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9/09/2014 & 9/10/2014 - Front Walkway.
On Tuesday 9/9 Brandon talked me into starting on the front walkway. I used the bucket on the tractor to cut the grass in a 4 foot wide swath at the front of the house. I was a little rough at first but started to get the hang of it.
We looked at the crack running through the steps and chose to remove and rebuild those as well. We had to remove the hand rails which were made out of kiln dried lumber so one of the posts was almost completely gone under grade. Those will get rebuilt with pressure treated lumber. It was amazing how poorly the steps had been built as well. The blocks were set in with the joints aligned which is why they cracked. I think the original steps must have been wood because of all the concrete chunks we pulled from under a small cement slab under the steps. It seems that this was all put together on the cheap so I'm glad we tore it out. It probably wouldn't have lasted another year.
After cutting for the sidewalk I decided that I really didn't like the three small bushes that were in the front of the porch. They were kinda scraggley and the weeds were pretty thick inside them. We tried just pulling them out with a strap on the bucket but they were to well established for brute force. Instead, I just tipped the bucket down and lifted them out from underneath.
Brandon had Bobby come over to check out the job and arranged to have him come on Wednesday to form and pour the walkway. Bobby and one of his helpers came back later in the afternoon and formed the walkway so we'd be ready for mud first thing in the morning.
We started early on Wednesday the 10th by filling the forms with a layer of the stone that was delivered last week. Bobby and his guys showed up late (as usual) and we had them raise the forms by a half inch due to the layer of stone. It was then that Brandon and Bobby called to get concrete. The yard that delivered the driveway was busy until after noon so they called several other yards. They got some mud out of Georgia that could be delivered within the hour. Of course the driver got lost so Bobby ran out to find the truck and lead him back to the house.
The pour went as planned. It's amazing when working concrete how critical timing is. It was a little overcast today so we had to wait around for the mix to set enough to start working it smooth and do the edging. We even got Leroy involved in screeding and edging. Brandon was hovering over the job making sure that Bobby wasn't taking any shortcuts. They were pulling forms and there was a mudslide by the porch where it was shady and the concrete wasn't quite set yet. They repaired the slide and all was well. 5 minutes can make a big difference in concrete.
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Copyright (C) 2004-2014, Larry Manka. all rights reserved.
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