We hope. Although better than the last concrete day, this one also didn’t go exactly as planned.
We didn’t get done as much bracing on the wall as we hoped to do before the pump truck for the concrete showed up almost an hour early. Thankfully our help arrived before the actual concrete arrived, but we were a little rushed doing a final check on everything before the concrete got poured. This was partly because circumstances had it that if the foundation didn’t get poured this past Friday we were waiting until after Labour Day.
The pump truck was neat to watch as it went high into the sky in order to reach all parts of the house. Definitely a lot easier than last time, but I can see why this machine comes with a fairly large extra cost. It was also a much cooler day than the last concrete delivery, which meant better working conditions for us, and also the concrete didn’t set as quickly. We also had the ICF contractors and extra help from someone looking to use the ICF there, which was fantastic.
The biggest hurdle we had was that the concrete vibrator we’d rented turned out to have the wrong plug for a residential site so we couldn’t even plug it in, let alone use it to get rid of the voids in the concrete. Thankfully the rental company didn’t give me any headache about refunding us the rental fee when I returned it on Monday, but that did mean we had to try to do its job manually by putting in a piece of rebar and shaking it in the concrete and hitting the sides of the walls with a wooden block. We doubt this did as good of a job as a proper concrete vibrator would do, but should be enough to give us a strong foundation.
All around it was a tiring day, but a good day that went a lot smoother than the last concrete day. The weekend was spent taking down all the bracing and cleaning up the inside of the ‘basement’ so we can start preparing it for the posts needed to begin the first floor. Thank you again for following along on our journey and please like our Facebook page for some additional photos.
See you next week!
Huron The Lake 