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8/2/2014 - Forming and grading the driveway.
Today we concentrated on finishing the driveway grading and forming. With Bobby on the Bobcat and his gandson and a friend raking gravel they worked on putting down a base for the concrete. When they got to the street I was called in for a consultation on what I wanted for a turnout on the apron at the street. Because we had widened the driveway to 12 feet the apron was now the issue. There is a culvert pipe under the driveway and in order to get the correct width at the street we had to either extend the culvert pipe or not have a turnout on the right side. I decided we should extend the pipe because a turnout was importnant on that side of the driveway. Try getting one of those on a Saturday in the upstate.
Our solution was to fit the old culvert pipe with a cardboard column form and pour the driveway right over it. The ditch was wide enough and deep enough that we'll have plenty of support once the concrete cures.
At about 1pm Bobby got hungry so we broke for lunch at Yusef's Cafe in Westminster. I drove and Bobby treated. We had fried chicken breasts, rice with gravy, Mac 'n Cheese, collard greens and sweet tea. That was the first time I'd eaten at Yusef's and the food wasn't too bad.
Back at the house, Frank started nailing together the lumber for the French Drain forms while Bobby and the two yungun's worked more gravel at the bottom of the drive. I decided it was time for me to get involved after Frank got the sides of the forms nailed together because I could tell he didn't have a clue what the plan was. I helped Frank get the 2 x 2's nailed to the sides of the forms that create the lip for the grate that will go over the drain. We then had to stand the forms up and the hard part was getting the sides spaced out properly. We cut bridges that we nailed across the top to keep the spacing correct. The final form was 40 feet long and 10 inches wide and weighed a ton. We had to set wood into the trough to raise the form up off the bottom. We started with 3 inches (2 2x's layed flat). To get the form up to 1/2 inch below slab grade we had to add another 3 inches. Once we got it close (above) the string line we had set, we started setting pins inside the form and nailing it up. We then removed the support wood and hammered the pins down to get the form to final grade. After we had the form all set Bobby comes over and says, "I think we should have put a floor on the form", too late now. When we pour we'll just have to keep pushing the concrete down to keep it out of the center of the form. Bobby will come by after we pull the form and get the fall correct to direct water the right direction.
Once the French Drain form was set they moved around back to reset the sidewalk forms. We had to disassemble some of those to do work around back and had made quite a mess of the grade with them. Now we pray we don't get too much rain before the concete is walkable on Monday. I'm ALMOST there. Let's see how the inspections go Monday and hopefully the pour will go without major incident.
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Copyright (C) 2004-2014, Larry Manka. all rights reserved.
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