They Finished!

This is the finished concrete pad in front of our winter home.  We are so happy to have this in place.  In a week, we can drive our car on the driveway.  In two weeks, we can move our RV onto the site.  That was a major reason we moved here.

It rained overnight. At 5 am, John heard someone outside. It turns out, Rich, the owner of the construction company that is putting in our cement, was checking to see if they could still pour today. He shoveled out the water and cancelled the cement delivery. Soon, he decided to go ahead. The cement company was able to put us back on the schedule and the first truck arrived at 9:30. By then, the workers had covered the adjoining dried concrete with paper, protected our house and put down the wire to strengthen the RV pad area. They had to put down plywood so the truck could back on our site.

They used small amounts of the cement to hold the wire in place and support the thin pieces of wood that serve as spacers between some of the sections of the driveway.

We brought a dozen donuts to treat the workers. They have all been so friendly and helpful and fun to have around.

Soon, they were filling the RV pad area with wet cement, while one man began smoothing out what had been poured.





The first truck arrived with only 6 yards of cement on board. When that truck was empty, another arrive to pour the rest of the area.

The pad and driveway have to slope down to the street level. It was interesting to see how they marked where the slope began and used the long board to keep things level from side to side.



All the cement was laid by 10:15. That part of the job goes quickly. But the last worker didn't finish picking up and stowing away all their equipment, after smoothing and smoothing the concrete, until sometime after 1:30. At times, there were two people smoothing out the concrete and pushing away the excess water. Either today's load of cement was wetter or last night's rain made it dry more slowly.

After spreading the salt on the surface, he used a roller, with a long handle, to make sure it settled into the wet cement.

By the way, why does a cement truck deliver cement for a concrete driveway? Obviously, I am not clear on the two terms and have used them interchangeably in these posts.

A Lot of Work

Finally, today they began laying the concrete to complete our driveway and pour the foundation for our workshop and carport. The first workers showed up just before 7 am, way before the sun came up.

It was over half an hour later when the cement truck arrived. After the truck was backed in, they had to assemble the shoot to direct the cement to the proper area.



The concrete filled the footers for the walls and then they filled the deeper spots that will support the columns at the front of the car port.



The workers were very neat--taping up paper on the walls of our house so there wouldn't be spots of concrete stuck there. Later, they even used some wet paper towel to clean up some spots on the walls.





This is the cement truck driver, turning the flow of concrete on and off.



After they finished pouring the workshop floor, it was time to start smoothing the concrete.



The cement truck drove off about half an hour after it arrived. But, that doesn't mean the day's work was done. The men were working for nearly 8 hours, the last one leaving about 4 pm. Part of that time, they did a lot more work making the workshop floor really smooth. Finally, they removed the forms around the floor and the supports for the carport columns. They also graded the driveway and put the forms in place for much of that area to be poured tomorrow.

We had no idea how much work goes into pouring an RV slab, a driveway, the floor of the carport, the workshop floor and footings. These men--some probably in their late teens, others up to maybe 40+--work really hard physically. And they know how to do things I haven't got a clue about. I know some people install their own driveways, even build their own homes. There is no way John and I would know how to do that. We have learned a lot about construction in the past 10 years of volunteering. But these fellows have knowledge we lack.

I am reminded that all kinds of skills and abilities are needed to make our lives good.

I will post about the rest of the work on our front yard later.