[AT] another new shop

[DAVIESW739 at aol.com]

I had a wonderful old book on concrete and  mortar I gave it to a friend a 
few years back. It was made by the old timers who  new how to pour good concrete 
without any trouble. One thing that it said was to  make sure that the 
concrete was not to wet or it would crack.  You are  supposed to do a slump test 
when the load arrives. Take a pillar mold 12 X 12 X  12 with an 8 X 8 top. Pour 
the cement into it then immediately remove the mold  the concrete should only 
slump about 1 in. If its like most of the loads we get  now it will run all 
over the place. I used to work with my uncle back in the 50s  building houses we 
would pour the whole foundation and while the last truck was  cleaning up we 
started to tear down the wood forms. I have been in some of the  garages that 
we pours back then and they are still in the same nice condition  that we left 
them in.  
My grandfather always did the finishing he would  start at one corner with a 
pad to kneel on and a large finishing tool and a bag  of pure cement. He would 
work the concrete to bring the water to the top then  add the pure concrete 
and then trowel it in to give a very fine smooth surface,  you could skate 
barefoot on these big pads when he was though with them. Now we  tend to not have 
them quite so slick as a lot people were hurt slipping on  them.  We never 
used any rebar or netting and they never cracked that shows  what a good job they 
were when we poured them. 
I remember one time when  Uncle Bob went out put his hand on the side of the 
cement load and then told the  driver to take it back. He had showed up late 
and the truck load was hot to the  touch, uncle Bob said he wasn't paying for 
hot concrete as would never setup  properly. I bet if you did that today they 
would scream all over the  place.


Walt Davies
Cooper Hollow  Farm
Monmouth, OR 97361
503 623-0460