Pouring the Basement

Setting up power for the vibrator

Pump truck getting set up

 Here it is, the day I have been working towards. All the hard work that has been done is finally coming to a close.  It is the middle of September and the weather is great. A pump truck and 3 cement trucks had  been ordered, and were on their way. There will be 4 people here today, 2 friends ( Marty and Tim) my son Zack and myself. Lisa and my parents will also be here but they will be in the cheering section. I will  be pouring the cement and Marty and Tim will be running the vibrator and Zack will fill in where needed. The vibrator is used to prevent any large air pockets making  a honeycomb effect in the walls causing the walls to be weak. The walls are 9 ft high and I wanted to fill the walls 2 ft at a time. I started at the furthest wall away from the pump truck( making sure the arm of the pump truck would reach that far). I would  work my way around the basement trying to maintain a 2 ft pour which was not an easy task.  Marty and Tim followed me with the vibrator.  The pour took between 5-6 hours with a lunch break and was pretty much uneventful except for 1 near miss.  We almost had a blow out but it was caught before anything happened.  I was able to brace the section of the wall on both sides.  As the pump operator signaled to me that he had run out of cement and no more trucks were coming, I was about 6 ft short of finishing off the wall.  Luckily one the trucks had spilled a large amount on the driveway so we able to grab buckets and finish the wall off using that.

Pouring cement into the walls

Marty working hard with the vibrator as Tim supervises

Me pouring  and the guys following with the vibrator

To finish off the day Zack and myself went around and confirmed the walls were straight. Only minor adjustments had to be made,  using  the braces. Waited a few days for the cement to set up before I started taking down the braces and moving them to the top of the driveway awaiting pickup, that was a big job.