slab in the basement

I'm Martin's mason tender again. We are making slow steady progress on the concrete slab in the basement.

If you remember, our basement is stepped. Along both the east and west walls, the foundation comes down about 3 feet, then there is a "shelf" that steps the basement into the center that is full height.

Martin made sure that the sand that back filled the two stepped sections was level and tamped. Then he insulated them. The rebar and metal mesh went in next.

I had the pleasure of filling the holes in the cement blocks with sand, since we have lots of sand and we didn't want to fill them with concrete!

We hauled in buckets of sand from the leach field and buckets of gravel from the pile of gravel that we ordered and had dumped in the driveway.

Don't forget the buckets of water that we had to haul in from the rain barrel.

The cement mixer is ready to go.

Then we got to start mixing concrete. Which gets shoveled into buckets and dumped where it needs to be.

We got half of the east shelf done and all of the west shelf done.

Next we had to prep the floor to be insulated and ready to take concrete.

First we moved the bags of screened sand. (We are planning on using it to make mortar for the brick hearth and wall for the wood stove we will be putting in.)

Next we brought in buckets and buckets of sand from the leach field to level the floor. Because the sand was dry we had to wet it down so it wouldn't shift around under foot.

The basement stairs had to be supported so they wouldn't be in the way or put pressure on the concrete.

Then the insulation was put in. Martin decided the best way for us to approach pouring the floor slab was to do it in sections. He built forms a few feet out from both walls and built a suspension screed.

We hauled in our buckets of sand

and our buckets of water.

We had our supply of Portland cement

and our buckets of gravel.

The mixer was set to go.

We started mixing, pouring, and screeding.

The basement is more than half done. We need to bring in more sand and level the last section of floor and start the process over, but first we need to wait until the current slab sets up so we can work off of it.