At Home In The Woods

[2manyrocks]

You could siphon a lot of the water out with a garden hose o use buckets, a wet vac or a water pump.

No rebar in a footer? Is Jethro your cm?

 

[ToadHill]

I used a sump pump to pump out mine. With the little that was left in the bottom, when the pour occurred, it just came to the top and flowed over the side of the forms.

 

[dave1949]

You could siphon a lot of the water out with a garden hose o use buckets, a wet vac or a water pump.

No rebar in a footer? Is Jethro your cm?

Ditto the wet vac, no sump depth required.
Dave.

 

[brin]

Don't forget to put down a vapor barrier before they pour the concrete and unless it is a lot of water the concrete will force the water out and it should not be an issue.

 

[6sunset6]

A wet vac works great for that. When you stick the end of the hose in don't submerge it let it suck some air as well.

 

[EddieWalker]

I called our construction manager today and have asked him to put rebar in the footers. I'm not comfortable with just wire for supporting a weight bearing wall.

You're starting to scare me.

While wire is fine for a floor or slab, it's not enough for footings. Your pictures show the wire all laid out nice and flat, but I don't see any chairs. Do you have something under it to keep it in the middle of your pour?

This is really important. The wire is extremely strong when it's in the middle of the slab, but if this doesn't happen, it's worthless. The problem with wire, is that the guys doing the pour will tell you that they will pull the wire up as the spread teh concrete, which they will try to do. They might get one little part of it right, but in doing so, they are stepping on the rest of it, and pushing it to the bottom. It's impossible to walk across the wire and not push it to the bottom. Wire is really just about impossible to do right. Unfortunately, most people think they are the exception to this and that their crew performed magic, and got it right. In my personal experience, 100% of the time that I've cut through concrete, broken through it, or worked in ti with wire, it's always been at the bottom.

Next issue is the footings. You always put rebar in all your footings. Here, where we don't have a frost heave, don't have to go down very deep, and have pretty decent soil, two rows of half inch (#4) rebar go into all the footings at the very minimum. Where you live, I wouldn't be surprised if you needed more then what I need here in Texas. In fact, I'd expect you to need either larger, or more rebar.

This is scary because it's part of the basics. You Construction Manager should be all over this. Your code book should have a section on this. You local inspector should be looking for this befor allowing the concrete to be poured.

How were the walls built? Is it the same crew that will be doing the floor? Was rebar used in the walls?

If I was you, I'd spend some time surfing the net and doing some research. Then I'd have a meeting with your Construction Manager and determine what it is that you are paying him for.

Sorry for being so direct, and I hope this helps.

Eddie

 

[MotorSeven]

Eddie, you are spot on.....including the scary thing. I have never seen this type of work contracted out to someone that doesn't know how to do it. I would understand this if Obed was trying to do all this himself & was here to learn/get advise. I'm getting a bad feeling about how things are not getting done right.

Obed, I highly suggest you stop all work, hire someone that makes their living doing footers and slabs & go from there. Jmho.......

RD

 

[MotorSeven]

One more thing. The night temps here are getting into the teens & 20's. I am not in a hurry on my foundation, so the rest of the crete work will wait for warmer(Spring) weather. Concrete can do some strange things if poured under the wrong conditions.

RD

 

[CurlyDave]

While wire is fine for a floor or slab, it's not enough for footings. Your pictures show the wire all laid out nice and flat, but I don't see any chairs. Do you have something under it to keep it in the middle of your pour?

Eddie is absolutely right about this. The wire must be in the middle of the slab. Do not ever accept the BS answer that the workers pull it up into the middle of the slab while they are finishing the concrete. Every slab I have ever demolished that didn't have chairs or dobies under the wire, or even the rebar, had the steel lying on the ground doing no good at all.

Before I retired I worked in a building that was several acres of concrete slab. The contractor had not supported the rebar, and it had sunk to the bottom (proven by core samples) Every time we wanted to move a heavy object in we had to support it on massive steel feet several feet in diameter to avoid cracking the floor.

MotorSeven is also right about the temperatures. Too cold and concrete will not cure properly. The rule of thumb is 50 degrees Farenheit, and then cover the slab with black (not clear) plastic. You can go a little lower if you put several inches of straw, and then another layer of black plastic, on the slab to help it retain heat.

 

[EddieWalker]

My knowledge on concrete and temperatures is limited, so it would be good to research this for yourself.

In a perfect world, concrete cures the best at temps from 60 to 70 degrees. Warmer works, but you run into problems with it curing too quickly, and cracking on you more then normal. Too cold, and it cures too slowly, and doesn't achieve it's strength.

There are additives that you add to concrete to speed up, heat up and overcome the tempuratures. These chemicals cost more to add, can mess up how much time you have to work the concrete and affect the strength of the finished concrete. You can overcome these things by having a crew who knows there are getting a hot load of mix and know that they will have to really hustle. Usually, you bring in extra guys to get for this. For additional strength, more rebar, larger rebar and a higher mixture of Portland Cement can be added to the concrete to give it more strength.

These are things that a good concrete contractor will know. I'm not a concrete contrator. I'm a general contractor, and thats they type of information that I want to know from the concrete guy before anything happens. Most of the time, we wait for warmer weather. That really is the best way to go, but not always practical.

Eddie