The BIG Pour! July 2014

The day to pour the concrete walls had arrived!  We decided to do an "alpine" start, and arrived onsite before 6:00 AM to finish up all the preparation for the pour.  We still had a lot to prepare, but we finished just before the trucks pulled into the driveway at 12:30!  We completed all the bracing for the doors, windows, and seams.  And we did one last check to ensure the walls were straight, level and plumb.

View of interior with bracing and scaffolding.

View of garage interior with bracing and scaffolding.

This was the biggest pour of the project; we had ordered 65 yards of concrete, which came in 6 concrete trucks.

Concrete Trucks in the driveway.

Concrete truck filling the pump truck.

We also needed a concrete pump truck so that we could easily fill the walls with concrete. This was the second time we used the pump truck, and this was the same truck that came for the basement walls... with a 140 foot reach!  

Pouring with the 140 foot pump truck boom!

Pump truck boom over the garage.

View from the back of the garage.

Pump operator controlling the pump while being able to see the pour from inside the house.

It is only recommended to pour up to 4' of concrete at one time, and since the house walls are 9' tall and the garage walls are 13' tall, it took three rounds to completely fill the walls.  As the concrete was filling the walls, the walls were vibrated to help move the concrete down.

Close-up of pouring concrete into the walls.

To make sure that concrete filled below the windows, a vibrator was used to pull the concrete under the windows through holes in the window bucks. 

Pulling the concrete under the windows with the vibrator.

Once the walls and windows were filled with concrete, the concrete needed to be screened to create a level surface.  This was done on the windows and the tops of all the walls.

Screeding the concrete off the window bucks.

Removing the excess concrete from the top of the walls.

Before the concrete was set, anchor bolts needed to be placed.  We had the anchor bolts pre set in pieces of wood so that they could be placed quickly.

View of the top of the walls with the anchor bolts placed after the concrete was poured.  

A very long day, but we were excited that this step of the house building process was finished!