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Re: Follow-up on small concrete slab

To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Follow-up on small concrete slab
From: "Rex Burkheimer - WM" <rex@txol.net>
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 09:22:03 -0600
Keith?   Do you  need someone to talk to?
<grin>

Rex Burkheimer
Parts Plus Marketing Director  WM Automotive Whse., Fort Worth TX
"Never attribute to evil that which can be explained by stupidity" -George
Pyle
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Turk" <kturk@ala.net>
To: "Noemi Berry Doudna" <noemi@nebcom.com>; <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Cc: <ddoudna@rahul.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2001 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: Follow-up on small concrete slab


>
> 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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