Finally after almost 2 years.............

[mx842]

Tomorrow morning the concrete trucks will drop off 25+ yards of concrete to cover up my pex tube and make me a nice smooth place to walk on in my pole barn. Hopefully by this time tomorrow the finishers will have done their thing and all I will have to do then is cut a few joints in and then I'll let it sit for a few days then start moving in some of my equipment. It's been a long hard road and it's hard to believe the floor is finally going to be poured.

This is what it looks like tonight and hopefully I'll be able to post some of the finished product tomorrow night.

 

[Attono]

Very nice!!! Looks like you are planning on spenmding a little time in there...

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Stupid question, but how do you cut joints when there is pex in the concrete?

 

[Zebrafive]

Stupid question, but how do you cut joints when there is pex in the concrete?

Cuts are not very deep. They give cracks a line to follow.

 

[Bob77064]

Looks great, you have put a lot of work into it.

 

[dclynch]

I noticed in the last picture a pex piece laying on the ground that is not connected to anything. Hoping this is just a piece left over.

 

[/pine]

Just a suggestion...If you sprinkle it with water a few times daily for the first three days...it will enhance the curing process...

the wetter the better...

 

[Raspy]

The finishers can tool in some "cuts" for crack control. If you do it later with a saw you are seriously risking a cut tube. And the cracks might have already started by that time. Trowel grooves in during finishing if you can.

You are most likely to get cracks around your posts and especially from the ones near the door. If you hammer the sharp edges off the post footings and lay a few last minute diagonal bars or ring bars around those posts it will help. Cracks radiate from inside corners in the pour.

Be prepared to bark at the concrete crew as they walk all over your carefully laid tube where it is unsupported by bar. And be sure it is under pressure during the pour!!!!!!!

You'll love the radiant! Good luck.

 

[mx842]

Stupid question, but how do you cut joints when there is pex in the concrete?

I plan on cutting them only 1" deep and when I laid out the pex I did so that where my cuts would be there would be very little tube in those places. Then where there was pex I fished a 12 to 15" piece of 3/4 grey conduit around the pex to the area of the cut to somewhat protect it. I'll look for signs of conduit chunks as I cut the joints and if I see any I know im too deep. Also in these spots I lowered the pex as much as I could just in case. The first 3 shows how I laid out the pex and the conduit covers where cut will be and the 4th shows where I added conduit to places where there would likely be cracks forming, in places like square pier corners and such.

 

[mx842]

I noticed in the last picture a pex piece laying on the ground that is not connected to anything. Hoping this is just a piece left over.

You scared me for a minute but yeah the clean up crew must have let that laying there.

 

[mx842]

The finishers can tool in some "cuts" for crack control. If you do it later with a saw you are seriously risking a cut tube. And the cracks might have already started by that time. Trowel grooves in during finishing if you can.

You are most likely to get cracks around your posts and especially from the ones near the door. If you hammer the sharp edges off the post footings and lay a few last minute diagonal bars or ring bars around those posts it will help. Cracks radiate from inside corners in the pour.

Be prepared to bark at the concrete crew as they walk all over your carefully laid tube where it is unsupported by bar. And be sure it is under pressure during the pour!!!!!!!

You'll love the radiant! Good luck.

Yeah, that will be my job while the real finishers are doing there thing, I want to put trowel cut joints at all the door openings and one line in between where the main wall and the machine shop wall is. Most of my piers are round and only the piers supporting the trolly tower are square. At the front door I plan on cutting a joint all the way across the opening from square corner to square corner on the inside of the opening to catch any that might want to form there. The other two post in the middle of the floor I plan on troweling in a box around them and I also added extra rebar there. And yes I plan on taking an extra dose of my meds this morning before I go out to watch over my pex tube as it is being trampled.:laughing:

 

[mx842]

Just a suggestion...If you sprinkle it with water a few times daily for the first three days...it will enhance the curing process...

the wetter the better...

Thanks, I already have pulled a water hose down there to do just that. It will probably be a whole week before I put anything in there so I won't have much to do but sit around and watch it get hard.....oooohhhhhh that sounded nasty................

 

[mx842]

Thanks everybody, the first truck will be here at 0730 Got to get my batteries charged for the camera. I'll be back later this evening with the results.

 

[jimgerken]

Probably too late for this but, did ya put in tubes that are plugged on the end so you can push slab sensors in there later on. Its nice to sense the slab temp instead of the air temp, makes the system run less often for longer and it is less succeptible to firing up just cause somebody walked in thru the door on a cold day. Looks good!

 

[mx842]

Probably too late for this but, did ya put in tubes that are plugged on the end so you can push slab sensors in there later on. Its nice to sense the slab temp instead of the air temp, makes the system run less often for longer and it is less succeptible to firing up just cause somebody walked in thru the door on a cold day. Looks good!

Yep sure did, I almost forgot though but last night as I was going over my to do list I laid it out so I could put a sensor in later on.

 

[mx842]

Well it's all done now and tomorrow I'll cut my lines and then seal it off.

the crew arrives and checks out the site.



Truck arrives and the show begins.

 

[mx842]

Second truck comes and goes....

 

[mx842]

Baby cooperhead no match for a big Mack concrete truck.



Third load, which makes 27 yards comes up short by about 1/2 yard and had to send truck back for 1 yard min. They didn't charge me extra though I just had to pay for the one yard of mix for $105.00.

 

[mx842]

A few more....

 

[CBW1999]

Curious the specs of the concrete they poured. Looks fairly "wet".