Okay Noemi... it's nice to see something we chatted about actually completed
as a project.... It's a good thing my wife "Miss Kathy" didn't have one
like it..... her logic seems to follow a different strain then yours.... I
suppose I should share the way She would have done this....
She would look at the few bags it took to accomplish this task and decide
instantly that " I " should do the whole thing.... I can hear it now
"Geez Honey ( major sucking up going on here) that was SO easy for you....
why don't we do the WHOLE thing.... then I could store Christmas down there"
The logic being it looks like the MOST miserable place to get it out of each
year and to put it away in..... She would be happy to run to Home depot for
me to get the concrete.... as they would tote it to her car..... I of course
would play Pack Mule to get it down in the basement. She might bring me a
diet coke while I whittled away 7 or 8 weekends rolling the little
barrel.... But on the end of the day she would get the opportunity each
year to hear me Cuss as I hit my head on the header dragging boxes up and
down the stairs...
Yep that's the way it would work in my house....
Keith
----- Original Message -----
From: "Noemi Berry Doudna" <noemi@nebcom.com>
To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Cc: <ddoudna@rahul.net>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 3:52 AM
Subject: Follow-up on small concrete slab
>
> Just thought I'd report and thank you all for your suggestions,
> clues, tips, and warnings about a do-it-yourself concrete slab
> for complete amateurs. (! Snooze alert on !)
>
> A complication that made many ideas impractical (renting a small
> mixer, concreting the whole basement) is that our "luxurious" 9x13
> basement is only accessible via a 3x3 trapdoor. We weren't even
> sure we could get a wheelbarrow down there. That and the fact
> that I'm 8 months pregnant and couldn't help much in the heavy
> work (instead, I annoyed my husband by taking pictures).
>
> We mixed the concrete by rolling the OdJob mixer (that Bill Rabel
> suggested) to each other. FYI, Home Depot doesn't carry them
> anymore, at least not the HDs around here. We were lucky to stumble
> upon a leftover returned one (fortunately there are at least 5
> Home Depots within 20 minutes driving distance).
>
> Mixwise, all we did was follow the instructions on the OdJob thing,
> using the lid as a measure, and encouraged by other people saying
> they got the right mix by following instructions. The concrete
> passed the "ridge" test -- a ridge made with a trowel didn't
> crumble (too dry) and didn't fill in (too wet).
>
> Gloves were also a really good suggestion -- concrete dust is nasty
> stuff. Pouring the bags in that small confined space immediately
> called for hauling a square fan down there to exhaust the dust.
>
> Clueless about tools, somehow we walked out of Home Depot with a
> cheap wooden float and a metal "finishing trowel", the latter of
> which cost 5 times as much and was 10 times as useful to jiggle
> the top as smooth as it got (which wasn't very smooth). Whoever
> said floating was hard wasn't kidding.
>
> This was a good project for total amateurs, as it doesn't need
> to be that good, and doesn't need to be pretty. ALL it's going
> to do is support a boiler and water tank in a basement -- the
> contractor would have been happy with cinder blocks.
>
> Thanks again for all your help/suggestions!
>
> noemi
>
> p.s. as part of my compulsive documentation disorder, I've put
> some photos on this site, in case you're especially insomniac-ical:
>
> http://www.nebcom.com/dnn/house/concretepad.html
>
> ///
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