Tag: concrete

Back Yard Concrete Demo

July 2, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I’m going to skip over all the things that I haven’t kept the blog updated about and go straight into covering various projects. So, I apologize that they won’t be posted in chronological order, since we’ve done a ton of projects since I fell off the posting timeline and the effort involved in getting caught up on everything is a big reason I haven’t bothered.

So, concrete demo. Let’s back up a step. When we bought the house, there was a two car garage in the back (we have an alley). It was probably a 1.5 car garage when it was built but they poured a three foot concrete pad next to the garage and literally moved the wall over, increasing the door size in the process and adding a single car door to the yard (maybe the original door? I don’t know) and extending the roof to reach the wall in its new location. So the garage was in bad shape, none of it was done well, and we tore it down years ago. In addition, the back yard had a concrete patio covering most of the area in back.

In addition to wanting a new garage, we wanted to get rid of the concrete patio. We plan to eventually put in a smaller paver patio. When we started getting quotes on the garage, we asked for removal of the patio concrete at the same time. When we took out the loan to finish the house, we wound up removing the garage because the overall price tag was just too much.

In hindsight, it may have been better to just do it, since the prices have not come down in the subsequent years. The garage quotes were really high and we started looking for any way to bring the price down. One of the ways to do that was demo the concrete ourselves.

So, we got a hand-me-down barely-used electric jackhammer from Sarah’s dad and set to work. As with most of these projects, it was harder and took longer than expected, but three heavy-debris dumpsters later, we’d completely cleared the back yard of concrete. The hardest bits were reinforced with steel mesh, and 4-8 inches thick throughout, with most of the patio being 6 inches thick.

The kids helped too, using the jackhammer (with supervision), hauling concrete chunks, and raking and shoveling the tinier bits. The neighbors did not really appreciate us using the loud jackhammer on and off for a couple months. We tried to limit how long we went and which days to be less annoying, but I’m sure we tried their patience. When we got to the back of the yard, we needed to remove and re-build the fence which was a project in and of itself.

In the end, all this was probably not worth it. If I’d known the patio was six inches thick with re-mesh, I may have just paid to have it done since while it absolutely saved us a couple-few thousands of dollars, it wasn’t so much that it felt truly worth the time and effort.

With the concrete removed, we still have a few steps before we’re ready to build a garage, but I’ll cover that in the next post.

Basement Floor Acid Staining

April 16, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Our basement floor is radiant heated and the ceiling isn’t all that high, which meant we wanted a flooring surface that didn’t interfere with the heat and didn’t consume any height. Staining and sealing the concrete slab was the perfect solution, and not terribly expensive to boot. There’s a number of tints, color seals, paints, and other options for finishing concrete, but we liked the texture and look of acid staining. After some browsing, research, and shopping, I ordered four gallons of acid stain and two gallons of lithium silicate densifier/hardener.

Washing the floor

Washing the floor

The first step was to wash the floor, and we made it a family affair with Sarah and I and the kids mopping and scrubbing. We’d been careful to keep the floor clean after the pour, and done things like painting before hand, but cleaning was still a necessary step. With that done we let it dry overnight, though the first step in staining was re-moistening the floor. I used a pump sprayer for most of the process, and the only issue we ran into was a couple of spots where water pooled and the stain didn’t take. I’d recommend mopping up any puddles first so you don’t have to reapply stain like we did. We let the stain set for about four hours; the longer you leave it the darker the color. Then we neutralized the acid by spraying an ammonia/water mixture and mopping and washing again. We weren’t quite satisfied with the color, so at that point we did another four hour stain on the lighter spots before neutralizing and washing again. One source said to wash until the water runs clear or the sealer wouldn’t take, but after several washes the water was still brown. Another site said we’d wind up taking the stain off if we over washed, so we finally called it “good enough”.

Applying stain
Stain applied
Stain after an hour

I came back the following day and applied the sealer. I was originally going to put down two coats of sealer, but it went on fairly thick, to the point that we’ll have to go back over it with a broom and then mop off the yellowed excess. As a result we still have a gallon of the sealer to use later, maybe when we finish the basement into an entertaining space in a couple years. When the other basement work is done I’ll come back and wax the floor to give it a bit of gloss, but we’re happy with the result.

Washing the floor
Sealer applied
Sealer set
All done

Basement Floor Prep – Plastic, Mesh, and PEX

March 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments

As planned, Mario (our concrete mason) came out on Monday of last week and put in the plastic vapor barrier and the wire mesh on top of the foam insulation. Over the weekend I installed “J” bolts (they’re shaped like J’s) where our interior walls will go, so we don’t have to drill or nail the new concrete slab. I cut short pieces of steel rod and stuck them into the foam and then wire-tied the J bolts to them to keep them positioned and upright.

Basement PEX tubing

Basement PEX tubing

Today Lester, our radiant heating contractor, came out and installed the PEX tubing that will eventually allow hot water from the boiler to keep our concrete slab nice and warm and heat the whole basement. Once the tubing loops were run and zip tied to the mesh, he pumped compressed air in to 70 psi as a pressure test to ensure the loops are air (and water) tight. They’ll stay pressurized during the concrete pour and cure to make sure they don’t get squeezed anywhere. He gave me a list of warnings to pass on to Mario and his guys when they’re pouring the concrete: when they’re using a concrete spreader, don’t hit the tubing! When they tip up a wheel barrow, don’t hit the tubing! When they’re running wheel barrows back and forth, lay down some half-inch plywood so they don’t hit the tubing! I sensed a trend.

Also basement PEX tubing

Also basement PEX tubing

Mario is planning to pour the floor on Thursday, and I’ll be there making sure that Lester’s instructions are followed. If anything happens to the tubing during the pour and it leaks, our whole radiant-heating plans will crumble. The only choice would be to tear up the whole brand new concrete slab and start over, or switch to hot water forced air in the basement, and with the lack of head room I don’t want to run ducting!

Basement Floor Prep – Stone and Insulation

March 14, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Before stone
During stone
After stone

Mario, our concrete mason, came out on Saturday and put down the stone that makes up the bottom layer of our new basement floor. I had hoped that he would also install the layer of rigid foam insulation that makes up the next layer, but apparently that’s not in his menu of services, so I was on the hook to do it myself. More than that, he wanted to come back on Monday to put down the plastic and the mesh, so I needed to get it all installed on Sunday. My friend Dean and his dad, Hector, once again offered to help.

Insulation delivery

Insulation delivery

The first challenge was getting the insulation. We’re using 4′ x 8′ panels of 2″ thick XPS (extruded polystyrene) foam, which are commonly sold in different densities. The higher density foam is better for under concrete because it doesn’t compress as much. Unfortunately it’s not stocked in as many places and I was buying 30 panels. I placed an order Saturday morning at a Home Depot that had “99+” in stock. By late Saturday afternoon the order still wasn’t ready, so I called them. After being on hold for 15 minutes I was told they “couldn’t find it” and apparently had zero in stock. There was only one other Home Depot near me that had enough in stock, so I switched the order to them. They had it ready by 6:30. Unfortunately they didn’t have a truck available, so I wound up renting a truck from a Menards that was nearby (they didn’t carry the foam). I went to Menards and got the truck, drove to Home Depot, manhandled the five-foot-tall stack of foam onto the truck, drove the truck home and dropped off the foam in the back yard, drove back to Menards to return the truck, and finally drove back home.

Foam insulation
Working around plumbing
Almost done

Sunday morning came earlier than expected (due to the Daylight Savings time change) and Dean and Hector showed up. We started at the front of the basement and worked toward the back, using the hand tamper and a rake to even out the stone base in places. The concrete curb around the footing and the column footings have rough edges that we couldn’t get the foam completely flush with, but we worked around them as well as we could. The bigger challenge was the plumbing. Because the plumbing in the basement drains to an ejector pit, the pipes aren’t particularly deep. That meant in addition to cutting holes for the pipes themselves, we had to allow for horizontal pipes and fittings as well, not to mention the sump basin and ejector pit. Overall the process went smoothly and after several hours we had everything installed. I did some foam sculpting to cover up the bathroom plumbing group and I’m pretty pleased with the end result. We were frugal enough with the foam panels that I have seven left over to return. Since they cost me $32.50 each, I’m happy about that.

Insulation installed

Insulation installed

Mario is back today to put down the plastic and mesh, and then Lester (our radiant contractor) will be out next week to attach the PEX tubing. Mario should be able to pour shortly thereafter. We’re still working on the painting and prep for the front window and back door. I hope to have posts about those projects shortly. A big thanks go out to Dean and Hector for all their help!

Underground Plumbing Inspection

March 10, 2016 / / 2 Comments

It’s done. The final hurdle in the underground plumbing has been completed. Last week the plumbers installed the final bit of cast iron to connect our epoxy-lined sewer to the existing drain stack. All of the other underground basement plumbing was finished way back in October. This past Tuesday was the sewer lining inspection and today we passed the underground plumbing inspection. We’re finally able to start work on the concrete floor slab.

Underground plumbing

Underground plumbing

To that end we’re in contact with our contractors, but there’s a couple of things we want to finish before the floor goes in. Our plan is to stain and seal the concrete floor rather than put down any kind of flooring. We don’t want to lose a half-inch of head room in the basement to tile, since even with the dig out it’s not all that high, plus it will be radiant-heated, so we don’t want to use carpeting. Because of that, we want to finish some of the work that might make a mess of our nice new floor before we put it in. First, the basement ceiling is currently just exposed floor joists and subfloor, so we’re painting the whole thing with a sprayer. By painting it before we have a floor we don’t have to worry about drop cloths or splatters. We would have done this sooner, but the basement isn’t heated and the weather has been too cold. Fortunately for us, it’s been unseasonable warm recently.

Second, I realized I should do some of the prep on the front window and back door. We’re waiting to put them in until the floor is poured, but I don’t want to be grinding and drilling brick and getting dust all over the floor, so I’ll get as much of the prep done for that as I can. In the case of the door I can’t really install the buck until the slab is in, but I can get the opening smooth and flat and pre-drill the anchor holes. I can put the buck in for the front window and just leave the window out. I’m planning to finish both of these projects by this weekend.

Once they’re done, our next step is to have Mario, our concrete mason, prep the floor with crushed stone, rigid foam, plastic sheeting, and steel mesh. Then Lester, our radiant heating contractor, can put in the PEX tubing loops. Finally, Mario comes back and pours the concrete. We’re hoping that with the underground plumbing behind us we can start making progress again.