Start of something big.....

[Inspector507]

Originally Posted by rox

I know I liked having a drain in our 3 car garage in our ast house. Sure helped with the slush from snow and ice meting off the cars.

rox, I doubt if they need to worry too much about the snow melting off the equipment down there in Texas.

[wroughtn_harv]

Originally Posted by Inspector507

rox, I doubt if they need to worry too much about the snow melting off the equipment down there in Texas.

Actually we have allowed for cleaning the floor with water. There's an inch and a half pitch back to front on the slab. The next pour will be the shed and it'll start an inch and a half below the current slab and have a two inch pitch back to front in twenty feet.

As for the snow in Texas, we have it often enough to appreciate it's beauty and understand why people leave snow country for places, well, like Texas.

[thenorth]

I had a 24x32 garage project in 2008..... it was quite a job.
the stages are to be seen here, if interested.
farm index

click on the farm and have a look
John

[wroughtn_harv]

Last week was tough. Monday I hauled up some more used iron we bought from a friend and I hauled up a high reach fork lift for installing the trusses. That pretty well tied up the whole day.

Friday while it was raining I welded up the extensions that will be welded to the weld plates to make the side walls fourteen feet instead of twelve feet. What I did was weld the plates that will hold the posts to the extensions. The unwelded ends will be welded to the weld plates in the concrete. Most of those will have to be custom cut because even though I tied the weld plate rebar tight to the concrete steel (rebar) there was some movement. I'm probably looking at a half inch or so total variance in the heights in the ten plates for the trusses. I'll find the plate the fell the most and cut the rest of the extensions to that height.

[wroughtn_harv]

Tuesday presented its own version of fun. They were talking about rain all day. And I had two goals in mind. The really fun was breaking out the forms between the first and second forms. Concrete over flow had the forms locked in solid. I also had half inch rebar coming through the forms. So I couldn't lift the forms vertically because of the rebar extending through. I couldn't force the forms away from the concrete because of the over flow.

I dug out a trench beside the form and over flow, a hundred and twenty feet worth. Then I used the Hilti TE75 hammer drill on hammer to break away the over flow concrete. Once that was done I used my cordless five inch circular saw to cut the stakes imbedded in the concrete. Then it was easy to work the form away from the slab. I finished that up after five, keep in mind, a hundred and twenty feet worth of work.

[wroughtn_harv]

The second goal I had for Tuesday was to get the high lift forklift and all the truss steel up on to the slab. I knew that once the rain started it would be impossible to get the stuff up there with what I had on hand. I have a backhoe, a skip loader, a large high lift forklift, and all of them are two wheel drive. When this sand clay gets soaked it's not only slick as snot, it has no bottom.

I got good and wet Tuesday evening by the time I had it all up where I wanted it to be.

[wroughtn_harv]

I'll be going back up today. The rain has stopped and it looks like I've got a dry week ahead. I hope to have the trusses up and braced in a couple of days so I can get the big forklift back down to the city.

I've also got to get the second pour formed and the steel installed. It's already graded and by week's end the ground will hold concrete trucks just fine. The slab doesn't have to be done before the building framing. But it would be better.

Some who find what I'm doing interesting might appreciate that I've got trusses from two different buildings. There are three structural steel trusses (I beams) and there are two formed steel truss assemblies. One of the hiccups is the structural are designed where the wall purlins fall between the uprights. The formed steel are designed where the wall purlins fit on the outside of the uprights. I installed the weld plates so the formed trusses are on the ends with the structural ones fitting in the middle.

I discovered another fly in the ointment Friday. I found two five gallon buckets full of bolts for the building framework. The buildings were taken down late 2007. Evidently the buckets of bolts were left out in the weather for a winter or so. The bolts and nuts were stuck together with a thick coating of leaves and rust.

The bolts and nuts spent a night in a concrete mixer with about sixty pounds of steel shot media. Yesterday before I left the job site I put all the bolts in trays and covered with diesel. They cleaned up great. But I want them to work easy. I'm a little old to be fighting reluctant bolts and nuts getting together.

[EddieWalker]

Harvey,

It sure looks HEAVY!!!!!!! But at least you have company. The cows sure look like they are enjoying the show. Bet they were wondering what you were doing out there in the rain. LOL

How well did that flat tip work on breaking up the concrete? I have a pointed tip on my SDS Max Rotary Hammer and it just melts through concrete. I've seen those flat tips like you have, but wasn't sure of how they work, or if it might be better then the pointed tip that I have.

On a side note, I recently bought a ground rod pounding tip for it and drove in almost 200 lengths of rebar through some landscape timbers for a playground. It's truly amazing how easy it was with that tip. The hardest part was just picking up the rotary hammer.

Eddie

[BayouMan]

Hey Harv,
I can feel the pain all the way over here in Louisiana. Just wrecking a normal form is torture, much less what you dealt with. I admire your stamina!
Best of luck with the rest of your project. I'm learning new things with each post.

Thanks,
Mike

[wroughtn_harv]

Originally Posted by EddieWalker

Harvey,

It sure looks HEAVY!!!!!!! But at least you have company. The cows sure look like they are enjoying the show. Bet they were wondering what you were doing out there in the rain. LOL

How well did that flat tip work on breaking up the concrete? I have a pointed tip on my SDS Max Rotary Hammer and it just melts through concrete. I've seen those flat tips like you have, but wasn't sure of how they work, or if it might be better then the pointed tip that I have.

On a side note, I recently bought a ground rod pounding tip for it and drove in almost 200 lengths of rebar through some landscape timbers for a playground. It's truly amazing how easy it was with that tip. The hardest part was just picking up the rotary hammer.

Eddie

Eddie the TE 75 also uses the SDS Max system. I used the blade tip because I was cutting mostly thin stuff along a line.

If you ever stop into a DeWalt factory store be sure and go through their sale bins. I've picked up hundred dollar bits SDS Max for ten dollars or less. The last time I was in I got a point bit for the electric jackhammer for less than ten dollars. I can't sharpen one for that.

I had to come into Bells for gas for the welder. They have free internet at the Subway so I'm taking advantage of it. When you're as connected as I am at home being cut loose like I am here is a little tough. I forgot the camera cord for the laptop so I can't download the latest pictures plus I can't charge the camera battery because I charge it off the USB port. Today I should be installing the first truss.