Sidewalk 3

We will use this entry as a transition from sidewalk to building stairs to the upstairs apartment. The following picture was taken late Saturday afternoon. The two dark sections were done Friday and the two sections covered with plastic were done on Saturday. Three separate days so far of about three hours each.

Concrete is not to become hard by drying, but by a chemical reaction. Strength is obtained by allowing the chemical reaction to occur. If the concrete dries then the chemical reaction stops and the concrete is brittle and weak. In this hot dry weather it is important to keep the surface damp. The best way to do that is to cover the surface with plastic.

The above picture may not be clear because of the dark background. There are some things in the picture you can't see, but we will make a comment here anyway. The coil of wire is left over from the foundation work on the house. A short piece of wire has a loop at each end. They are used to fasten rebar together. I use them on this project to fasten the fence to the rebar, which I try to show in the picture but failed. The wire is placed around the bar and the fence. I put a nail through the loops and twisted once to get a picture. In place of the nail you can grab the loops with a finger and thumb and twist it down or you can spend some money and buy a special tool the pros use to twist the wire very quickly. A pair of pliers work very well also. On a job the size of my foundation the tool is very valuable. - Note: The soil in the picture is cracked because it is dry. It must be moistened to remove the cracks before you pour concrete. If sand had been placed on the soil and the soil dried, your sand would begin to disappear down the cracks. I have seen these cracks grow to two inches wide and five feet deep in my yard during a very dry summer. Imagine the foundation damage that can occur if you allow that kind of soil shrinkage. Not all soil types act this way. That is why I want water around my home foundation and sidewalks.

My stairway will require eleven columns, so I have to dig eleven holes for foundations. I dug three after finishing the sidewalk work on Saturday. In future blog entries I will layout the design and also explain the concrete edge you see by the grass. I will show what I did and why and you can judge for yourself if it was a waste of time, energy, and money. I am sure what I did is unique. It is an original design that has worked very well for me. More on that later if I can find some good old pictures. - I found them. Maybe next time.

In the above picture I pulled back the stone and lifted up the black plastic and scraped off any sand. I laid down the 2 x 4 and marked off where the three foundations go. I need to cut and nail two short pieces to finish the form and pour concrete in the hole with a bolt sticking out to attach the column hardware to. We will get to all of that later.