Pouring the Footings

Yay Concrete!

We passed the steel inspection this morning and were pouring concrete by the afternoon.  After we passed the inspection the crew installed a few screeds to help guide how deep to pour the various footings since they are all at different elevations.

The wood board in the foreground is the screed for the higher footing, there is another one beyond for the lower footing

The structural engineer specified 3000 PSI concrete and specified that we provide 'test cylinders' to prove the concrete was mixed to the appropriate strength.  The concrete will need to cure for 28 days first before it reaches it's maximum strength.

This video is from the beginning of the pour.  It takes about twenty minutes or so to unload a full 10 cubic yard truck of concrete - we had three full trucks today...

The device on Gordon's belt is a remote so that he can start and stop the pump if the crew needs to move to a different location or adjust the hose

The concrete is poured into a concrete pumping truck - that is Gordon in the background guiding the truck back to just over his pump.

After they pour the concrete for awhile they vibrate it with a special vibrating wand to make sure that there are no pockets of air...

 This is a tamper and it helps to level the concrete.

That's Pete the contractor in the background.  He's re-calculating the yardage of concrete because he's worried that we might not have enough....

He's using a finishing trowel to make sure that the top of the footing is smooth.

Finishing.