Kyle came late last night so after a quick breakfast of the donuts he brought (thanks, Kyle!), it was off to get ready for concrete. The crew is ready to go!
Because of the narrow opening from the bottom of this pour up to the garage door, Jim knew that he would have to use the Bobcat to bring the concrete up. This obviously made the pour more challenging. The driver parked in the turnaround and filled up the bucket...
Then Jim was able to nicely place the concrete so it didn't splash...
Then Kyle placed the concrete...
Once there was enough concrete placed, Jim brought out the power screed...
At this point, the truck was able to pull up close enough that he could shoot the concrete into the area. But this driver was not good like the last one - he sat in his truck the entire time, mostly on the phone.
Because of the width of the slap and the curve, it presented a few screeding challenges but Jim did a fabulous job and felt more comfortable with the tool this time...
While Jim was finishing the first section, the driver started putting concrete in the area in front of the pole barn and Kyle started placing. However, the concrete this time was much stiffer, even though Jim asked for the same slump from the concrete company. Jim had him put some water in because it was getting quite stiff by this area and required a lot more work to get it placed.
You can see how much stiffer this concrete is as they are placing and finishing...
They first had to screed the old-fashioned way...
Kyle also had to vibrate all the edges...
Thankfully the power screed made finishing this area possible, however, we ended up about a foot shy of having enough concrete to finish. Probably the fact that it was so stiff made the difference - Jim is the king of calculating how much he needs and we've never been short. But that's okay - he had planned that if we were short, he would just cut it straight and incorporate the leftover in the next pour.
Kyle had to lay down on the job to do the edging on the curved area!
Jim putting the edge on the area by the man door as Kyle goes over the edging...
After last pour, Kyle had an idea to tie a rope to the end of the broom and they used that to haul the broom back and forth for finishing. I stood behind Kyle helping to pull the light taught when the broom was coming across.
This process worked out great!
Jim had this concrete block and platform ready to go so they could get across into the pole barn...
They were able to get this area broomed easily...
Everything finished - time to take a deep breath!
But not for too long - time to clean the Bobcat off...
As well as all the tools...
After celebratory cinnamon rolls, time to put a coat of concrete sealer on...
Some assistance required!
It turned out really well - love the way the curved edge looks as well as the concrete going right up to our rocks!
Kyle helped Jim move all the plywood pieces over and broom them off - this worked perfectly to keep the new concrete clean from all the wet tools and sloppy boots!
Kyle headed back to NYC mid-afternoon to get work done. It was a very short but wonderful visit and we sure appreciated all his hard work!
After Jim got things all put away, he did a little grass cutting and then actually still had some energy left to get on the treadmill!
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High 73/Low 48 - beautiful day for concrete!
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