A level surface at last

It is surprising just how much work there is in preparing a slab for the pour.  Once the fill was in and compacted in 100mm layers, then a band of crusher dust, wetted down and compacted.  The waterproof membrane was laid out and sheets of mesh laid on top, then the second layer of mesh specified by the engineer were laid out.  Boxing up was done with yellow tongue flooring ripped into 300 strips and bolted to the blockwork with 6mm masonry self tapping masonry bolts.

As with the footings, I booked the pump for the slab.  A good man on the pump is worth three guys on shovels clearing for the guy on the screed.  Full kudos to Chris from TCR Pumping for a top effort.  My mate Dominic looked after the screed and another mate, Glenn, manned the rake while I followed the pump with the vibrator, trowelled pads at the sides and ran for the level etc.

A minor underestimation on my part saw 14.6 cubic metres of 25 mpa concrete disappear into the slab, a bit more than I had estimated....... at 100m2 5mm of variation in height is .5 metre cubic, guess the gaps in my edge beam were a bit bigger than I had estimated.

Dommo is a legend on the screed, and also on the trowelling machine.  Apart from making it look easy, there is minimal variation on surface height (<5mm) and the surface is exactly what was asked for.

The plan is to grind the concrete and apply an epoxy coating to eliminate dust creation when sweeping.

If all goes to plan I will have portal frames, purlins and beams arrive next week.

Stoked with the slab!