All,
The inspector came out and inspected, I got approved.

He said the pipes are no big deal as the tanks are sanded. Rebar and
mesh are not required but I am still going to do it to avoid the
cement from pulling apart if I ever have a problem.

The question now in my head is to do it myself or have someone do it.
The inspector said to do it myself. He said you did a fine job
(depth,width,straightness,stone,layout) on the excavation and that is
where most people screw up. So I now understand the process even more
after talking to the inspector, so I am thinking more about doing it
myself to save the cash. I dunno, I will price it out and make the
final decision.

I plan to put electrical in and will install what is necessary for
that in the concrete before I pour. I will not actually do electrical
till next year as the whole property will be upgraded.

Thanks for the help.

Chris








On May 30, 7:28 pm, "John Grabowski" wrote:
"Solomon_Man" wrote in message

ups.com...





All,
I am working on adding two garages on my property. The larger is a
24X32 and the smaller one is 14X20. My father was in construction and
I have done about everything in-home construction, except, major
concrete. I have done sidewalks, patios, etc but nothing major. This
is where my questions originate.

I have read a few books and gotten my permits. I marked out the
location of the new garages and squared them up over last week after
work. Then last weekend, I broke ground with an excavator and a large
bobcat. Knowing that I would be better off (concrete savings) having a
professional dig the actual footer, I hired a friend of a friend to
dig my footer and I operated the bobcat. Things went as expected and
my figures for stone and supplies came out. I am preparing for
inspection and this morning I cleared out the roots from a few trees
that sit in the back 30 feet of my property. I am planning on pouring
the footer then the finished slab.

The one thing that I am concerned about is during the excavation we
ran into two leach fields (at 3 feet down), an old septic leach bed
and a leach bed from an old gray water system (at 2 feet down). I am
positive that these systems are both no longer used and the main tanks
are filled with sand. I know this for certain because I did this and
the new sewer line to the house (120 feet)with my dad when the city
sewer came to our area about 10 years ago. The septic system was
original with the house (50 years old) and was about 200 gallons (very
very small) and the leach field was only 120 feet in a Y. The gray
water system ran the washing machine and dishwasher only and was 110
gallons and had only a 45 feet leach system but had a very large
diameter.

How is something like this normally handled?

I have, so far, crushed and removed them from the footer entirely and
have filled them with foam and packed the ends with dirt and stone
tightly. There was no water in either system as expected.

Are these pipes even a concern at this point?

My next question is concerning the next steps in the concrete process.

My plans, and please correct me if I am wrong, is the following;

1) I will get approval from the city that my footer and stone etc is
good.
I assume they are mostly concerned with depth, width, and straightness
of the footer and the stone is 4 inch or better.
2) I will rebar the footer
3) I will bring in the concrete and pour the footer to the bottom of
the stone. (stone started 4 inches below earth grade)
4) I will then place my forms (2X8s) and make sure everything is of
correct size and square up the forms.
5) I will place my 6X6 10 Gauge wire mesh to the footer
6) I will then have the concrete brought in and will pour and level
out with a Bull float/screeds/maybe even a power trowel.
7) I will then place the garage bolts for the sill board
8) Spray on curing agent

Now, I am considering having the above done after I get approval from
the city inspection. As I have a friend who has a friend that does
this for a living. I have seen his work and I think it looks decent.
So everyone knows, this is very against my grain as I hire very few
things out. My main concern is the man power behind this and the skill
to do the final level/finish but I know getting to this point is a
very big step.

Now what should I expect to pay outside the cost of materials to have
him do this? What is the norm? I have been told he will bring in 4
guys at $250 a day for the actual pour. What should form, rebar and
mesh placement cost me?

I have another option to finish this concrete which is decent as well.
I personally have a long time friend that is in the heavy machine
operating trade (40 + years) and has done a lot of large scale
concrete/masonry in his life. I have seen his work and it is decent.

Any opinions or suggestions?

I don't know about concrete work, but if you plan on adding an electrical
circuit breaker panel to each garage you should connect a #4 bare solid (Not
stranded) copper wire to the rebar using an approved connector. Run the
wire to the location of the panel. This will provide an excellent grounding
conductor for your panel. Even if you are not planning to install power to
the garages it would be a good idea to have the #4 bonded to the rebar for
lightning protection.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -