Materials
A lot of materials scheduled for delivery today. Concrete and gravel for the space under the back porch.
All told, we want a 4″ layer of concrete… along with a 6″ layer of gravel underneath. And on top of that, we want to dig a small trench that’s a bit deeper, underneath the future walls. So that makes for an extra 8″ of concrete.
Here’s my math:
Dimensions of our slab is 84″ x 147″ (7′ x 12.5′). I’m calling that 88 square feet.
The bags of gravel I’m getting list each bag covers 3 square feet at 2″ thick. 88 square feet / 3 square feet = 30 bags for 2″ thick. For 6″, we needed 90 bags of gravel.
Using the Quikrete online calculator, a few calculations:
The slab itself is 88 square feet. A 4″ slab requires 49 80 pound bags.
We want two trenches, underneath the walls. The North/South trench is 1′ x 12.5′. The East/West trench is 1′ x 7′.
Calling this 20 square feet, at 8″ deep means 24 80 pound bags.
The slab plus the trenches mean we need 73 80 pound bags.
Adding a bit of overage, we’re looking at:
95 bags of gravel
83 bags of concrete
15 lengths of 10′ rebar
The concrete arrived a little early. I wasn’t jazzed that it showed up before 8AM (worried it woke up our neighbors), but happy the concrete arrived before the gravel.
The gravel showed up a bit later in the morning, which was good… because it meant I could start in on the gravel base after work.
Unfortunately, the forklift couldn’t really make it very far down our driveway. What this meant is that the materials got dumped near the front of the house… and we’d need to physically transport things towards the back.
Concrete and gravel, double stacked.
Had to throw a tarp over the concrete, as we were expecting rain tomorrow. Blegh.
Used the post hole digger to dig the space we needed for the french well. I got pretty far down, and started to hit mud.
On closer inspection, it seemed like the earth just stopped and made way for the water table.
It’s one thing to hit water, and another thing to feel like there’s just a river of water and space underneath the soil. I got genuinely freaked out by this.
Bob assured me this was normal, given how close we were to the lake. I couldn’t shake the feeling that with enough weight, the ground would collapse and fold in on itself like a piece of wet bread.
What started as a post hole ended up, to me, revealing a cavern. It made me really wary, as I continued to work down here.
Started to tackle the 6″ layer of gravel we need.
A slight complication: Liz had a flight back to Chicago, from Georgia. She called me in a panic because her Uber driver showed up, drove past the neighborhood, then disappeared. And then she got a notification that her ride was cancelled.
In a panic, she was trying to figure out how to get to the airport. I eventually ordered her a Lyft from my phone, in the off chance that they would pick her up without me being present there.
We got a really great/friendly driver, and Liz made it onto her plane despite a lot of delays/complications. Felt like an afternoon of unexpected surprises.
Throwing bags of gravel down, worried the earth might cave in and collapse on itself.
Bob had the good suggestion to wrap the sonotube in a plastic bag, so the water wouldn’t get at the tub.e
More gravel down.
Made pretty good progress. Rather than pick Liz up at the airport, she took a cab back and I continued working. By the time she showed up, I had put down about 60 bags. Not too shabby for an evening’s work.
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