Well, headed out to the lot this morning after a long nap... Laid down on my son's bed and then the cat came and "zapped" me... Anyway, I got to the lot later than I had planned.
Didn't really have much planned but to stare at all the stuff that would get covered up tomorrow, but in the end, I worked my rear end off out there.
First order was to fix the little valve I broke the other night in the cold. I had just sheared off the metal pin between the handle and the ball valve. Then I plugged the drain hole from the other day and filled the standpipe all the way to the top. Walked around and looked for leaks... Nope... (so I thought).
So then, tried to get as much water and ice off things as I could. The ice chunks were pretty huge considering they had had lots of time to melt. I tried to take a picture with my foot in it so you could compare size. These came out of the plastic sheeting covering the perimeter of things.
It took about an hour, but I was able to finally get all the plastic pulled back from around the edge of the slab. My thinking was get the thing opened up so it could at least breathe some tonight and get plenty warm before the concrete hits it tomorrow morning.
Researching concrete "cures", it appears that when you freeze concrete, it stops the curing process and greatly weakens the concrete for life. There are work arounds to this, but in short warm, not cold, not hot. Ice is also a problem because it is cold and also can create a "void" in the concrete. I think we will have pretty good weather for this whole operation...40's by the time they pour, warming to almost 60 tomorrow, and then the actual concrete temperature should stay between 50 to 55 degrees for the next week. It is even supposed to mist and rain starting a few days after the pour... perfect.
So, I am just about to head out, and standing over by the Master Bath, and I hear a hissing sound... Hmmm... Too cold for rattlesnakes (but one can never dismiss that possibility)... After searching around, I finally find another hole in a pipe... It wasn't leaking water, but rather air from the system being under pressure. I really had to dig around because the air was actually coming out of the roofing mastic they had smeared all over one of the pipes... Dang... So, with the sun going down in 1 hour, I am off to HD again for another part.... It is just a pinhole leak, but rather fix it the easy way...
While at HD, I also picked up the stuff to run power all the way down to the house from the T pole. I think I will run two outlets on stakes, and also picked up some stuff to put a dusk to dawn light on a pole out there. Not sure what the light will do, but I must say it is pretty creepy out there in the pitch black of night. Hope I don't get zapped while hooking all this up... There isn't really a shut off on the meter, just breakers, and I need to be inside that box to hook it up... bbbbzzzzzzzttttttt.
Ok, I know you just log on to look at pictures, which so far have been pretty boring... Here is another boring picture... These are the electrical floor boxes... Not exactly rocket science to hook these up, eh... And builders charge you a ton for stuff like this... dang.
These are in the Rec room by the way, fed through the dining room wall. Had to get power under what will be the air hockey table... The other one will be in their little theatre area.
Ok, the concrete guys say they will start pouring at 10 am, and have the concrete in place by 1 pm... I am sure they will play with it for hours after that... At some point I have to get the wife and kids over there to make our mark somewhere in the concrete... Have to come up with some cool saying, like "One Small Step for Man..." has somebody used that one??
I hope tomorrow goes smooth... But even if it doesn't, I will never have to look at all these cables and red tubing ever again. Nor have to walk across this stuff to retrieve whatever tool I forgot out there in the middle somewhere...
Wish us luck...
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