Pouring the Garage Walls (in 3 parts)

The Cement truck drove in as close to the garage door as possible

and extended his chutes as far into the garage as possible.

The cement would go into the wall midway

between the front and the back corner.

It should flow toward both the front and the back and fill the walls.

Lee called his friend Josh to help because Ron and Mike had not arrived yet.

(Josh came even though he "doesn't even like the smell of projects")




The concrete flowed to the front of the Garage very well....

but not toward the back of the garage.

We heard cracking and popping noises.

Mike went down to see what was happening.

What do you think, Mike?

The Braces were sinking into the soft clay dirt.

We needed more braces to hold the wall upright.

We should pour concrete directly into the front wall.

Lee and Josh worked on the front wall while.....

everyone else discussed what to do with the side wall that was leaning over.

Rick and Glen wondered if it was safe to continue to add concrete ...

...to a wall that is already leaning and ....

...we don't know if the additional bracing will be enough to hold it upright.

They decided to try again.

But the concrete would not flow around this back corner.

They would have to drag the concrete around the corner to the back wall.

Dragging concrete is so much work.

With a little creativity (and using our plank to the front door)

we could send the concrete directly to the back wall.

They braced the end of the plank and the end of the chute.

Yes, that is the tow rope holding the whole thing together.

The long chute and plank was not very sloped ...

and the sides were not very high so they had to drag the concrete into the wall.

So they added 2 x 4 sides to funnel the concrete to the wall.

We got Glen off the ladder and had Mike tend the chute.

They were able to pour all the walls full.

There was barely enough concrete to finish the walls.

We did not have a disaster.

The walls did not come tumbling down.

Forming the Walls

Looking down into the porch room from the plank.
We have the first wall completed and many more forms to set.

The rebar is in between the forms.

The outside forms don't go down to the footing.

They are suspended next to the wall of dirt

When we put the outside forms up, we knocked dirt off the bank and onto the footing.

We had to vacume the dirt up with a used shop Vac that we bought

We are progressing.

It is kind of crowded inside the room with the forms, the people and the tools.

We got the inside forms all in place.

The outside forms will "hang" from the ties that go through the concrete walls.

Dad is inspecting our work.

This is what he sees.

Mom had to lay in the dirt to put in the hardware that would hold the forms together.

Now this is the only way to get in and out of the front porch room.

Preparing the Steel

Dad drilled holes into the wall of the house and put rebar in the holes

to hook the new concrete walls to the house

He would hit the rebar and it would vibrate and move.

This made it hard to hit it each time.

James helped wire the upright rebar to the J bars that they put into the footing.

Inside the room with all the forms that will form up the walls.

We put steel in the walls for the garage room too.

First Pour Continued

The footings for the Front Porch room.
See the plank that we walk across to get in and out of the house.

JP's brother Matthew helped us.

Most important is to stay out of the way of the cascading and splashing concrete.

The finished footing with J bar coming out of the footing.

They also put bolts in the footing to hold the bottom of the forms in place when they pour the concrete walls. There is nothing to hold the inside concrete form close to the outside dirt wall.

It is kind of hard to get out of the front porch room.

See the finished footing on the west end of the porch and, over the small wall,

the finished footing on the front of the garage

First Concrete Pour

Saturday Morning.... Show Time.

The concrete truck was supposed to arrive at 10:00 am.

Just like Dad predicted. He showed up at 9:45am. We were almost ready for him.

The Whole Family Helps

Angela helped point the laser to determine the correct depth of footings.
Lee helped dig footings for kitchen add on.
JP helped dig too.

Jules drove grade stakes to show the level of the concrete in the footing, and James held the board for the laser to shine on.

(We think it is funny how James jumps every time Jules hits the rebar)

Lee and Dad worked together to cut the rebar to go in the concrete.

The footings under the front porch are dug and are ready for the rebar.

A couple of days ago, Dad saw a rodent digging in the side of the wall from the footing to under the eventual floor. Then, when we were all working to make the footing deeper, the rodent apparently decided that we were too close of neighbors and he was leaving. But we didn't know how he could get out of the hole. We could not agree on what to do with the rodent (probably a pocket gopher). Finally James got a big empty box (for a case of canned food) and brought it to catch the gopher. Dad caught it in the box. James taped the box closed and Mom said to go throw it away. Julianna informed James that, "No, you cannot recycle a gopher in a box."