Concrete Solutions

Answers To Questions I Never Wanted To Ask...


I regret to tell you that after yesterday I've decided that I'm pretty sure that my body is getting too old to physically accomplish a good deal of the crap that my mind comes up with for me to do.

Due to medical reasons associated with my ever increasing age, over the past twenty five years I've stopped doing a number of things which I once loved to do--long distance running, flying airplanes, Slalom Water Skiing, and scuba diving easily come to mind --and I can add several of yesterday's tasks to that ever increasing list without the least regret.

A truck showed up about 9:30 AM with eight interior doors, a stack of OSB and exterior siding panels, and 1,760 pounds of pre-mixed dry concrete. By 9:45 their little fork lift had left me and my materials standing in my front yard scratching my body parts.

What the $#%@&* was I thinking?

I elected to save money by paying a single $59 delivery fee, but now I was looking at having to either use the material on Wednesday else move the excess inside so it could be locked away from the third world thugs theiving crack heads lovely local residents which had already elected to remove my kitchen sink and $5 worth of functioning copper pipe from the project over the past few years.

At my mind's request, my body poured, troweled, and floated a 6' wide by 12' long, 2" thick section of 4000 PSI concrete on top of an existing area of concrete in a little over two hours using a small electric mixer. ( For the experts out there that care, I even used a concrete bonding agent on the well cleaned existing 4" slab.)

Then I came home, stripped off my filthy clothes, and collapsed in a heap on the sofa.

I think that Pat was impressed with the process, and I have to emphatically state that if it weren't for her providing psychological support and measuring and hauling buckets of water back and forth between the kitchen and the mixer I'd probably still be there this morning frozen in a cloud of concrete dust.

The mixer was the the real lifesaver of the project, religiously handling two eighty pound bags of Quikrete and 2-1/2 gallons of water at a time. Together we mixed eleven batches--it seemed like one hundred and eleven--as I lugged the eighty pound bags from the pallet to the mixer drum, then rolled the sloppy load over and dumped it out inside the form work.

I also panicked as I mixed the last two loads because it looked like I was going to run out of cement before the form was filled completely, and I had ordered one extra bag of cement beyond the 21 bags recommended by the manufacturer's website material calculator.

Would you believe that I had less than a couple of shovels full of concrete left on the ground when I was finished?

I guess that the Construction Gods were smiling on me that day.

I was so tired that I ended up leaving the OSB and siding sitting on the front porch (something that is routine on most job sites), so I have to go back over this morning to move and stack it inside the front dining room and to meet the truck that will be delivering my new windows at 9 AM.

I sure hope that the wood is still there.

The new windows will also have to be moved inside to await beginning the process of their installation next Monday.

In the mean time I have some other final internal framing details to complete, and of course there is the inevitable trip to Lowe's for even more lumber and tools.

The best part of today's trip will be buying...

A PNEUMATIC FRAMING NAILER!!

If I wasn't so tired I probably wouldn't have slept last night, but sleep I did, thus the lack of late posting.

I've got to go now and do some more reading on choosing a nailer so I can make a good selection.

Wish me luck, if you will...