Things are moving faster now, and I'd better get this updated before I get too far behind.
The foundation demo took a few days, and several loads of concrete rubble were hauled off to a landfill. Some of the concrete was surprisingly thick, considering how cracked it was. Not just hairline cracks either, wide ones with misalignment of the pieces. Just goes to show that there's more to a good concrete job than thickness.
These two are breaking up the apron slab that was in front of the garage doors. This particular piece was 12" thick over a large area!
It took both machines to lift it, and look how the track loader is up on it's toes.
When they get it up high enough, the mini-ex lets go and moves one of the smaller pieces of concrete under it.
They let go and it drops onto it, breaking off a large chunk.
It's still too heavy to lift over the side of the dump truck, and it refuses to break any more by dropping it, so they have to do it the old fashioned way: with a Bosch electric jackhammer. They had those way back when, right? By the end of the day they had whittled it down to a 4'x4' chunk that the track loader could lift. Broke one of the jackhammer bits, too.
I thought I'd play with the big boys a while. OK, my work here is done. Carry on.
I think I'm gonna need another retaining wall here. Darn hillsides!
Digging the footers, and in the process mining a bunch of boulders out of the ground. This trench is the footer that the poured concrete wall between the upper and lower bay will sit on.
The lower bay trenches completed.
First truck. These are eight yard mixers.
I think the concrete guy said that's #9 rebar in the trench.
Second truck. They all have to back down not just my driveway, but the road leading to the driveway as well. There's not enough room to maneuver around coming in frontwards.
This one first pulls onto the upper pad to dump some of its load in the trenches below.
The guy in the red shirt is one hard working son-of-a-gun. I haven't seen him take a lunch break yet.
Second truck moving to the lower area.
Pouring.....
Pouring.....
Third truck.
All full. *Burp* :B
The guys then spent a couple hours leveling and smoothing the top of the concrete. I like the work this crew is doing. They were here till about 8:30 this evening.
Tomorrow, they'll be building the form for the poured wall. Lot's of rebar got delivered today for that, and I've had some pipe sockets made to set in the top of the concrete while it's wet for a steel railing. This wall will be shaped so that it supports one side of the upper bay floor slab, and will only come up about a foot higher than the floor surface. Hence the need for the railing on top of the wall. The difference in height between the upper and lower bay floor slabs will be seven feet.
:):)
