New Shop Floor

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

Also note to self, I really should have told the wife that I gave the concrete guy a code to the garage. She called me at dialysis all not happy and everything cause she was woken up put the sound of the giant concrete saw about 15-20 feet below our bedroom. The wife unit was saying stuff about being only day to get to go back to bed after getting me to dialysis at 6am.She had gotten her mom to take the kid to school at 8am. So she went back to bed at 6:30 am. She is getting a four day weekend due to tomorrow's holiday. She also mentioned again that she had to stay home all day Saturday to sign that all my tool crap had been loaded into a trailer.  She isn't happy that the semi trailer is taking up half our driveway next to the other trailer full of pink foam and tubing.

 

I don't know if the sound of a giant concrete saw can be slept through. Anyone know? I haven't tried.

 

She said that she thought that jet plane had crashed into our house. Laughing at her didn't seem to help. She informed me that grandpa was going to pick me up from dialysis. I asked why and she said that she was taking her mom for a spa day to settle her nerves after the noise scared her out of bed. She said that my beer fund was going for champagne and strawberries. I told her that I would rather have beer. She informed me that the bubbly and berries were for her and her mom. She knows how to get even. 

 

Two guys and a Truck had loaded the shop into a trailer on Saturday. They were great I hear no breakage at all. They swept the floor and everything.

 

This morning the concrete guys used the code that I gave them to open the garage doors and began cutting the concrete and then busting it up with the power jack hammer on a skid steer. They called me after ten at dialysis to say that they were done and used the code to close the doors. They said that they would be back on Wednesday to set forms and pour. They also said that my wife was super nice and had gone given them Krispy Kreme doughnuts and hot chocolate and coffee.

 

Woman vexes me again. These were my donuts, I picked them up at Krispy Kreme on the way home from hunting. I had even bought the kid off with her own dozen to keep her out of mine. It is over forty miles to Krispy Kreme and I rarely get them. I think the wife is upset about something but not for sure. 

 

I got home from dialysis and all the fun was over. The geothermal installers have been here and gone. I went up to the attic to look a the tubing. It is kind of dizzying to look down at

 

There are four loops to the system. I spent a half hour looking down trying to see them. All four loops go in front of the garage doors to make the floor warmest there where the most heat lost will be. 

 

They removed a total of 24" of earth and old concrete so that the floor would be even with my driveway. You can see the where they water proofed up to the old floor level. It is the blue stuff. The black pieces have to do with expansion. What? I don't know. I understand all the concepts of the warm floor stuff but it is almost techmagic to me. 

 

They put in a compacted layer of crushed limestone then a layer of plastic then 8" of pink styrofoam insulation, then rebar mesh then the tubing grid is stapled to it. Then the tubing loops are clicked into the grids.  Tomorrow the dust collection and electrical people are coming. So it is happening at break neck speed. And it is just seven days until I get my stomach fixed. Then I will have about a month to play with SketchUp to figure placement of all the tools. 

 

 

[ColinF]

Man I think our wives might be related! I can't tell you how many times I've heard that old song and dance about it being the only day she gets to go back to bed... I just tell her I'm up at 5 everyday, and I don't plan on wasting my weekends sleeping in... Oh, hide the frying pans first, don't ask, just trust me! Congrats on the new floor!

[weithman5]

Rolling pins too

[ChetlovesMer]

Chef, that story made me giggle like 8 times. Glad you are sharing this stuff in the forum.

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

I am sorry that I don't have many highlights tonight. I spent the day sorting out a busted greenhouse in our other garage/future classic car restoration area. Marching in the Veteran's Day Parade. I will let you know when my manly bits come back down from the warmth of my abdomen. This was one of the colded parades that I have ever been in and I used to like in Minnesota, Duluth don't ya know.

This afternoon I came home to a wife that was mad about the garage door not working. The door wasn't working because the lighting, electrical, and dust collection people had turned off the power to the house to do their work while we were gone. They had all needed stuff to finish their jobs and left no one there to tell us. About ten minute after I got home they came back and informed us what was going on. About a half hour later we had power again.

 

The electrician and dust collection people both finished their work. So after the concrete people finish forms, we will get a concrete pour tomorrow. I will now have 110/220 outlets within 8' of every point within the shop. I will have 6" dust collection port next to each of these. I have a dust collector setup for the North side of the shop for big chips that has a cyclone separator. The other two thirds of the shop will be serviced by the dust collector on the South wall. The ducts do connect if I want to go to a single system later on. I just have to remove a plug. 

 

If the lighting people had come back I could have taken some pictures but they did not and they had removed the old sodium lights. So the shop is pretty much dark as a witch's soul. 

 

I made a nice dinner for my birthday. Menu was beef wellington, stone crab claws on caesar salad, she-crab bisque, Hasselback potatoes, asparagus au gratin in Hollandaise, and portobello mushroom baked in sherry cream with basil oil, Black Forrest cake with caramelized pears instead of cherries. We had a nice 1998 Shiraz dinner and lovely Port with the cake. To finish the evening I did my tradition of sabring a bottle of Champagne Tattinger.

 

Then after everyone had left, I got the wife and kid bedded down. Then I got out one of the new to me wood planes. It is my first victim, I mean attempt at restoration. It is a Stanley Baley No. 5 Jack Plane. I will tell you more about it in another post in the Hand Tool Village. 

[ColinF]

I keep all my lumber in a barn with no heat or air and I don't have any seasonal issues, and indiana gets pretty stinkin' humid in the summer!

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

The concrete contractor has been by twice a day since the pour to spray on liquids and spread a powder. What are these and why are they used? I keep missing him to ask. I have googled but got too many answers. I am just wanting to know. Also he said that it will take 14-21 days before we can use the space. I don't remember it taking this long for our new garage. Does it have to do with the in floor heating tubes?

[Tpt life]

14-21 is standard for keeping vehicle weight off of standard curing concrete. I have not seen twice a day visits for anything other than OCD.

[..Kev]

You do get a better cure by not letting it dry out too fast but, C is correct, that seems a little OCD..

[Firehawk]

The liquid is to slow the curing process.  The slower it cures the stronger the concrete.

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

I think that concrete contractor had billed my friend for a whole house job and is trying to get his hours in by the extra visits. He has the temp up to 92 and the humidity is 100%. He is keeping a film of liquid across the whole floor. I got to see the mounting plate for the isolation mount today. It is a solid cast piece that weighs over 300 pounds it is covered in ball bearings on five sides. 

[Tpt life]

He is not doing you a disservice. Curing concrete gives off vast amounts of heat. One of the most common failures is the over curing of the outer layer while the center is uncured. These slabs crack in embarrassing ways. While twice a day is a lot, if he keeps your slab from cracking, he has done you a great service.

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

Thanks I just talked to him for about 20 minutes. He came by at a little before 6 am and got the dogs to barking. He says that the heat is from the concrete not the heating system. That the moisture is as you said to prevent the floor from cracking. They heard that I was disabled and is taking care of wetting the floor so I don't have to. He said that he does want it to crack any where he didn't plan for it to crack. The powder is a additive that prevents the water from evaporating from all the heat. He said that they will take it off when the slab is cured. He had been to one of my returning soldier catering events and wants the floor to turn out nice for me. They normally put in 6-8 crack joints but my slab only has four and they are ¼" filled with a resin. He said that the slab is also setup to be a secondary heat sink for the whole geothermal system with its' 5 truck loads of cement. So I am glad that he is checking on it but I could have done it if he had asked. He said he was fine doing it and he liked seeing the corgis.