It's been a while, driveway pour this tuesday.

[04 Navi]

It's supposed to be about a 170 yards of concrete and they plan on doing it in one day. I wanted it smooth with lines cut in so we can run the go-karts that we plan to get on it. BTW the pic is a few days old. The forms are pretty much done.

I am hoping to beat the weather and get a floor down soon, but it may be close. Next step will be to get lighting. Not sure what I am going to do there yet. I am looking for something in the T8 line that is somewhat cool looking. Afterall, once you put crown molding in the garage, it's tough to keep up the image, haha.

 

[master_jcp]

Nice! I like your nice house and your garage!

 

[GearHead_1]

That's a good chunk of cement. I too, have put down that much. Are you putting steel in it? I'm a big fan of cutting the stripes as opposed to putting strike joints in the concrete particularly when it comes to the garage. Using creepers or rolling stools is a good reason to cut cement. To date, mine has been down over a year and I don't have a crack other than on the cuts. I did however, use a lot of steel in mine. I put down a mat of 1/2" rebar on 18" squares through out and poured a 6" minimum slab. The steel bill wasn't pretty, come to think of it neither was the cement. Having been through this experience I can now tell you everything there is to know about cement. #1 - It will crack, #2 - It won't burn, #3 - Your neighbors won't steal it. That's all there is to know.

 

[04 Navi]

No steel. It is not used around our area with flat work. Not sure why.

 

[PAToyota]

Don't understand when they don't use steel. For all the other costs going into a pour like that, steel is cheap insurance that you aren't going to have cracks and displacement...

 

[GearHead_1]

Don't understand when they don't use steel. For all the other costs going into a pour like that, steel is cheap insurance that you aren't going to have cracks and displacement...

I agree, too much money not to put rebar (not chicken wire) in a pour that size. Tell them you want it and don't listen to the reasons they can't do it. Like I said previously, sooner or later it's going to crack. You don't want it moving on you once it does.

 

[boiler7904]

Like PAToyota and Gearhead said, pouring that driveway in concrete without steel reinforcing is a waste of money. The only thing guaranteed with concrete is that it will crack. Steel will help control the movement when it starts to move.

Concrete is a great material for compressive strength but it ***** for tensile strength. It would amaze you at how little force is really required to pull concrete apart. The steel will help hold everything together if or when the base starts to move on you. It will also help span small pockets of improperly compacted base material.

Around here, you can't get concrete poured by a pro unless it has steel in it.

 

[04 Navi]

120 yards poured today. They started at six and had the pour done by noon. It was finished by 5pm. Very smooth finish, and yeah it will be slick when it rains. Lines will be cut in tomorrow.

 

[Red Car Garage]

OMG that is a lot of money!

 

[JMURiz]

...and a serious crew to do it!

 

[GearHead_1]

It sure looks nice. You'll enjoy the heck out of it.

 

[Down Under Bloke]

That’s a lot of concrete; tell me you scratched your name in some distant corner! How many security guards did it take to keep the neighbourhood kids from doing the same?

 

[boiler7904]

Very smooth finish, and yeah it will be slick when it rains.

Congrats on the driveway. It looks like you did a trowel finish on your driveway. I'm just curious why since you're in the pacific northwest. I'm assuming that you get a lot of rain year round and some snow / ice in the winter. Sounds like a bad idea to me. Where I'm at in Indiana, all exterior concrete gets a broom finish unless you want to kill yourself sliding around on it in the winter.

120 yards in 6 hours is an interesting process to watch. I'm working on a job now where they do between 200 and 250 yards every other morning (and have been for a few weeks)with a pump like you had. I think the biggest pour we hit was a couple of weeks ago at something like 290 yards down by noon, finished and joints cut by 5.

 

[04 Navi]

Yes they did a power trowel finish and no we don't get a lot of rain. We are east of the Cascades and almost in a desert. We have to watch out for the sagebrush rolling across the roads in the winter.

 

[04 Navi]

It sure looks nice. You'll enjoy the heck out of it.

Thanks. They finished two other little pours yesterday and I picked up a racing kart. Its to fast for the driveway but what a blast. Will post pics later.

 

[04 Navi]

Here's what we are doing with the driveway. This thing is way too fast.

 

[cdrewferd]

That's a lot of concrete, but I would do the same so that when someone had to park in my driveway they wouldn't have to get all muddy if it was raining or something. That kart looks sweet.