My part was to empty the room of anything in the way of a new floor as well as frame the new door and window. The window was especially important because this gave us a great location to get the concrete shute into the room.

Steve and his crew showed up early and made a level line around the room with a chaulkline to show where the new floor will be. One corner would only be around 3″ thick while the opposite corner was nearly 8″! They also built a form for our 8 x 5 foot patio.

The addition of a small patio at the back door will add a little outdoor living space to this home where the homeowner could put a couple chairs or a grill. Once the garage becomes living space they might actually use the back yard more often and this will provide a nice spot to hang.

During the initial pour the cement is leveled with a long 2×4 to make sure it’s flat with no humps or dips. After it dries a little, the guys can get on it with boards to keep them from damaging it. This is when they really smooth it out. They have to do this several times, letting it dry a little more in between each pass. Steve joked that much of their time is spent “watching concrete dry.”

The finished product looks great and gives us a nice floor for our new room. Now I can have a level surface to build a wall on for our utility closet and you can walk across the room without getting ‘sea legs’. After the cement cures overnight I can get in there and install the new back door and window. We’ll give it few days before setting anything too heavy on it like the washer and dryer.

Most of the day I watched Steve work. I guess we watched concrete dry together..

-Peter