Well, I actually have 2 projects going at the same time on this one and I couldn't decide how to post them. We're having a cement driveway added behind our garage to give Eli a place to be able to ride his cars, bikes and hopefully in the future play basketball and other fun stuff like that. Plus hopefully it will keep the garage a little cleaner with some of the mud falling off the cars before they get inside the garage.
Since we are having the driveway done, I figured I would finish the sidewalk out to the barn. It is only going to be 36 square feet, so it wasn't enough to get a cement truck out for, but since one is coming anyway I figured it would be a good time to do that too. After brainstorming a bit we decided to put in a step off the front porch, and after some more brainstorming (and after I had already made the form for the step) we decided to extend a small path from the front step to the back sidewalk. Now the total square footage that I was in charge of was closer to 80 square feet, but I still thought I should be able to handle it. I'm going to put that part in a separate post though.
We wanted the driveway to be fairly level so that it would be a good spot for Eli to play basketball in the future, but where the driveway was going to be wasn't exactly very level. I ended up using the tractor to move around some material off our extended driveway (it's 1/2 mile long so there's plenty to take from) and then we packed it down really good with our vehicles and watered it in several times over the course of a week or so. Here's what it looked like after it was leveled out. It might not look like much, but I built the bottom right corner up nearly a full foot. The posts are where the driveway will extend out to.
Here it is after they got the forms placed. All leveled out and ready to pour. We ended up soaking it down a few more times trying to keep the ground moist so that it doesn't suck all the moisture out of the cement and cause it to dry too fast and crack.
I'm not sure what the code is on pouring a driveway, but since I live out in the country most building codes don't apply anyway. We basically don't have a frost line here, so a lot of contractors don't pour any kind of footer, but I wanted one on the uphill side of the driveway to keep water from trying to run under the slab and also because that's where we will be driving in from and it should keep that edge stronger. They are going to pour fibered cement so they didn't use any rebar or wire.
Here's what the temperature was today when the cement trucks came out and started pouring the cement! It wouldn't have been so bad if I was just watching them pour the driveway, but I was working on the sidewalks too!
Here's the 2nd truck unloading. I didn't get a picture of the first truck because I was working on the sidewalks. Cathy was at a softball game so there won't be any action shots of me working concrete! They did add some water to the mix, but I got some of the cement out of the first truck and didn't add any water to it and it was already setting up pretty quick. Cement dries pretty quickly at 105! They didn't add a whole lot of water so I still think it should be plenty strong when it dries.
Here's a shot of them working the concrete a little bit later. They ordered 15 yards of concrete and we ended up with about 1/4 yard extra that they just shoveled off the end. I added some water to it and spread it around so it should be about like the rest of my gravel driveway after it dries.
They really seemed to do a pretty good job on it although I am by no means an expert. I found them on craigslist and they were pretty cheap but really seemed like pretty good guys and seemed to do a pretty good job.
This is the last picture that I took before it got dark. They ended up out there working under the headlights for nearly an hour or so. They are going to be back out in the morning at the crack of dawn to take the forms off and I'll get some more pictures then.
Well, that's about it for this post. I'll be making several more posts over the next couple days on the finished driveway and also on my sidewalks. This weekend there is more work scheduled with one of my brother-in-laws coming to help me wire the barn up. It really makes me feel good to be getting all these projects done.
Nathan
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