FINISHED IN 2020! Sharward's Partial Garage Conversion

More reinforced concrete! :) But that will be a separate pour. There will be a gap of a couple of inches between the main slab and the L-shaped area at the north end and northwest corner.

Good news -- I just met with the concrete guy (Victor). He gave me his "thumbs up" on the forms and he will be running some calculations over the weekend. He has access to a plate compactor and is able to do that as well. Assuming the pricing is reasonable, here's the plan:

• On "day one" he will compact the base with a plate compactor, line everything with plastic, and set the rebar.
• On "day two" I will have the city inspect the forms and (hopefully) sign off on them.
• On "day three" he will have six bag ready mix concrete with fiber mesh delivered, wheelbarrow it into place, screed, and finish the surface. He'll also set J-bolts for me at that time.

Note that these days are probably not going to be consecutive. The concrete guy will probably do my job when it's raining, since he's somewhat behind on his other jobs due to weather delays. It's dangerously getting close to slab time!! :D --Keith :mrgreen:

i'm excited for you dude ... after that's done, only a little more work to do :lol: seriously, hopefully the rest of the project will at least SEEM to go faster. i want to see some stud walls going up :twisted:

I too am hoping that once I've dislodged myself from slabness related work that things will move along more quickly. :) However, I've really mellowed out about maintaining a schedule. I'm very laid back about completing it. I'll get done when it gets done -- no sooner, no later. People ask if it'll be done before summer, and I just shrug my shoulders anymore! :lol: I still recall when I wanted to be done before Christmas 2004! :lol: :lol: :lol: Thanks for the enthusiasm, Dan -- I can always count on my favorite cheerleader! ;-) --Keith :mrgreen:

6-sack mix, huh? Man, I didn't think ANYONE did that anymore without arm-twisting; had to threaten my guy before he agreed. Cool... Steve BTW, your concrete may look a bit "hairy" after it's cured, but it will wear off; it's just the fibers not all laid down. Mine's so smooth now you can't even tell the stuff's in there.

Sharward, I love to see the progress! I hear you on the schedule thing. I get asked all the time "the studio done yet?" And I have to tell them nope it will be done when it is done. The beginning stages set the success of the final product. You cant short cut things too much without spending a lot for nothing. I "WANT" to be done by end of summer, but who knows? I have just barely got the shingles on my roof. Still have the exterior to side and trim before even moving into the inside for framing walls. Well enough about me. I look forward to seeing more pics! Tom Oh and Dream Theater is my son's favorite band , as a drummer he always tries to emulate them with his band.

Actually, I think I might have meant five sack... Whatever the case, I want it to be more than the "standard" 2,500 PSI mix. Some may recall that my plans call for 2,500 PSI at the suggestion of a building department official, since that's all that code requires. However, there's nothing stopping me from using concrete of greater strength. However, if I had specified greater than 3,000 PSI concrete in my plans, then I would have had to have arranged for independent testing of the concrete at the time of the pour, which would have increased the cost significantly (assuming I would even be able to find someone willing to do the testing on such a tiny scale). This is a great example of how it pays to get cozy with your local building department, as they can be helpful in avoiding conflicts and issues in your project. :) Hang in there, Tom -- slow and steady wins the race, eh? 8) And your son has great taste in music. :) I'm assuming he lives in Texas there with you, right? If so, he's probably really bummed that Dream Theater isn't playing any shows in Texas on this tour. They really wanted to but couldn't make it happen with their schedule and itinerary. --Keith :mrgreen:

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: 50,000 views!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: And the best part about it is that I reached my 50,000 mark before Aaron got to 70,000! :lol: :P Heh -- like it matters! :P I'm getting excited now -- yesterday I went to my concrete guy's house to see his 10x20 utility building / shed / game room thing in his back yard. It has a concrete floor and he decorated it with several different kinds of stain. It had a very unique look to it, that's for sure! It had a border around the perimeter of the room, and several shapes in the main area of the floor in a symmetrical design. THe staining is far from perfect though... His concrete did have some superficial cracks in it (it did not have fibermesh, it did have a wire mesh, and it was only 4" thick) and he said there was probably about a 20% chance that mine would have some surface cracks too. Plus, the nature of staining is hit and miss. I think I've decided to go with the darkest color stain on my slab, with a matte water based finish. He said he'd do it for me for $3 per square foot. Normally he would charge a higher amount per square foot for such a small area, but I think he likes me and I think he's a little hungry. :-) Worst case, the staining job doesn't all that great in the room, and after a while maybe I'll lay laminate on top of it. :roll: As far as the "day one" stuff goes, he said he could do the compaction, plastic, and rebar work for $250 and that he may be able to do that as early as Friday (just 36 hours from now)! I should know tomorrow. He's finalizing the estimate for the concrete, pour, and screeding/finishing and he'll be faxing it to me tonight or tomorrow. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that I'll be getting my first inspection next week! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

And the best part about it is that I reached my 50,000 mark before Aaron got to 70,000!

Yeah, I noticed yesterday you were about to hit 50k. It was 49996 last time I looked. There was a 20k difference this past week. :wink: Looks like I need to get it back in high gear and get some work done. OH, and this is my 1100th post. :D :D

Hey Keith, Can't beleive you have had 50000 views and 1100 posts and jou are just onto the floor. Pickup the pace man!! Just curious, what kind of STC/TL rating are you going for in your project? Thanks JohnG

Yeah, ironic, eh? :lol: I don't remember the exact numbers (and the "exact" numbers were rough estimates, since no calculator can keep up with the oddities of my situation)... But it comes out to an STC figure of about 80 or so, and the low end TL is darned impressive. --Keith :mrgreen:

It's official -- for $250 my licensed concrete contractor will be at my house with an employee at around 7:30 AM PST to do the compaction, plastic, and rebar! 8) 8) 8) He will also affix the anchor bolts to the rebar -- something he said he would do but I didn't "get it" until I spoke with him tonight. (I misunderstood that this would be done on the day of the pour.) That means I've gotta' get my tired butt out of bed at an ungodly hour to buy the anchor bolts at Home Depot before he arrives! :shock: I've spent the last 2 hours studying up on code and marking the forms so that he knows where the anchor bolts should go. There are 15 of them altogether, positioned so that they're 8" from the soleplate edge (code calls for <12") and <4' apart (code calls for <6' apart). I learned in my late night code cram that the bolts need to be set into the concrete at least 7". That means they need to be at least 10" bolts so that there's about 3" protruding through the slab. If they have 12" bolts, I'll probably get those just to be safe. This is really exciting! :twisted: --Keith :mrgreen:

Probably an unnecessary reminder, but your guy does know you can't tolerate any spills that will "short out" between your old and new, right??!? Good luck, we want pix before and after... Steve :wink:

Yikes 7 icnhes?? :shock: Since I had my drainage system installed around the perimter of my basement I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to do this. 7 inches would drill right into the pipe. Another one to add to my list of problems :roll:

knightfly wrote:

Probably an unnecessary reminder, but your guy does know you can't tolerate any spills that will "short out" between your old and new, right??!?

I'll make sure he knows that when it's time to pour. But I don't think it will be much of an issue because the base is even with the bottom of the forms, so even if concrete were to spill over the forms a little, once the forms are removed, there will be at least the thickness of the form left as a gap. :)

Good luck, we want pix before and after... Steve :wink:

Pix? Someone ordred pix? :twisted: Coming right up! :D I'm really pleased with the outcome. I paid him an extra $30 as a bonus for having to put up with me. ;-) Oh, and I also bought him a coffee at Starbucks. I reward good contractor behavior! 8) I have scheduled my first inspection for Wednesday morning (March 29, 2006). Wish me lots of luck!! 8)

for putting up with you, that had better have been a venti ... :twisted: i guess you are going to put tape or something over the threads of those bolts so no concrete gets on them ... a bit obvious i know ...

Dan Fitzpatrick wrote:

for putting up with you, that had better have been a venti ... :twisted:

:lol: I offered him a venti, but he said he wanted a Grande. Of course, that was before I asked halfway through the rebar work, "Uh, stupid question -- isn't the plastic supposed to go down before the rebar? :roll:" ...to which he replied, "Oh yeahhh! I knew I forgot somethin'! :oops: That's OK -- I like doing things the hard way. ;-)" Then later on, when he was setting the J bolts, he was unscrewing the bolts to get the washers off, so I suggested he just let the washers slide off the bottom and feed them through the top of the hole rather than the bottom... Which worked great... And then he joked, "Hey, who's doing this job? Me or you? :lol:" ...to which I responded, "Well, given that there's about four cubic feet of dirt in my back yard, I'd say we both are! :lol:" :twisted: ...But at that point I took the hint and let him do his thing. ;) In all seriousness, I enjoy working with him.

i guess you are going to put tape or something over the threads of those bolts so no concrete gets on them ... a bit obvious i know ...

No such thing as a dumb question or an obvious point. :-) Yes, I imagine taping up the bolts will be the plan on pour day. I think it's best to leave them untaped for the inspection. --Keith :mrgreen:

The in-laws came by to check out the work, and they're impressed. 8) Is it Wednesday yet? :roll: ;-)

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: Approval to pour is granted! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: I received what they term a "partial approval" so that I can get the main slab poured. They will have to return to do a quickie inspection of the L-shaped area prior to that pour, but that should be a piece of cake. He said it's one of the cleanest jobs he's seen! 8) Now it's time to schedule the termiticide soil treatment, and then the actual pour!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Aloha Kieth, Congrats on your partial approval! :D Aloha 8)

Congrats Keith ... was reading in Rod's book, he spends a lot of time talking about lasers and stuff for making sure the slab is very flat. I hope you get a nice flat slab ... ahhhhh, the flatness .... :P

What??!? No Bra on the "BRA" truck??!? Sad, that woulda been so cool... :twisted: Sooo, didja decide on whether you need an electrical ground bonded to your rebar or not? Almost forgot til I saw the last batch of pix... Steve

Steve, Unless he's getting a seperate electrical servies for this project - I would hope not............ That would be source for ground loops - because he will still have to ground back to the main panel......... Keith - it's looking better all the time.......... Sincerely, Rod

Great to have all you gents with me on this milestone day! 8) Dan, the slab will be flat/level, mostly... My forms were perfectly level at one point, but all the staking and other reinforcements knocked one of the corners down by about 3/16" of an inch... :roll: ...My concrete guy doesn't think that's a big deal at all -- it's a far cry from the 1 1/4" it would have been if I hadn't set a new floor. My concrete guy said he should be able to compensate for that a bit too. Steve, pretty much what Rod said -- I didn't think I'd need to tie a ground into the rebar since I'm only branching circuits off of my existing electrical service panel. Rod, thanks so much for staying tuned! Termidor will be injected into the soil on Friday at 8 AM by Home Team Pest Defense. It will cost $550. Normally their minimum is $750 but because the area is so small, they're cutting me a break -- plus I've been using them for basic pest control for years. They're also going to allow me to pay half now and the other half within 60 days. 8)

I received a PM from whatalob with a question... I received his blessing to post the question and my answer here.

whatalob wrote:

. . . why on the first page do your inner and outer leaves have an actual air gap between insulation whereas your revised drawings in on the next page have no gap and the two leaves seem to be in contact?

The building department official I consulted told me that I would have to fill the cavity with insulation in order to satisfy code requirements for a fire break between the area between the walls and the area between the ceilings. A conventional fire break would have fused the inner and outer leaves together, which would obviously ruin the decoupling aspect of having separate frames. There are also some soundproofing benefits by having the extra insulation in there, so while it will be more expensive, it's not a total waste of money. Note that I changed my wall designs numerous times throughout the protracted design phase of my project. I realize my thread is very long (actually, the longest in the forum's history), but you'll want to skim through all of its pages, maybe starting at the end, working your way backwards, to see the latest versions. Eventually I hope to index the whole thing and/or to inject warnings on posts that contain information superceded by subsequent posts... But I probably won't do that until I'm finished with the project -- whenever that might be! Thanks for your interest. BTW, your question isn't at all "off-topic" -- if you have no objection, I'd like to post your question and my answer to it in my thread. --Keith :mrgreen: