Today's Project

[Fox]

Somebody knocked a hole in one of the fiberglass tables at my favorite mom and pop burger joint down the road so I made a quick $50 making and installing a new one. If you count the drive to the lumber yard for the 2x6's it took about 2 hours. They're gonna paint it themselves.

I figure in a few weeks it'll be all carved up with graffiti.

[90GTVert]

Nice work. I'm sure "Suzy Luvs Tom" and "FOR A GOOD TIME CALL..." will enjoy their fresh canvas.

[Fox]

Well, I did the other three tables yesterday and primered them this morning. $150 more. Had to give it all to my girlfriend though.

[2strokd]

Looks very good, im sure they like your work and $150 is a good deal .

[Fox]

I had a bunch of left-over bags of cement sitting in the shop taking up space so today I used them to make my back porch steps into a ramp.

The white stuff is concrete bonding adhesive. You have to let it dry and it turns clear then you can pour the new concrete. I made a simple form and used the house to hold it in place with a few screws. The basement door made a perfect form on the other side. (10) 50lb. bags did the job. I figured the eight bags I hadwas plenty but it wasn't so I had to drive really fast to get a couple more bags at the end. My calculations were way off. :doh:

[90GTVert]

That's pretty sweet. Now I have to ask what I'm sure is a stupid question. Forgive me, I've worked with concrete 2 times and both involved digging trenches and filling them so dogs couldn't dig out of pens. As simple as it can get. Anyway, so how do you make a ramp? I would think it would just wanna settle into a block at the lowest point.

[Goosey]

Nice work. I wondered the same thing. Do you just keep smoothing it up till it sets up? Are you planning to roll the scoots into the house now?
I was planning on doing some concrete repair on my top step/porch. I would not have known to use the bonding agent. Good to know.

[Fox]

If you mix the concrete on the dry side it'll hold it's shape pretty well. I did have to push it around a little bit from settling but once it starts to firm up a little it'll stay the way you form it. I mixed one bag at a time in a tub and dumped it in the form starting at the top of the ramp and after every 2 bags I worked it some and smoothed it out leaving a rough edge for the next batch to grab onto. I worked any air out by sticking the end of the trowel down into the concrete. Like stabbing cookie dough with a knife. Then lots of back and forth with the trowel. Since it's a ramp and gets wet in the rain, I made the surface rough with a broom while the concrete was just setting up by dragging the broom lightly over the surface. Large areas require the broom to be rinsed off occasionally to get a uniform surface.

I used fast setting stuff (Quikcrete Red bag) because I have a little bit of experience with concrete. It gives you 15-20 minutes to work it into shape. Regular mix takes longer to set up so I recommend using that so you can play with it longer. To get the surface smooth you sort of tamp on it with the trowel to get the rocks to settle and the cream to rise to the top and then you go back and forth over the cream tilting the trowel so you don't dig in. Any low spots can can be leveled by simply adding more to that spot and working it in.

This link is the bonding glue. I got it at Home Depot. I just poured it out and used a paint roller to spread it out. It took about 45 minutes to dry because it was kinda cool today.
www.quikrete.com/ProductLines/ConcreteBondingAdhesive.asp

Trowel:


Edge tool makes a rounded corner. You run it between the form board and the concrete. Groove tool makes lines in sidewalks.





This vid shows a guy doing broom finish with a guy making lines with a groove tool behind him.

[90GTVert]

I figured that's what it had to be, but wasn't sure. Thanks for all the details!

[Goosey]

Good info. It's been awhile, but I did a couple of slabs for a garage, and a shed, and a carport. I like that kind of stuff. Hope to get the closing on my house settled soon so I can start putting money/repairs into it Lawyer found some snags in his title search :scared:
I havn't decided if pouring the cement will hold and keep the concrete porch from shifting out any farther, or it'll hasten it's collapse, nothing to lose, just losing it faster maybe ;D Just one of many projects.

[Fox]

Something else I think you'll find interesting is a salt rock finish. If you've ever seen concrete with little pits in it all over the surface by design it was done by tamping rock salt into the surface while the concrete is still malleable and then after it hardens you hose it and the salt rock dissolves leaving the pitted look. The first time I saw it being done I thought it was pretty cool.

[90GTVert]

That is kinda cool. It would be cool to lightly roll a tire across setting concrete to get a tread pattern. Could be a cool border or something at least. That reminds me, my garage floor needs some texture. It's very smooth and a little bit of water can be dangerous... or even dust gets slick for that matter. I keep wanting to coat it and add sand to the coating, but I just never do it.

[Goosey]

That would look nice on a patio. Usualy we just end up with paw prints in the cement

[Fox]

Had a busy week last week. I built a 50' section of fence and I put in a water softener in my basement cause the water was making us itchy and spotting up my new shower area.

Got it at home depot for $500. It installed pretty easy. I did the plumbing but I hired the same guy that wired the bath to run the power over to it. I can tell it's working but I'll be damned if I know how it works. The salt and water never seem to intermingle.





The fence was a three day deal. I had to tear down the old fence the first day and dispose of it. The second day I put the posts in the ground and the third day I installed the fence. On one side the dirt is higher so I had to put a 2x8 Pressure treated board along the bottom to hold it back.

[90GTVert]

Never seen a water softener before.

Well done on the fence.