June 23, 20188 yr With my concrete pour scheduled for 11th of July and current weather tends I am starting to wonder what hot weather tricks might be required to encourage the foundations to cure at an optimum pace. The concrete supplier is 6 miles away as the crow flies so I hope what arrives on site will be nice and fresh. Reading up on the subject I understand an early start is advised when the day is cool. I will make sure water is available to spray down the concrete. We expect to deliver the loads direct into the trenches from the wagon chute. Anything else?
June 23, 20188 yr Get tarps to cover it when laid to limit evaporation I'm thinking. Cleverer people will be along shortly.
June 23, 20188 yr Won’t really matter with a foundation but keeping it damp does help. Spray with a hose once it’s started to go green
June 23, 20188 yr Nope, don’t over think it, shoot it straight in Tamp a pad stick your laser on it, tamp another pad and laser that one. Level in between you will be finished at 10.30 am.
June 23, 20188 yr 1 hour ago, epsilonGreedy said: [...] Anything else? Remember your wet T shirt. And video it.
June 23, 20188 yr 1 hour ago, epsilonGreedy said: Reading up on the subject I understand an early start is advised when the day is cool. I will make sure water is available to spray down the concrete I agree on the early pour but not on the reason, you go early so you don't have to deal with the previous person's delays, ask for it to turn up at 8 am and it will be there at 7:50, ask for it at 1 pm and it will be there at 2-2:30, ask for it at 4 pm and it will turn up at 6 if you are lucky but more than likely 7:50 the next day. as for wetting it down I cant see the need on strip foundations, maybe on a slab as the surface percentage is relatively high but for strips, 99.9 percent of the concrete is going to be completely unaffected by the spraying so all you are really doing is making yourself a wet trench,
June 23, 20188 yr 29 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said: Remember your wet T shirt. And video it. Decent wellies, gloves and safety specs as concrete in the eye is no fun ....
June 23, 20188 yr Author 3 hours ago, recoveringacademic said: Remember your wet T shirt. And video it. Sorry Swmbo is working that day, I will keep any eye out for passing totty. Sorry forum ladies just been to the best *Fest in ENgland, £5 for two tuickets, but ti pick up little found £2.20 gave to the church rooof und. Time for bed.
June 24, 20188 yr Keep it off your skin. If you get a welly full, take them straight off. 8 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said: Sorry Swmbo is working that day, I will keep any eye out for passing totty. Sorry forum ladies just been to the best *Fest in ENgland, £5 for two tuickets, but ti pick up little found £2.20 gave to the church rooof und. Time for bed. Lol. Immortalised here, your first proper typos
June 24, 20188 yr For my raft pour I was told to wet it down after it had been power floated and to cover with tarps to keep the moisture in. Im pouring my ICF basement walls on Thursday, it’s going to be 25deg and the ICF holds the heat. Let’s hope the concrete cures OK as I can’t wet it down. Edited June 24, 20188 yr by Triassic
June 24, 20188 yr 1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said: Lol. Immortalised here, your first proper typos Beat me to it. Obviously someone had a good time at the festival!
June 24, 20188 yr 1 minute ago, jack said: Beat me to it. Obviously someone had a good time at the festival! When he sobers up we can get a translation
June 24, 20188 yr Thats a lot of footing for what looks like a 4ft rising to 6ft of bank! Must have been costly. Ouch.
June 24, 20188 yr 35 minutes ago, CC45 said: Thats a lot of footing for what looks like a 4ft rising to 6ft of bank! Must have been costly. Ouch. The height is deceptive, as that bank is just over 8ft high at the far corner, plus the wall runs down along the far side as well. Yes, it was very costly. IIRC, the basic retaining wall and foundations came to around £25k, as it was two rows of 215 hollow blocks with vertical steels through the concrete-filled hollows plus horizontal steel rods along the mortar courses, laid in English cross bond, with the front and rear stretcher rows offset by half a block. The addition of a mixed block and stone dwarf wall at the top (topped by a fence) plus cream render to the whole exposed face of the wall, pushed the total cost up over £35k. This photo of the part- finished wall gives a better idea of the scale of the thing:
June 24, 20188 yr it is a lot bigger than the previous picture. Painful cost but I guess you haggled that off the plot cost! Must have taken some time as well. How do you handle the drainage? I'm guessing you don't want any water appearing on the face of that wall?
June 24, 20188 yr Yes, the plot was relatively cheap because of all the problems, thankfully. The drainage is handled by a perforated land drain pipe right at the bottom at the rear of the wall, with pea shingle backfill to allow any water from above to drain down to the land drain. The drain feeds to a soakaway, which by good fortune connects to an old Victorian clay pipe drain that runs down to the stream. My guess is that the clay pipe drain was put in to take spring water away to the stream, as there are a few springs that run out of the side of the adjacent lane.
June 25, 20188 yr Author On 24/06/2018 at 08:05, Nickfromwales said: Lol. Immortalised here, your first proper typos The morning after the day after the night before. Monday morning translation: After a Saturday spent online cogitating the finer details of my foundations. Swmbo and I made a last minute decision to walk down the lane to attend the last hour of our local villageFest. It pulls in around 2000 people for a genteel music festival, the profit goes to maintaining the village church and it must be the only such event in England that starts off with a 20 minute peel of the church bells. The church overlooks the festival ground which is next door to the graveyard. We got a discounted last minute entry of 2 wristbands for £5. On the way out I encountered a pillar of the community starting to dismantle the stage power supply while the last determined revelers were still hanging out post-music making the most of their ticket, at this point I volunteered for some litter picking. I was rewarded with £2.20 during my litter pick near the bar which led to a moral dilemma debated at 10:30pm in a field with a gaggle of septuagenarian church wardens. I handed over my gains to a higher authority and headed home. Swmbo poured me a G&T as a reward for my community service. Then the evening became a bit fuzzy and apparently I posted on here.
June 25, 20188 yr It makes the original post even funnier if you go back and read it. In the least creepy way possible, I'd like your wife to make me a G&T. Was it a pint?
June 25, 20188 yr Sounds like one of my husband's G&T's. Teetotallers have no conception of what constitutes a "measure". Eye watering.
June 25, 20188 yr Author 47 minutes ago, jack said: It makes the original post even funnier if you go back and read it. That is a potential embarrassment I have evaded so far, maybe tomorrow or next year.
June 25, 20188 yr Author Just had Mr Wise Owl on the phone, he is not too concerned about the hot weather on concrete pour day. He said a bit of water usually settles out of the newly poured concrete and sits on the surface. He reckons it will be set by midday.
June 25, 20188 yr Worth remembering that concrete needs a lot of water to cure - water gets incorporated into it as it hardens, it doesn't "dry out" as such. If the top surface of the pour dries out too quickly, then it won't cure properly, and will end up weak and perhaps a bit flaky. It's a good idea to have some hessian sacks around that can be soaked in water and put over the top of any areas that are getting direct sun, or just cover it over with a bit of tarpaulin to prevent it drying too quickly. As your bloke says, a wet mix will tend to settle with a bit of excess water on top, and that will often be enough to make sure that there's plenty of water around for the stuff to start to cure properly. Because it was really hot when our wall foundations were cast, the blokes covered over the concrete with anything they had to hand, sheets of board, tarpaulins, whatever, just to keep the sun off a bit.
June 25, 20188 yr Heard talk from the older guys I used to work about the summer of ‘76 (my memories of it are only of being a 3 year old naturist in the garden,with embarrassing photo evidence still around.) Apparently they had to soak hessian as Jeremy says to cover the walls,or they would dry out too quickly & crack.
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