Moving, agin

Couple before pics

Nice. Even though it is harder to work with, keep the concrete at a 4" slump. Adding water to the mix will weaken the design strength. After it is hard (end of the day) keep it wet as long as you can to slow the cure. It will gain strength above the design 3500lb. if you can keep it wet. I actually had to go to concrete school when I managed a concrete plant.


Concrete truck in Vancouver, Canada.

Around here they are mostly front unloaders, 6X6.

Edit: I also ordered some Ghostshield 8505 sub-surface sealer for my oil drippers.

Same here, although there are still plenty of rear discharge. I drove both types, each has its advantages.

Diesel Dan wrote:

Couple before pics

Those are good size sections. Does rebar allow you poor larger sections with less concern for cracking?

Unless you have put in expansion joints, it will still crack, but the rebar will stop the crack from getting much larger. The rebar will allow the concrete from cracking under a heavy load. The concrete will expand and contract throughout the year with the change of temp. Some areas put expansion joint in while some like to saw cut the concrete a few days after the pour to control where it will crack. Rule of thumb is every 10' put in expansion or a cut.

Two expansion joints were put in at 12' spacing.

The pour went less than ideal.

First I was watching the weather, mist/drizzle, and thinking about pushing the truck back an hour or two. Walking in the house and wife mentions the batch plant called and wanted to know if I was ready and she had said yes, alrighty then....guess we are on.

Truck shows up and first few shovel fulls of concrete looks good...…..then it goes sideways.
The mix turns into the consistency of pea soup.   It's so thin it runs down hill, no way we can profile it. Driver tried to tighten the mix up by spinning the drum, not spinning the drum but didn't work. My neighbor points out, "tell them to bring a different truck".


Driver calls the plant, says they'll bring another load BUT same truck since they don't have any extra on hand so he'll have to dump this load, clean truck and then reload. Over an hour later another truck shows up, different driver with a good mix. It took so long I was concerned they weren't coming back that day and I was getting ready to pull the rebar and scoop out the remaining concrete before it hardens.

After an hour the wet mix had finally setup to a consistency it should have been when first poured! We spread it out thin enough that the new concrete could encase the rebar and the thin stuff used as a sub-base. The guys on the screed board did really good, edging good too even though we started a little too soon. My bull floating needs some practice and better timing. All and all it wasn't too bad for having no lead foreman with finishing experience.

However this is why I'm practicing on the apron. If there are any lows I have enough slope the water will sit. Rough surface is desirable for outdoor finish. As my helpers said, if it holds a car, it passes. You can see the extra concrete in the upper left being used as fill, I paid for it so might as well use it.

You should be fine. That's why I was saying to make sure no more than a 4" slump. Spinning the barrel can sometimes tighten the load, but most times no. The ticket you got with the load should say strength based on a 4" slump and adding water will not guarantee the strength. I must have left out the 4" slump part the second time I posted. The first one deleted after I wrote it (has happened a lot when I post here) It will crack, you are just telling it where to crack. I have what's called a jitter bug. After the screed, the jitter bug will pack down the stones around an inch on the top surface. This way when you bull float it you are not pulling any stone up. Some people don't agree with the method. Then I have a steel trowel that fits on the bull float handles and I will steel trowel it before either hand troweling it, or giving it a broom finish. Then one last time with the edger. Concrete is hard work and the trick is knowing when to start the finish. This time of year, and the weather are in your advantage. Keep it wet with the garden hose.

Once when I poured a small slab for a shed for my brother in law, he later told me he gave the driver a big tip to take the left over concrete back. I couldn't believe he did that, they always take the left over back and dump it or leave it on for the next load. That is why sometimes masons get screwed on the next load. They have a yard or two left over and on board for a few hours and it flash sets the new load they added to it. All profit for the concrete company, sell the same yard twice. A good driver will know how hot his load is and either ask to dump it in the yard or say it's safe to add to it.

This is the same plant and operator who filled our 45 yd floor order.
That was 4,000 psi, 0.45 w/c ratio and super P to make it pumpable. Floor turned out great, driver inadvertently let it slip with what I think happened. Too much water left in the drum from when he cleaned it out. That would explain why I was seeing clumps of dry cement in the pea soup. Just like dumping a packet of drink mix into a glass of water.

Had I realized it was going to take so long I probably would have started shoveling the wet stuff off to the side for fill. When ever possible I never send concrete back, I'll make forms and pour small slabs for odds and ends. In the final pic at the end of the slab there are two 2'x8'x 3.5" slabs that will be used for animal feeder bases. Two pieces of rebar keeps it together for moving.

I've seen videos of a jitterbug roller, looks good but yet another tool I'm sure not to find around here. The concrete contractors I've talked to thing spreading the gravel with a skid steer packs it. If you want a plate compactor used they have to rent one and charge extra. Similar to the excavator who things packing soil with the tracks of a dozer is good enough to build on.

Once the sun came out and wind picked up I cover the slab with plastic so it won't dry too fast. Was able to knock the forms off and start leveling the other half out as well.

Sounds good. I've have seen winds flash set concrete. The wind takes the moisture off the top and you have to work like crazy to get a decent finish on it.
I have seen loads like you describe, water left in the barrel by mistake. I learned a long time ago to put the barrel in discharge when first starting up in the morning. In the early days when we had a 300 gallon water tank that set over the cab, the valves would sometimes leak overnight. My first load ever was soup because of that. Lesson learned.

Going to be pouring the other half of slab tomorrow.
Still need to epoxy rebar dowels into main slab, break pavers in half for rebar chairs, round up tools to have all laid out so 6 AM wakeup, truck here at 8 and not getting home until 11:30pm will make for a short night.

Batch plant operator is personally going to test this load after the last issue.
Told them 4" slump, picked up a concrete vibrator to work the edges along both slabs for better adhesion.

Had 20 ton of crusher-run dumped for final grading of second slab and tapering the edges to drive on. The crusher-run will pack tight and hold form much better than washed 57 limestone. To date I must have had 150 ton of 57s so far on site, lots of stone!

Sounds like you good to go with the crusher-run tamped down on the edges and the vibrator. It's above freezing and no wind. Good luck, you have done this enough, it will come out fine. The Prep as you know is probably half the job and makes the outcome what you expected to be.

I have trees down from the noreatern snow storm two days ago. Today I play lumberjack.
I might be coming down the day after Christmas for a week.

Couple updates, tried buying 10 acres off adjacent neighbor before he sells.
His divorce won't allow time for surveyors to split it.

So today stopped by a land auction today.
Bought ~30 acres about 6 miles from current house.
Get this, has good cell phone reception AND cable internet available at road!

So, may be moving....again

It seems like you just finished your current house. More land the better.

Internet and cell coverage is one of the big check-offs whenever we compare homes and land for purchase.

Although it's probably a few years away, I'm also keeping an eye on Musk's SpaceX Starlink satellite broadband internet service. They plan to target more remote areas. They claim it will be many times faster than current satellite service providers like Hughes. The downside is they will need 40,000 satellites in orbit and they currently only have 400. There's was an email link floating around a few months back for those interested in beta service plus they provide status updates.

I know Starlink had been launching satellites for a while, but still have a way to go to reach their goal. I'm interested in it.

This was a 128 acre farm that was last on the market on 1910.
Was cut up into 7 tracts. Complete new surveys, stakes about every 100' down the lines, approved septic site for 4 bedrooms. Seller provided title insurance too. This lot has 352' road frontage and 200' deep before tree line for good 1.5 acre open area to start. Small creek that cuts across it around 475' from the road. It's around 2900' deep, wider at rear.

Even if we don't build it's a good investment. Was approached afterwards asking if I was interested in selling, put a little extra in my pocket so they say.

There were arguably better 10 acre lots(4), less frontage that sold for $11,000-11,700 per acre.
We paid $3,500/acre for ~30 acres.

Was almost 1/2 mile into the woods and still getting 4G signal, streaming, google map locator working. Currently leave one room and loose signal and that's with a WeBoost amp. Just like this post, couldn't do it earlier today as no signal.

$3500 is a damn good price these days.

Yes, I figured it would be $6-7k with the way things had went earlier.
So when it stalled out at $3200 I had to jump in. Figured it would take off again but not the case.

For those that remember what happened early on in the shouse build....my luck continues

Received a call from adjacent property owner yesterday.
Person that was selling the land.....died....before the closing date.

Auctioneer is acting like no big deal, of course.
However there is no way to meet the 8/7 closing date now and we are hearing possibly 10/1 but I'm asking what if any heirs contest?

One potential plus is now we'll have time for a traditional mortgage on the current house at better rates and use that equity to build new house. Have a call in for a real estate attorney to discuss possible out comes.

For those that didn't follow the GJ thread: early on I was waiting for local guy right up the road to install the septic system. After few weeks I stopped in on a monday to see how things were looking time wise. His wife answers the door and I can see his rocking chair is empty. So I ask if xxx is home. He died the previous thursday.....awkward.

As you said, it will give you more time with your mortgage. Our friends in Georgia had told us about land for sale outside Nashville that was sold in 7 acre plots for 7K per acre. I was interested until I found out you couldn't get utilities.

Recently poured patio and side walk, 5'x60'.

Pic of kitchen:

My photo bomber

BTW, the big move is now on hold.
Property is officially ours but plans are always in flux.
So far:
-installed driveway 30' x 18" culvert, 40 tons of 2s&3s, 10 ton of crusher run
-3/4" water tap to be installed
-address assigned
-had 1.5 acres of brush cleared
-cut access across creek for tractor
-had bonfires and drank beer

Our current house has a pending highspeed internet proposal at the state level requesting funding. This latest round of state grants is the only one I've seen for our area since I've been pushing for internet over the last 4 years. Couple pluses is that within the application area there is at least one good sized rural school complex and other infrastructure like water towers and electrical grid disconnects. Public comment is currently open and grant winners will be notified late February.

For this grant it has to be terrestrial based internet, no satellite, broadband, cellular etc. The company proposing it is local that started out in broadband and has expanded into fiber cable. My guess is we would get fiber down our road with this. Then in time they could expand into more rural areas with broadband towers.

TheQuig wrote:

Our friends in Georgia had told us about land for sale outside Nashville that was sold in 7 acre plots for 7K per acre. I was interested until I found out you couldn't get utilities.

That's cheap, they are asking 10k+/acre for areas w/o internet.
Two of the four 10-11 acre plots that sold for ~$11,500/acre are now listed for $20k/acre....with no improvements done!
Realtor bought them and listed as soon as possible.

Never thought I'd see it but we have fiber optic now ... BIG improvement over the DSL we had previously and that's a good thing given mrs. rustbucket is working from home permanently now as are all her coworkers. Best part is her company covers the cost of the internet (not the cable tv) and it was less money than the DSL/Dish Network package to begin with.
Land- I'd always thought the empty lots around us were overpriced ($39,000 give or take for 1.75 to 2.0 acres w/ utilities) but after seeing the prices you guys mentioned, maybe not. The lots sat empty for years other than corn and soybeans. No more- the price has jumped $5000 and they're selling like hotcakes .... new houses popping up all over. I think a lot of them are refugees from the Twin Cities.

rustbucket wrote:

.... new houses popping up all over. I think a lot of them are refugees from the Twin Cities.

That is exactly what was happening pre-2006.
We moved out there at the tail end just as things were collapsing. Land was hitting a high of $10k/acre for large tracts, $800k for 80 acres of farm land. Economy slowed, fuel prices jumped and all the expansion came to a screeching halt. We lost a lot of $$$ in the 4 years we lived there.

What's driving our prices now is similar. People with $$ from Nashville fleeing the city for covid reasons. People for California and New York leaving their states for political reasons.