The concrete guys finished tying the rebar grid yesterday. Now I understand why the majority of the concrete subcontractors I had bid the job wanted to use wire mesh with a rebar grid of 4 foot squares. 1 foot squares… what an incredible amount of work and so much steel!Originally I had specified 6 inch wire mesh with a 2 foot rebar grid, but to make everything easier for the hydronic heat contractor we decided to eliminate the wire mesh altogether and just tie a very sturdy 1 foot rebar grid. That way the radiant heat tubing could be tied directly to the rebar grid and there would be no need to worry about the heat tube floating up near the floor surface during the pour. In the end this added work might seem like overkill to some, but will provide a large sense of security knowing that the concrete slab is built near commercial specifications and will definitely stand the test of time.
I spent the entire day up on the job site with the concrete guys. At first this was to make sure they took care of the issues I had mentioned in my earlier post (i.e. a few uninsulated spots, and some detail work that needed to be improved), but after spending the entire day there I realized this is a supercool group of guys that had just worked their butts off laying over 3000 feet of steel and making more than that number of ties to bring everything together. In the end we were all exhausted from the 85+ degree, extremely humid, hot day. I had to go sit myself in front of the air conditioner for the rest of the afternoon.
Early Afternoon and the Rebar Grid Is Starting to Take Shape
All the Rebar Is Tied and We’re Now Ready for the Hydronic Tubing
Look at the Straight Lines
They Fixed the Large Gap in the Insulation That I Mentioned in My Previous Post
You’ll probably also notice that the garage section of the house has been broken into it’s own section. The concrete subcontractor thought this was a rather large slab/pour and that we’d have better results overall if we made it in two pours. This didn’t bother me at all, because we still have a bit of work getting a floor drain into the garage. I talked with the inspector yesterday about what was necessary to meet code/he’d prefer and decided to do a concrete box piped to a drywell similar to what I wrote about in the earlier post. Earthworks will help with this by digging the trench and making the drywall with large diameter stones next week.
Action to follow will include the mechanical subcontractor installing the hot/cold water lines and 4 zones of radiant heat next Tuesday/Wednesday and then hopefully concrete will be poured on Thursday.
This is coming together fast. Looks great.
Sure is my friend! The concrete guys were up there extending their forms and raising the rebar grid while the plumber was laying his hot/cold water tubes. If the weather holds out you should see concrete very soon!