Cement Success

Once again we are blessed with dry weather -- which also happened to be quite cool this morning (60's) -- so we were able to get outside to complete our planned work.

We were set up and ready to go by 9:00 this morning, and overall the pour went well.

We ended up with six mixes of concrete (Sacrete).  The first five mixes were two bags each, and the last mix was just one bag.  The mixtures were quite dry and stiff, but the concrete set up well. Thank God for the portable concrete mixer.  We would not have been able to do this if we had to mix the concrete by hand; life it too short to be in pain for something that we want to accomplish.

Rick starts to work the surface of the pour.

Rick continues to make the surface smooth
while trying not to work the concrete too much.

We learned some lessons with this project.  First, we would make the mixes just slightly more wet.  Secondly, we would pour half the slab and then work that part into place before pouring the second half.  Today, the first part began to dry too much before we had it all poured which made working it into a smooth surface more difficult.  We'll try something different for the second part of the slab.

Rick has said multiple times that concrete is finicky. It cannot be handled too much or the surface is ruined.  Right now we are pleased with the appearance.  We originally toyed with the idea of brushing the surface, but in the end we like what we see and decided to leave it smooth.  No one is going to walk or slip on these slabs, so there is no reason to roughen the surface.

The finished first part of the slab and the
rebar that will connect it to the second part
of the slab.

We suspect that the edges may be a little rough. With the next section, we'll make sure the edges are worked enough to get the air out so all looks great when we take off the forms.

The second section awaits concrete tomorrow.

The final conclusion we reached is that we probably would be able to pour sections which eventually would be used as a patio or as a base for a shed.  One step at a time.  Right now, we just need to go out to buy the next five bags of Sacrete for the second section of the present slab.