Well done Michael, I have never used or apparently needed any bonding agent but certainly it wouldn't hurt. Once you get a little experience with concrete though I find it rather satisfying. Lots of work with the trowel after screeding while the cement is still fairly wet will take care of that roughness. On a big job the professionals use what they call a bull float to smooth it off and on a basement floor they often use a powered trowel which is a little like a upside down helicopter which they work all over the surface just about as soon as the cement will hold a man. This is how they get that really polished flat surface. You can get close by hand though and will probably on your next job.
I have used a big electric jack hammer for breaking up cement but only recommend that for breaking up floor they are heavy. Last time I took out a door sized hole in a cement wall I rented a rather smaller hammer it weighed enough but I could about manage it with one hand but it is a two handed machine. Not as fast but much more manageable. You would have to bend over with it to use it on a floor. My wall though was full of stones up to the size of baseballs or a little bigger and scrap iron, there were 48 old horse shoes in that 40 inch wide section, I had to cut through old bed steel, pipe and other steel I didn't recognize which really slowed me up and of course the dust! I later also learned that a technique they often use for cutting holes like that is to suspend a big hammer from a pair of ropes you can then just advance it into the wall. BIG noise! you want ear protection when you use a jack hammer particularly inside. Anyway, for the price a lot more effective than a hammer drill. The trouble with experience though is that you don't get it until after you need it. Apparently sewer gas is not usually flammable. Neither is it toxic. Clearly there are exceptions, several years ago a railway tanker of gasoline spilled into the sewers of Timmins Ontario which then caught fire. The television footage was quite spectacular with flames leaping out of manhole covers and street drain grills. That notwithstanding the stink is pretty disgusting. They do make a special chain cutter for cast iron pipe, you wrap it around and apply compression and the little disk teeth just snap the pipe off with a clean end. I have never used one, I have only ever used a reciprocating saw (sawsall) and hammer, or like you a mallet or mallet & chisel. Thanks for the update. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Baldwin To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2007 8:04 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] project update Okay, thanks to some help on this list I can post an update to my basement project. I managed to get all the concrete cut and removed to redo my under slab drain lines for my bath/laundry room. To remove the concrete, I measured from adjacent walls to find the center of the drain locations. I then measured 5-6 inches to either side of that location to make a square. After the location was determined I used a 1/4 hammer drill bit and drilled holes in each corner of the square. Every foot or so, I would drill a hole to mark an outline of the area to be removed. When all the holes were drilled, it was just a matter of connecting the dots, well holes. I used a concrete blade on my circular saw, it only cut about 2 2 1/2 inches deep. The next step was for me to go back with the 1/4 hammer drill bit and drill holes every inch or so along the cut. Hammer drills are amazing when drilling concrete. Starting in one area, I used my handy 8 pound sledge hammer and beat the crap out of the concrete. The cut line and holes helped insure the concrete broke only where I wanted it to brake. in several places, where the concrete was thick 6-8 inches, I had to chisel it out one small piece at a time. the sledge helped crack it so it made the chiseling a little easier. Cutting concrete is VERY VERY VERY dusty and noisy work. Regular dust masks are not enough to keep the dust out of your nose, and dust gets every where in the house, no matter how much plastic you put up to close off the area. next time, if there is a next time I do this kind of work, I will get better dust masks, and borrow my dad's concrete saw that cuts 6 inches deep. his saw doesn't have the misting capabilities, but a second person with a spray bottle would help keep the dust down as well. The next job was to remove the dirt to uncover the drain pipes. Oh Damn, I should have dug as I cut away concrete to make sure I was following the pipe. My main drain took an unexpected turn, but not to bad, I only removed about 3-4 square feet to much of concrete, it could have been worse. removing the cast iron drain wasn't as bad as I thought. One end had a hub, unfortunately it was up against the footing, so I could not just pick the lead out of it. A few good whacks with my 8 pound sledge and the hub broke apart enough to remove that end. cutting the other end, and a pipe that connected to the main drain was just a matter of using my angle grinder. After grinding as much as I could, the head of the angle grinder got in the way, a few more whacks with the sledge and the rest of the pipe was free to come out. Cleaned up the cut ends with the grinder and was good to go. My opinion, working on the main drain is not for those with a weak stomach. The stench was over whelming. I got thinking afterwards if a grinder might be the wrong tool to use on a drain. A grinder makes lots of sparks,and sewer gas is flammable. Putting in the new drain line was pretty straight forward, just a matter of cutting, fitting, cutting some more and positioning all the pipes until they were where I wanted them, and with the proper slope. In my area I did not need a permit or an inspection. that is something to check in to if anyone decides to do plumbing work. I did ask questions, and installed according to code though. Luckily I did not need to install another vent stack. the last thing I want is drains under tile and concrete to not function properly. I only had two snags when installing the plumbing. the first was that one of my wyes was glued at the wrong slope, I cut the main pipe, installed a coupler and made sure it was at the right slope before gluing it. the other was one of my furnco couplings wanted to leak no matter what I did. For those who do not know, a furnco coupling is a rubber sleeve with a clamp at either end, it is used to connect two different types of drain pipe together. In my case it was cast iron to PVC. I eventually got out my RTV silicone and used that to help seal it up, no more leaks. I installed my drains for sinks and such higher then I needed, so I can cut them off when I get the floor to its finished height. Dropping in the dirt was just a matter of going outside, filling up a 5 gallon bucket, carrying it down stairs and dumping it in. After a few bucket loads I would smooth it out by hand, wet it down, and stomp on it, and use my sledge to pack it down. When the dirt was at the level I wanted it was time for the concrete. Oh, I don't no exactly in what locations, or when it started, but some homes will now have rock, plastic, and foam insulation under the basement slab. With the dirt tamped down well, there was nothing left but to start poring in the concrete. I do really appreciate the tips and help from the list on this part. I knew I did not have enough concrete for the whole floor, so I used a 2x4 and divided the floor in about half. I drove wood stakes in behind the 2x4 to hold it in place when screeding. I did some figuring, and thought I had enough supplies to do the part of the floor I was planning on. I used 10 60 lb bags of concrete mix, 4 50 lb bags of sand, and 1 94 lb bag of Portland cement. I had for more bags of sand I could use, but that would have put the cement to sand ratio at 4 parts sand to 1 part cement, fine for a shower pan, but not a floor. 894 pounds was way to much for a person to mix by hand, so I cut it in half. Still difficult to mix, but i got it done. I mixed everything right on my basement floor, a part that was still concrete. With the amount of sand and cement I had, I could have added about 300 lbs of gravel, but i didn't have any to add, and me not wanting to wait on other people and a week to get some, i used what I had. this is what my mix ended up being, taking in to account the premixed concrete. 194 lb of cement, 300 lb of gravel, 400 lb of sand. If it was summer, I might have taken the time to sort and clean some of the broken up concrete I had from my floor to use as aggregate. I brushed on the concrete bonding agent, mixed up half of my batch, and scooped it in. I used a few different pieces of wood to scread the concrete level with the 2x4 and the existing concrete. floated it, and troweled it smooth. The next day i mixed up the other half and did the same thing with it. I was about .3 cubic feet to damn short on concrete. I should have waited for the aggregate, oh well. Now for the next few days I will wet it down and let it do it's own thing. My first concrete job that I did on my own didn't come out the best, but it blends well with the existing concrete, and there is no major dips or peaks in it, just a little rough in a few spots. For the remaining area I do not know if I will use all premixed concrete, or mix my own again, it will depend on the prices. I have some more questions, but I will post them in different posts to keep subject lines and such all nice and neat. Michael [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
