Garage Prep

After the concrete has spent a few days hardening, it is safe to backfill the excavation hole.  The fill is compacted and sloped to channel water away from the house.  In a few months, we will use the excavator one more time to do final grading and prep for landscaping.

The inside of the garage foundation walls are also filled and compacted.  We keep the fill at least 4 inches below the top of the foundation walls to leave room for a 4" thick concrete floor.  The fill is sloped to the front of the garage so that snow melting off the cars will run toward the front doors.

There are 3 choices for reinforcing the tension resistance of the garage slab:

1) a steel wire mesh that has thin steel wires on about 4 inch centers

2) a steel rebar grid that has 1/2" or 5/8" thick steel bars on about 1' to 2' centers

3) adding a fiber product directly to the concrete as it is mixed

We choose option 2: Kevin (the bigger kid) and Brendan help layout the steel grid:

Each intersection of the grid is tied securely with thin wire to prevent the bars from shifting around during concrete pouring.  Then the grid is raised about 2" off the ground using rocks to hold it up.

We are ready for concrete!