Slab

Future home of the 20' x 40' slab.  We hired Vic's Concrete out of Gonzales to pour the slab.

These 10 guys showed up on time and hit the ground running.  They were fantastic.

The backhoe guy, Shorty, is the best in Gonzales County.  He rocked the house.  I got his autograph.

The site is level and now the fun begins.

Jose, the foreman, trenched the footings around the perimeter of the slab.  He kept his tires aligned with an extra set of strings off the batter boards - genius.

They dug 4' deep holes to set the weight bearing poles in.  The slab will be poured around the poles for added stability.

The studio building is a "T" style Quonset building.  That means that the building leans on one wall.  The five 4" x 4" x 15' square pipes will hold the weight of the building. 

Getting those poles level was a heck of job.

Here I am checking it all out.  Looks good.

The guys got in a line and tied off the re bar like pros.  (I guess they are!)  It would have taken JB and I hours to get this done!

These guys had the slab ready for concrete right after lunch.

It took two and a quarter concrete trucks to fill the slab up. 

While the guys were pushing concrete around, Shorty, the backhoe guy, cleared out some brush from around our trees. I told you he was awesome!

Shorty cleared the area where the bus will go.  He saved us days of work.

This tree was COVERED with all kinds of crazy brush and vines.  I think I heard it take a deep breath as Shorty drove off with his backhoe.

The slab is poured, smooth and set up.  The weather turned overcast and the possibility of rain increased dramatically.  We were excited about the rain but right now????

The weather turned dark and it looked like rain was going to happen.  Jose power trowelled the slab and got is smooth before the rain came down. 

Drizzle was coming down when the guys scrambled to get plastic ready to cover the slab.  Jose finished up trowelling and jumped off the slab.  The guys covered the slab with plastic and the rain came pouring down.  Perfect timing.  We stood under the trees in the rain enjoying a refreshing beverage.  Perfect day!

So by 6:30 pm, they were finished, cleaned up and loaded up with all their stuff.  They poured a 20' x 40' slab in a day.  Remarkable!

Since we don't have water out there yet, Vic let us use his 50 gallon water barrels to throw on the slab once a day for a few days.   Isn't this exciting!