Finally, after all the work of getting things ready, the day arrived to pour cement. As before, we used the services of Rock Solid Concrete Products and A&B Concrete Pumping. This one was a much bigger pour than we had for the footings – 28 cubic meters this time. But again, using a pump truck is a real life saver!
And it pays to have great friends! After putting out the word, 10 people (Laurier, Don, Kyle, Justin, Vanessa, Jordan, and of course Jeannie, Evan, Daphne, and my Mom) came out to help.
We started with pouring the first third of the 10 foot high section of the telescope pier (we poured the cement in lifts, or stages). Here, Evan is helping guide the hose for the first concrete of the day, with Jeannie looking on.
Then, we started pouring the lower half of the frost wall forming the foundation for the inner staircase. Here, Don and Justin are helping guide the hose.
Jeannie and Evan working on the staircase frost wall.
Vanessa in the foreground ready to start troweling when the cement gets to the surface, with Evan working the concrete vibrator in the background.
Jeannie, Justin, and Jordan working on the outer wall.
We had a real hardworking bunch of people helping us out. Everyone found something to do and just jumped right to it.
Daphne and Vanessa did the troweling of the tops of all the walls.
Jordan helping to guide the cement into the outer wall of the rectangular section.
As things were nearing completion, we poured the final lift (top third) of the telescope pier. Tall structures like this are poured in lifts, or stages, so that the lower levels have a bit of time to set before more weight is added on top. This provides less force trying to blow apart the forms.
Finishing up the top of the wall
And finally, an aerial shot after everything was done, less than 2 hours after we started! I can’t believe how quickly things went, thanks to the incredible help we had!
