Footings and piers are in for the shed

I underestimated the amount of work required to manually clean up after the machinery and prep for steel placement.  106 Starter bars were cut and bent, and very grateful for the use of a mates bandsaw and shed for shade.

The jig I made to bend the bars made it much easier, a u-bolt thru a sleeper with a stop block and a piece of pipe for leverage.

After much sweat and muscle soreness, the steel is in, depth pegs all round, steps boxed up and piers cleaned out ready to pour.  The sparky placed his conduits, including a few of spares just in case we ever get NBN by fibre or we decide to do some tricky automation.

Chris from TCR Concrete Pumping set up his pump, and a while later the concrete turned up

This was the first time I have used a pump, and I take my hat off to Chris, there was barely any shoveling involved, he is a top operator.  I followed the pump with the vibrator, and my mate Dommo screeded.  Once again, a pleasure to watch a master of his craft.

All in all we put 12.4 meters of concrete in the ground, with 5.4 in the first truck and 7 in the second.  In between trucks I placed the starter bars at 400mm centres, working to strings on pegs I put in during prep to ensure they are centred and correctly spaced in the blockwork.  I used a 2m piece of 70x35 pine with painted marks at 400 intervals, and just slid it along the footing as we poked the starter bars in 200mm under the top layer of mesh.

With the pour complete, I found out about the downside of using a pump when Chris dropped about .2 M3 of concrete on the driveway to clean out the hopper.  The large grey section in the photo above is the result of shoveling into the barrow, then shoveling into the fill area.  Must admit I was not physically prepared for this task, but managed to complete it before the concrete went off.  Even with this, the pump was a back saver, it makes it just so much easier and faster.

As an observation, I understand why most trades like to knock off around three, as the Builder gets to clean up, pack up and make the site safe and secure, these tasks have seen me have an extended series of 12 hours days.  I have lost 4 kilos in two weeks however.  If I survive, I might even get fit.

Blocks are ordered and will be delivered on Tuesday, brickie is keen to start, and in discussions with the plumber.

All up I am pretty pleased with myself.