More on Garage II

This posting is mainly for those of you interested in construction projects–you know who you are! However, for the rest of you, I'm starting with a picture of our mountain ash tree, a tree that stands a short distance from our front door. It is particularly pretty this year, with lots of clusters of orange berries. I recall that two years ago, it had only one such cluster, so it has really come along. Those of you interested in the garage can read on. The rest can glance at this photograph and then find something more useful to do.

After the brush and a few dead trees were cleared from the site, loads of dense sand were brought in and compacted onto the footprint for the garage. The compactor even made the cabin shake! I enjoyed watching them use a laser to get this perfectly level and at a graded height equal to that of the existing garage floor.

The area from the driveway to the front of the garage and the other sides of the site were graded for eventual access and water runoff.

Next, forms were put into place for pouring the concrete. Lying on the ground in front of the site is the drain which was integrated into the garage floor. Plastic sheeting was put down over the entire area.

The temperature and humidity were fairly high the day this was all done, so I didn't envy the guys having to work the heavy concrete into place. Rebar was placed around the perimeter and in the perimeter footings.

I had never seen one of these gadgets before–a motorized unit that did the initial smoothing of the concrete surface.

After all the concrete was poured, there was some final finishing and polishing.

This picture may give you a better idea of where the garage is situated. It is parallel to Garage I and about eight feet away from it. The curb around the perimeter of the pad has now been poured too, so construction can start soon. Remaining steps prior to that are to make frost stress relief cuts in the floor and to pour a four foot apron at the front of the garage entrance and to do some finish grading.