[Diy_efi] ever poured a large slab?

[J M]

Most rental yards will have 3 foot aluminum skreeds
with extension handles.  Helps get a nice finish.

Start with a straight board to get the concrete close
to level, then use the skreed with long handles to
smooth it out.

You'd probably want 3-4 guys.  One with a shovel
pushing concrete as it comes out of the truck.  Second
guy to start with the board.  Third guy to do the
final skreed work.



--- Bernd Felsche <bernie at innovative.iinet.net.au>
wrote:

> On Friday 20 July 2007 10:50, Steve Ravet wrote:
> > By large, I mean 25'x45'?  I poured a 10x20 slab
> last year for a pump
> > house (had only ever done fence posts previously)
> and was pleasantly
> > surprised at how it turned out, but that size can
> be screeded with a 12'
> > board, and a hand troweled finish was fine.  I'm
> building a steel
> > building workshop this summer and am contemplating
> pouring this slab
> > myself.  I'm OK with the forms and the steel, but
> not sure if I'll be
> > able to get a good machined finish.  
> 
> > Is this too big a project for a DIYer and some
> friends?
> 
> I'd hesitate; not only because I'm lazy but because
> the size means
> that you'll either have to get a slow-setting mix
> (i.e. no
> "accelerants" (catalysts)) or work very hard for a
> couple of hours.
> I recently had a garage-workshop (~3m by 9m) built
> and the
> professional who did the concrete floor was sweating
> heavily through
> most of it ... at ambient temperatures below 10
> degrees C; wearing a
> light shirt and short trousers.
> 
> It's going to take a lot of cold beer to keep your
> friends cool.
> 
> As an aside, seeing that it's a steel workshop, it
> would be well
> worth your while to insulate walls and roof with
> insulating blanket.
> 
> The bubble-wrap style of reflective insulation is
> only good with
> still air around it, so steer away from that and
> towards the
> glass-wool on heavy, reinforced aluminium foil. Such
> blankets come
> in rolls and are sandwiched between the steel frame
> and the steel
> exterior (wall and roof). The interior will be shiny
> aluminium that
> can be left exposed unless there's the likelihood of
> mechanical
> damage to the foil itself... in which case some form
> of lining can
> be attached to the frame in such locations.
> 
> Besides heat, the blankets also reduce noise; not
> only transmitted
> through the walls, but that reflected off the walls
> from sources
> inside the workshop. So nobody will be able to e.g.
> hear your
> obscenities as the screwdriver slips off a hose
> clamp and pierces
> the webbing between thumb and index finger on your
> left hand.
> 
> -- 
> /"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth,
> Western Australia
> \ /  ASCII ribbon campaign | The object of life is
> not to be on the side of 
>  X   against HTML mail     | the majority but to
> escape finding oneself in
> / \  and postings          | the ranks of the
> insane.  -- Marcus Aurelius
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Diy_efi mailing list
> Diy_efi at diy-efi.org
> Subscribe:
> http://lists.diy-efi.org/mailman/listinfo/diy_efi
> Main WWW page:  http://www.diy-efi.org/diy_efi
> 



      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect.  Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7