Basement Concrete Floor

Pouring the concrete for the basement happened on Thursday, June 21st.  Hulio, whom you met earlier in a post about Lynn's house arrived at 6:00 am to finish getting everything ready and the concrete trucks were supposed to start coming at 7:00 am and have one come every 30 minutes.  the first truck did not arrive until 7:30.  So we all sat around and talked.  Hulio has 6 men with him this date. 

Here is the truck backing up the hill.  Hulio has to connect his apparatus to the concrete pump that Hulio brought.  Have you ever had to use a wheelbarrel to get the concrete from the truck to the area that was being finished?  Well Hulio has a wonderful little pump and hose system that takes all the work out of that.

The truck dumps the concrete into this pumper, then hoses are connected.

With everything set up, they went to work.

Look what they are doing with a 2 x 4.  Look below for some more "technology" that they use to help level the concrete out.

See the spikes every 6 feet or so sticking out of the plastic.  The top of the spikes act as a guide, using the 2 x 4 board and this is the level lines to help the crew keep the concrete level as they go.  the concrete dries quickly, so they have to work fast.

this is a bull float.  They smooth out as they go making it nice before they get too far away from that spot.  Soon everyone is working on different things.

Before long we have progress.  this guy is the final finisher.  He uses the bull floats and  polisher to get it perfect.  I think this is 2 trucks worth of concrete and the 3rd truck is late.  Everyone is grabbing a bite.

Look at this guy, wearing funny shoes, like skis, so he can walk on the concnrete to do some more smoothing.  See the trowel in his left hand.

Some scenes from the final corner and finishing of the floor.

The final corner doesn't need the hoses as the concrete truck back up to that corner

At the end of the day, they are all very tired and the finish man is making it pretty.  They worked non-stop from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm, a hard days work.  They let the concrete set up overnight and cure on Friday, but Saturday, they laid some 8" block.  See the area of block jutting out to the left.  That is the utility room, which will have complete surround by block and a steel door.  Next post, putting in the rest of the support walls.