It was a great day to pour concrete.  Everything went well today – Hector from Larson Steel was on time this morning as was Chris from Clausen Electric.

Completing Trim Work in the Basement

We needed to cut the excess bolts off the baseplates in the lower level, which hold the steel columns in place.  Hector Guerra was on time early this morning and Bryan helped him to cut the tops of the bolts off.  As well, Chris from Clausen Electric came by and installed the conduit and fixtures in the lower level by the exposed concrete wall.

It was good to stroke those two items off ‘the list’.

Hector cutting the bolts from the plates supporting the steel columns in the lower level.

Done.

Chris puts the electrical fixtures and conduit in the floor.

Pouring Concrete in the Garage

We poured the ground floor in three sections.  First, we poured the section at the front of the house, under the master suite which will be covered by hardwood flooring.  Then, we poured the rest of the ground floor, except for the garage.  Today, we poured the garage, which is 20 ft by 20 ft.  All of this concrete contains 70% slag.

The Graniterock truck showed up right on time and we ‘tailgated’ the concrete into the garage.  It was poured within 30 minutes and then Bill Brown’s team finished the concrete. 

We decided to use colored concrete so it will match the rest of the house (i.e., Harvest Gold).

The Graniterock truck arrives and is ready to 'tailgate' the concrete into the garage.

Ready to pour concrete in the garage.

Pouring colored concrete.

Within minutes, we're half way done.

Tailgating requires a bit more manual work than using the pumper truck ...

We've got the concrete in place so the truck can clean up.

Starting to 'screed' the concrete in the garage.

Screeding is tougher than it looks as everyone has to work together as an integrated team to move the concrete and produce a flat surface without grooves or tracks.

Back to the lower level, and this photo shows the end of the loop in the atrium.

The PEX is looking good in the lower level. Our plan is to pour this next week.

The completed concrete in the garage is looking good.

We welded 5 of the 15 posts in place today.  For a number of reasons, it took much longer than we expected.  We will need another day to weld the remaining 10 posts in place. 

Paramount Modular Cable Railing Systems did a fantastic job fabricating the posts for us.  The posts stainess steel welded to cylinders at the bottom, which will be embedded in the concrete.  The top of each post has a stainless steel bracket that will be recessed in the wooden top rail (Maple wood, from Canada).

Once these posts are welded into place, we will be able to pour more concrete so the posts will be embedded in concrete.

Establishing the Finished Floor Elevation

We had Jorge Ramirez from Bill Brown Construction come to our site this morning so we could ensure the finished floor elevation that he established earlier was consistent with our finished floor elevation for the posts.  The posts were designed and fabricated so the stainless steel shows above the concrete and the round carbon steel is embedded in the concrete (which is welded to the I-beams). 

We wanted to start at 8:00 am but both Jorge and the Larson Steel team were late in arriving.  This threw Bryan off his planned schedule, which included other items.

Jorge brought a laser level with him and, after getting new batteries at the local 7-11 store, we shot the elevation of the garage/kitchen door, which Jorge explained was the finished floor elevation.  This was within 1/16 inch of the elevation of the glass in the north side of Bridge Hall. It appears that the south end of the Bridge Hall is a quarter inch lower than the other three points.

We shot the elevations around the perimeter of the atrium and noted the distance to the finished floor.  We need to establish the elevations for the bottom of the posts so we can weld the posts to the steel I-beams. 

 Establishing the Welding Plan

Hector Guerra, who designed our bridges, arrived with Tony Gutierrez and ‘Little Hector’.  Tony will align the posts and Little Hector, who has been to our site several times, will do the welding.  We were fortunate to have Tony assigned to our project today.  He had extensive experience in making fences and other items from steel where having straight lines and vertically plumb posts are critical. 

Tony Gutierrez, left, and Hector Guerra, right.

Hector and Tony reviewed the site and explained the strategy will be to establish a string line for height and straightness.  Then, the posts can be welded into place so they will be straight, not skewed, vertically plumb, and at the correct elevation. 

The first posts to be welded into place will be the end posts.  Then, the intermediate posts will be welded.  We started with the posts on the north side of the atrium.

Welding Five Posts

Tony and Little Hector completed welding the first five posts in place by just after 3:00 pm.  It was satisfying to see both Tony and Hector lean on the posts and see little, if any, sway.  When the wooden 2×2 top rail is in place the railing system will be solid.  Rock solid.

After completing the first five posts, we moved to the corner post at the top of the stairs.  This is a complex post as it is offset and has very fine tolerances so the cable will be in the correct location for going down the stairs. We had some grinding to do and then we ran out of time.

Laying out the posts, still in their protective foam wrapping.

Welding the supports for the temporary string line in place.

Temporary stringline and first post in place.

Post 25 in place. Note the bracket that will be embedded in the wooded top rail.

Post 10 solidly in place. Note the 3/4 inch space between the bridge and the post, which is where the madrone hardwood will go.

Post 9. This is an 'intermediate post' and used to ensure the cables are not stretched to allow a 4 inch sphere to pass between them.

Post 8, another intermediate post.

Post 7, which is the corner post by the Bridge Hall. This is the bridge with the glass decking that leads to the Master Suite.

Monday will be a big day.  The two bridges and the stairs are loaded on Larson Steel’s truck in Gilroy and will be delivered to the project site by 8:00 am on Monday morning.  Our friends from Summit Crane will have a 45 ton crane at the project site to put the stairs and bridges in place.  And, HP Inspections will be verifying the welding at 1:00 pm on Monday afternoon.

It’s good.  All good.

Completed Bridges

Hector showed me the bridges are loaded on their truck.  Very cool.

Larson Steel's truck, with the two bridges and stairs loaded and ready for delivery and installation on Monday morning.

Bryan climbed on the truck for some close up photos. Here is the landing on the stairs.

Hector waiting patiently as Bryan reviews the stairs and bridges.

Everything looks good. Note the HSS 4x4x 3/8 column tucked in the bridge. This is one of two structural columns that will be visible in th house.

Monday will be a big day.