Green Builder makes Green Concrete Part 2

As mentioned in part 1, I was already a year into the project which involved planning and navigating the many requirements of the building department.  I had two permits in hand now and I chose to focus on the concrete slabs for the garage and cedar covered porch.

Because I had never held a construction job and have limited construction experience I am considered green when it comes to building.  Stories abound of homeowners with little experience attempting construction jobs and screwing up big time such as the guy who made a slab which required 10" footers for a 4" thick slab.  Thinking he needed the 4" on top of the footer for the slab and neglecting to put in subbase and base material in he ended up with a 14" thick slab.  The cement truck driver of course was happy with the extra money and laughing about it all the way to the bank.  Furthermore the owner forgot to put the plumbing pipes in the slab, so the slab had to be cut up with a concrete saw.  Often these stories have the key element that it would have been cheaper and faster had the contractor done it.

Continuing on where we left off in part 1 with my screw up, I took the sawzall and cut the screws holding the 2x2 stakes off the forms without damaging the forms and put in the proper kickers.  The kickers were now strong enough to handle the weight of the concrete and rigid enough to prevent the form from moving and instead of screws I used double headed nails.

Part of the process for putting the kickers in was making the forms vertical or as close to 90 degrees as possible and making sure the forms provide the proper grade and the dimensions for the slab.  This was actually quite challenging for me due to the length of the forms.  The straight level I was using was not very good and inadequate.  In fact I believe that professionals use a transit which is an expensive $800 dollar piece of equipment that can be used to make forms level.

We did not use a transit.  We resorted to ancient technology known to humans before Christ was born that in fact is more accurate then a transit and cost about $40.   It was my dads ingenious idea.  More about this amazing tool later in part 3 of this blog.

With it we got the cement pad  forms level over a 30' span to within an 1/8".  In my case I chose very little grade for my pad because it one day may become an enclosed addition for the house.   Totally not worried about water shedding off.  The resulting forms for the cedar covered porch are shown below:
 



The kicker we found was somewhat adjustable but a little difficult to change when we used it and these were the type of kickers my dad had used as a carpenter on the job.  We ended up trying another form of kicker for the garage pad shown below:



The kicker was a lot more adjuster friendly.  As you may have noticed the forms for the garage have an allowance for 8" by 4" curb for the cinder block wall to rest on.  The cedar covered porch does not have walls so there was no need for the curb.  It was during this state in the construction of the forms that my neighbor a retired architect in his 80s had come over and examined my work.  He said, "Those are some of the best looking forms I have ever seen."

In response I replied, "Well did you know they also play music?"  Read what happens in the next blog.


Happy Building

The Dr