Foundation

[wannabeCitizen]

Regarding issue #1

Preliminary to building the structure is laying the foundation.

We have two options to choose from:

Laying Footers or Laying a Slab

We have sunk costs we must face for either choice: gravel, shovels, tamper, leveling sight wood, trowels, rebar, and plastic. Wood is the only one of these whose cost will vary significantly based on our choice. For gravel we either need 1 ton or 4 tons, pending our choice, but gravel is no more than $20 a ton, even through an expensive retailer.
An approximate for the costs of these things is ~$500 [Tamper = 80, gravel = 100; shovels and maddock = 100 (4-5x @ 20 per); trowels = 10 (2 @ 5 per); sight = 35 (pending where we get it); wood/plastic/rebar = $100-250 pending what size we choose].

The big choice is hand-mixing or having concrete delivered. For delivery from http://www.irvmat.com/index.asp - which is the best retailer that delivers to Gainesboro I could find - 2 cubic yards would be $407.45 and 11 cubic yards would be $1288.47 [the former for footers and the latter for a slab].

Micha priced the hand mixing and said that it would be almost the same price. The labor is going to be hefty and hand mixing is going to exacerbate that. I'm down to do it, but we will definitely need a good week to do a slab. If we have it brought in, we could do the digging and what not in 2 days then have the concrete poured and only need to level and wet it.

My vote is for having concrete brought in. As far as a slab or a floor, I propose either going with a slab or figuring out the cost for having a makeshift brick or wood floor.

[mynameisfiber]

I vote for bringing in the concrete.... also I would prefer to lay the slab down right away (it makes everything easier also because it's just one big monolithic pour) depending on finances.

[coopaloopster]

Yeah with this big of a job, we really don't want to fuck it up because we didn't get the mixture right or pour it all at once or anything like that. Is it really just as much to hand mix it? I would've guessed a factor of 2 in the price...that's crazy.

[cameronjj]

I'm for bringing in concrete for a full slab.

[wannabeCitizen]

Agreed. I just talked to Nathan Liddell and he highly recommended the full slab and commercially poured concrete as well. As long as the money doesn't turn out to be too tight, I say we go for this. From the talk Nathan and I just had, I think the digging, tamper, gravel, tamper, and framing will occupy enough of three/four days.

As long as we can get 5-6 people the weekend of the 17th, I say we dig and pour it then. I've already got 5 that can come, including Liddell who has some experience.

@coopaloopster If you want to do a quick second estimate on doing a by-hand pour, that would be useful. I would've guessed a lower price as well. Maybe text your step-dad and see what he would've expected?

[coopaloopster]

Yeah I"ll chat with me pops after work this evening. Can you give me the details of the project? cubic feet, area, climate etc.

[wannabeCitizen]

Well the climate should be roughly in the mid-high 70's at this time of year going down to 50's at night. Cubic yards would be 2 for doing footers and 11 for doing a full slab and the area is 25' x 30'

[coopaloopster]

Also, regarding the rebar and some technique, before you guys go down, I'll facetime my step dad, or Mike, since you know him, you could meet up with him for a beer during a pens game or something for a chat (maybe pay homage to Tarp Tavern), he's a professional floorer, been doing it for 30 years, he probably has all sorts of advice when it comes to concrete.

[mynameisfiber]

Very importantly, we need to call 811 before we go down to dig and give them time to do a survey (David said it takes 3 days). Also, I'm quite sure we don't need a permit, but it would be good to call city hall just to make sure.

• [x] Call 811
• [x] Verify we don't need a permit

[mynameisfiber]

Total cost, $3562... total awesomeness, infinite.