Backyard Project

It's a heck of a lot of work building a bathroom. I've never done a project like this, so I'm double-checking everything before I do anything, and I'm still making mistakes. However, it is coming along at substantial savings over hiring a crew.

There is one crew I have to hire and they are the fellows who are going to finish the concrete. As it turn out, two associates of mine have a part-time job doing just that. I met with them yesterday and set a time to pour the slab. They looked at my forms and my footings and said that they could pour it like it was, but that it would be a better job if I did a little back-filling. Back-filling is putting dirt in a hole that you have already dug, so this morning I checked square and level on the slab again and started shoveling sand into the hole.

Of course, my wheelbarrow had a flat and I had to fix that. Then I started filling the wheelbarrow with sand, rolling it ten feet, and shoveling the sand into the form. Now, at 10:30 a.m. I am about half-way done and covered with sweat. It started raining and I decided to re-hydrate indoors.

While at Ace hardware buying an innertube, I picked up some L-bolts that I'll need to anchor the building to the slab. These are sunk in the wet concrete around the edge of the slab at intervals to bolt the toe plate down. Everything else gets nailed to the toe plate.

Dad called an offered a sheet of plastic that I'll use as a vapor barrier. I'll pick it up this afternoon or tomorrow. All that is left to do is finish backfilling the form. Check level and square repeatedly. Mark the form for the L-bolts so that they can be inserted quickly while the concrete is still wet. Install the vapor barrier. Await the concrete truck.

The pour is scheduled for Monday at 8:30 a.m. The finishers promise they will be here at 8:00. The NOAA website is calling for a 40% chance of rain on Monday. The saving grace is that the pattern is for afternoon showers and thunderstorms. Here in summertime Louisiana there is always a 20% chance of an afternoon shower.