Sorry for the delay. Been busy with other things, plus the concrete pour didn't go as well as it could have, and I wanted to wait until the issues were resolved before posting.
About the 16th of January was the pour. Guys arrived on site and did some final prep.
Concrete truck arrived mid-morning... which turned out to be the start of the problems...
Here's how the concrete was delivered into the building.
Instead of using wire mesh, the concrete is fiber-reinforced. Obviously this is a lot less labor-intensive. Since I'd never seen this before, I did some web searching and found it is a common practice. Guess time will tell how well it holds up.
As the pour was wrapping up, the equipment was cleaned up...
But wait... while it looks like these guys are starting the final finish work, there is still a section of concrete in front of the third door that hasn't been poured. Three truck's worth of concrete wasn't enough... They are now waiting on truck four...
The truck finally came, but the rest of the floor was already on its way. Here they are working on the last area that was just poured.
Looking pretty good overall.
Long story short, it got dark, and that last section wasn't smoothed as it should have been.
Due to the cold temps, the contractor set up a heater inside the shop to keep the temps up and aid in drying.
The next day, the crew was back to cut the concrete. The idea is to provide the places where the cracks will occur, since concrete will crack.
The heater was run inside for several days. During this time, I stayed out of the shop. Once the heater was removed, I went in to check things out.... and wasn't really very happy!
This is a big diesel spill where the heater was sitting.
With the heater sitting here, this section of concrete dried too fast and there is a hairline crack that runs through it.
And here you can see the swirl marks in the section of floor that was poured last.
If only one of these problems had occurred, I'd have probably just let it go. Maybe even two of them. And actually, it was the diesel spill that really pissed me off. I contacted Steel Structures, who in turn called the concrete contractor. He came out and made a few excuses, but eventually said he would work on the stain and the swirl marks. It took nearly two weeks before he actually came back and took care of things. The swirl marks still show a bit, but aren't nearly as pronounced. The stain was removed with an acid wash. (Obviously the crack remains. Actually, I noticed another small one too.)
I know my concrete will eventually have cracks, get stained up, and gouged. But I figure I ought to be the one responsible (at least for the stains and gouges)!
It's safe to say I'm not going to recommend this concrete contractor and if I ever need concrete work, he won't be the person I'll call. (And you know what, 99% of his jobs are probably just fine. Mine was kinda like the 'Perfect Storm' for him I guess....)
