Garage Project Phase III

This is a continuation of my project involving the restoration of my old 1920's garage. This post describes the concrete work.
(Earlier post: Garage Project Phase II)

It took a couple Saturdays to get the concrete forms ready. My father-in-law, a professional builder, warned me about the need for a release agent to prevent the forms from sticking. I decided to try biodiesel. I have yet to try to remove the forms, so we’ll see how that goes.

Last week was a bit nerve-wracking because I’ve only ever worked with small batches of concrete. I really didn’t want to mess up the $675.00 worth of concrete and gravel I’d ordered for this project. Also, the only opening they had to deliver on Saturday was at 8:00 AM! Thankfully, I had the day before that off, but the list of things to get done was long.

The concrete company told me their truck needed a stable road at least a 10 feet wide, with no overhang under 14 feet. If the driver didn’t think the road was good enough, we’d have to use wheelbarrows to carry the concrete from the street – a nightmare scenario! Unfortunately, the back alley to my garage was choked with blackberries, overgrown brush, and muddy potholes!

The critical 300 foot path from the street (top) to my garage (red square) had to be cleared for the concrete truck.

After checking with my neighbors that I could chop down whatever was growing behind their property into the alleyway, I started in early Friday chopping, mowing, and trimming – with the most work being on my own overgrown hedge. The whole time, my mind was running through everything I had to prep on the garage, and here I was clearing brush! But it had to be done.

With the alleyway (hopefully) clear enough for the truck, I turned my attention to the open pit of loose, fluffy, and rotten log-filled dirt that made up one third of my garage floor. Before I could pour a new slab on top of it, I needed to compact the soil. But first, I had to dig out the bad stuff. I ducked between all the wooden braces and started to shovel. Every time I thought I’d gotten down low enough, I’d turn up another rotten log. In the end, I shoveled out 6 wheelbarrows full of dirt.

Meanwhile, a load of gravel had arrived in a big pile in the alley. It was to go in the cavity I was digging out, allowing me to get a good compact foundation on which to pour the concrete. With my wheelbarrow and shovel, I started moving gravel into the void. By this point I was exhausted and running out of daylight. There would be no time in the morning to prepare, so I had to get it ready at whatever the cost. But I hadn’t yet starting digging out the slab I intended to pour behind the garage! I didn’t even have a pick-axe and didn’t know how long it would take me. I was almost ready to forego the new slab altogether.

My neighbor Dan comes out to see concrete poured in the slab he helped excavate the night before.

That is when a hero stepped in. My neighbor Dan knew about my project, and he volunteered both his labor and tools just when I needed them. In the fading daylight, he swung his pick-axe into the boulder-filled earth outside the shop, and together we dug until we could no longer see what we were doing. I hastily laid out some wooden forms for the slab sides. With light and space for removed soil running out, we scaled back the length of the slab from 10 feet to 8 feet. Dan left his tools for me. It was late. I closed up the garage for the night, took a shower, and didn’t sleep a wink.

Dad floats the new slab.

The second hero, as always, is my dad. He arrived at 7:30 the next morning and we frantically started preparing the site. The concrete truck arrived 10 minutes early! The thing about concrete is that you have x minutes to unload the truck and they charge you y dollars for every minute beyond that as stand-bye time. When that truck is ready, your wallet is on the clock.

The driver came out to look at the alley, hemmed and hawed about branches and the stability of the surface, but thankfully decided to give it a go. His truck squeezed down the alley with inches to spare on either side, and we now had concrete right next to the project! My alley trimming the day before had been worth it.

The next hour and a half was a sweaty frantic rush of action as we moved the concrete from the truck to the forms a wheelbarrow at a time (we blew out one wheelbarrow tire). Finally, it was in! Dad and I spent another 3 hours floating and smoothing things into shape. The concrete started to get firm. We took a lunch break and came out to see that the cat had walked across the area. We smoothed over that, but later, when it was just soft enough, the cat did it again. And those prints are now permanent.

Wet concrete fills the pit that once held 80 years worth of rotten wood. A proper floor at last!

Anchor bolts in the foundation forms.

Next: Removing the forms, replacing the sills, and maybe lowering the structure into place!