Concrete 3/7/2012

 With the weather holding off till later tonight, today we had to pour the concrete. Another going over with the dumpy, standing the staff on each pile to see if they were perfect. Finding the correct place for the 2 off center piles and preparing everything for when the concrete truck turns ups. So everyone set about completing all the tasks at hand.  Down to the fine details like making little ramps to push the wheel barrows over (no one wants there barrow to fall over) and bending rebar to put into the concrete so they can crane them out and reuse them. 10pm the concrete truck turns up. With 3 barrows at hand, we all took turns at doing a load each. 2 full loads per pile were required.

Pouring Concrete
-Wheel barrow it to the pile, furtherest one away first
-One load fills halfway
-Screen it so its even and poke and viabrate it with a long wooden peg to bring the air bubbles out
-Lay our reinforced rebar square to keep the concrete strong and secure
-Add another wheel barrow of concrete, filling it 20mm over the top
-Poke with the wooden peg and bring the air out. Giving it a wet look at the top. But making sure not to over do it
-Bang the side to make sure all air is out and the concrete has settled in
-Screen top and make it smooth and level with the boxing

When pouring concrete you should always take alot into consideration. Because ordering a truck and it turning up and raining is no good. Make sure you know what the weather forcecast is doing. Always be prepared for everything. You dont want to be fixing things while the truck is sitting there. On average the truck will sit there for 30mins for every metre. So dont muck around.The bent rebar was then placed into the concrete after 10mins. Cleaning all the excess off the boards and piles, we washed the wheel barrows and gear clean. Then Cam and Mark walked around and seemed very pleased with how today went. We made sure it ran smoothly and everyone was very happy with what we had done.