Forms and re-bar.....

On we go..... the next step was to set the forms. Ivan was gracious enough to come down to help and he brought some form boards and steel stakes. We used the water level to get all corners at the same height, then pulled a mason line REALLY TIGHT along the sides. Ivan used that to get the forms to the correct height before nailing them to the stakes we had driven in next to the forms.
(Don't forget to double click pix)


Next we back-filled the forms a little and dug a trench along the forms to make for a thick edge for the slab. About 16" wide and 10" deep. Luckily I remembered to add to the volume of concrete that would be in the deeper part to the total volume.... It wouldn't do to be short on concrete!! Then we put mason lines across the slab area at the top of the forms. This allowed us to measure the depth the concrete would be.


We finished the grading according to the string, but we didn't have to adjust it much. Peg and I had spent quite a bit of time on the fill with the water level and it was pretty close. Here we see the re-rod that had been delivered, and the hole we had left in the end form. That was so the concrete truck could drive in a ways so we could put the concrete down just with his chute, no wheelbarrow work!


I'm surely glad the Peg doesn't mind working on this kind of stuff. Here she is wiring the re-bar together so it was manageable during the concrete pour. We put the re-bar in at 24" centers both ways. We also ran two re-bars a few inches apart and all around the perimiter to give it extra holding power against cracking and heaving.


Work, work, work...... I hope this garage turns out O.K., cause we already have a bunch of time stuck in it. The money will start flowing out shortly, as soon as concrete delivery starts.


Here you get a good view of the hole in the forms. I had fit a 2x10 plank in that opening and had it ready to put in quickly as soon as the first truck was out of th form area. It worked out O.K. You can also see in the forground a couple of re-bar stakes with orange ribbons on them. They were set at the same height as the top of the forms so Ivan would have some reference points as we were leveling out the concrete. He knows what he's doing, no question.


I nailed together some 2x4's to hold some concrete if any was left over. As you can see, we also used some plastic zip ties to hold re-bar together. They worked well and were alot easier to put in than the old wire ties that you need to twist up. We now have have four little concrete mini-slabs the we will set in front of the entry doors.

So there it is, ready to pour! That happens the next day. See you there..... Carlo