Finally, some progress-slab pour - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

pritch · 01-03-2009, 10:36 PM

We had been waiting on the weather for about 2 weeks. Every day, more snow, shovel it all off and more snow the next day. 11500 sq ft. All that shovelling got old fast. Last Tuesday was a great day, though, for the second to last day of the year in Northern Utah. Not a cloud in the sky and highs in the upper 40's, so we went for it.

We have a Somero 240 laser screed. Takes all the work out of it.

And several of these riders

Get it finished, get it cut, and get it covered.

We will leave it covered until Monday, then we give it to the brickies. The erector will be setting some columns that tie into the CMU walls, also. We still have about 3000 sq ft to pour, but we will get that this week, weather permiting.

wallmaxx · 01-03-2009, 11:47 PM

Why the hard hats? Is that a Utah thing or a job site specific requirement?

In WA state, the Labor and Industries state regulators (like OSHA but meaner) require a hard be worn only when an overhead hazard is present at a minimum.
Job sites can be designated as hard hat areas by the GCs (if required by their insurance providers but its not mandated by state safety regulation.)

pritch · 01-03-2009, 11:58 PM

[quote=wallmaxx;570302]Why the hard hats? Is that a Utah thing or a job site specific requirement?
quote]

Company policy. We wear them 'till the ceiling tiles are dropped.

CaliDesigns · 01-04-2009, 07:41 AM

Looks good! What methods did you use to keep the frost out of the ground prior to placement? What kind of accellerators did you use to get all that done on a short winter day? What kind of building is that? It looks like it's in the middle of no where. You must have your own pump truck too, since it's still sitting there when you're cutting.

pritch · 01-04-2009, 01:13 PM

Keeping out the frost is a constant battle. Lots of blankets and a little bit of luck. While we were getting lots of snow, it never really was brutally cold, and snow is an exelent insulator. Even still, some of it did freeze up. We have a ground heater-basically a trailer mounted boiler with like 300 feet of hose that circulates a glycol fluid. Run the hose in a pattern across the frozen areas and overnight it will pull out the frost. We used non-cloride accelerator, I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it works good. There are always arguments over how much to use, I voted for 1% for the first 50 yards, then another % for each 50 after that (pour was about 150 yds). But in the end we went with 1.5% throughout. That building is a school addition, but it's set out away from the main building. It is a 1st and 2nd grade building, with a kindergarten building that is phase 2. Just a strange angle for the pictures, I guess, so you can't see any of the other buildings. That is our pump, but it's usually gone earlier, but there was no water handy for clean up, so the pumper had to make several trips to the fire hydrant that is a few hundred yards away.

CaliDesigns · 01-04-2009, 11:00 PM

I've used those ground heaters in the past. It's a lot of work. I'm lookin into those newer "electric curing blankets" since I do smaller work now. I like your idea of the stair step addition of accelerator. I've done it in the past. I always really doped up the last 20 yrds. It always got me and the guys out of there an hour or two earlier. I poured a 4000 sq.ft. fully enclosed basement with heaters going about 3 weeks ago with 2% of NC accelerator. It took me 11 hrs from start to finish.