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Re: Pouring a small concrete slab

To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>, <noemi@nebcom.com>
Subject: Re: Pouring a small concrete slab
From: "Nolan Penney" <npenney@mde.state.md.us>
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 08:06:07 -0500
This is *not* the reply of someone who knows what he is 
doing when pouring concrete.  It's simply the reply of a fella
who did about the same job in his basement, survived the
experience, and hasn't had it fail yet.

My century old house has a cement basement.  It was poured
by Jim Bob and Billy Bob right on the old dirt floor, and around
various things that were in the basement.  Among them a kiln/
oven thingie about 4x6  feet.  I removed the kiln/oven thingie,
leaving me a nice hole in the floor with dirt at the bottom.  

I took a bunch of brick rubble and tossed it in the hole.  Used
a lot more rubble then I expected filling it in until it the pile was
about 2" below the top of the cement slab around it.

I then took several bags of Sakrete mix, mixed it up in my 
wheelbarrow and dumped it in the hole.  It took several more
bags then I expected.  I think that's a rule btw, it always takes
more money, time and supplies then you expect.  

My very high tech leveling technique was to use a 2x4 and 
slide it back and forth along the surface, using the existing
slab as a guide.  This worked real well, and got me a uniform
surface that matched the existing floor.

The only thing I didn't like was the finish didn't match.  The
old slab was slick smooth like the cement floor of a building.
The patch I installed looked like a sidewalk.  

Right or wrong, I took a bag of cement (the stuff without
the rocks), mixed it up, dumped it on top, and smoothed that
out using the same 2x4.  Now it looked right!  I think I did
a final smoothing with a trowel.

That was a year ago.  The patch is virtually invisible to the
eye, and hasn't failed.  Again, I am *not* an expert.  If
other experts disagree with what I've done, listen to them!
Just putting it out there that a clod like myself did a similar
job, sucessfully, with virtually no experience or pretty toys.
It was kinda fun to do actually.  


>>> Noemi Berry Doudna <noemi@nebcom.com> 12/27 12:41 AM >>>

We need to put a small (4'x6'?) slab into our small dirt-floor
basement (12'x12'), on which to place a boiler, indirect water
storage tank, and various other underfloor radiant heat (yee-haw!)
accoutrements.  So this doesn't have to be a heavy-duty
rebar-reinforced thing or anything.

The most experience my husband and I have with concrete is
making handprints in it.   What are the various approaches/methods
for this?  Do we just bop down to Home Depot and get some
"premix" (??) and pour it into a form we make with 2x4s?
What tools do we need to mix, level and handle the concrete?

My husband's reading about it and says we should at least put
some wire mesh in to reinforce and hold it together when it cracks.

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