1/2 at a time, 13x36 slab, 5-6" 3500 psi.
Have Ghostsheild 8505 on order, hopefully shows up early next week.

Will see how my crew of misfits makes out, glad the weather is going to be cool!

On the first pic you can see the 16' of 4" aluminum channel I picked up for a screed board, hopefully it works better than a wooden 2x4.

 

[captain14]

I hope you do not get any of this rain we are getting on the east coast.

 

[Diesel Dan]

Well it's done.
Had a couple issues come up but we worked through them.
Finish leaves some to be desired but if I had broomed it you'd never notice.
We all learned some today and looking forward to the next part of the slab.

 

[bigjon]

Looks good! Why didn’t you broom finish it?

 

[NUTTSGT]

It looks good from here, keep in mind, concrete has to be really bad to worse than gravel.


How did the aluminum channel work out and where did you pick it up at ?

 

[infinkc]

No expansion joints?

 

[Diesel Dan]

Looks good! Why didn’t you broom finish it?

Never cared for broom finish.

It looks good from here, keep in mind, concrete has to be really bad to worse than gravel.

Very true and it's going to be WAY better than gravel!
One of the guys said "if it holds a car, it passes".

How did the aluminum channel work out and where did you pick it up at ?

Channel worked great especially for spanning that distance.
Called a local metal supplier looking for some 1.5"x3.5"-20' aluminum tubing but all they could get (w/o special order) was 0.125" wall and I was concerned it was too thin for intended purpose. They had in stock 4" channel, 10 ft lengths. Cut one in half and bolted together with piece of perforated angle I had laying around from garage door mounting. So screed board was 15' long.

 

[like2wheel]

What were the issues?
What would you different next time?

Edit:
Hey! Is that a Monza?

 

[Diesel Dan]

What were the issues?
What would you different next time?

Edit:
Hey! Is that a Monza?

Was watching the misting weather and thinking about calling the plant and see if we could push back an hour. Walked in the house and the plant had called to confirm if we were ready, wife said yes without asking. No turning back at that point. That was first issue.

Second issue, when first few shovels full of mix came out it looked great....then turned to pea soup. Short version, hour later second truck shows up with proper mix. IMO, first driver had excess water in the drum from clean out and we got pea soup.

My helpers did great, I just need to learn how to "read" the concrete for proper timing for float/finish. This why we learn out outdoor slab that is preferred to have rougher finish. Slab has enough pitch that any lows will not hold water.

And yes, that is a Monza.
The heat/sun has not been nice to the paint job while it has been waiting to get inside. Will need a re-paint now.

 

[SpaceDog5]

Looks great! how much cement you used?

 

[Diesel Dan]

Looks great! how much cement you used?

Ordered 10 yds.
The extra was poured into a couple 2x8-3.5" forms and then on the ground as fill for the next slab. That corner will have over 1 ft of fill by the time it's done. There was already a layer of rip-rap rock down for the last 2 yrs with topsoil removed so it wasn't really poured "on the ground".

In the past I was shorted by a batch plant once and it cost me $250 for a single yard on a Saturday, never again.