February 17 - Pouring the Floor, Part 1

Planning
Thursday evenings are when the crew leads and their assistants get together to plan the next week's activities.  This meeting, however, on the day before The Big Floor Pour, focused on the next day's activity: pouring the concrete floor.  That's Glen in the camo jacket, Brian on his left, Mark to his left (can't see him), then Phil, Ken, and Bob.

The Big Floor Pour has been in the planning stages for over a month.  A special crew of volunteers who can be there all day on a Friday have been organized.  Concrete specialists have been recruited.  Concrete, 140 yards of it, has been ordered.  Specialized concrete finishing equipment has been requested.  The driveway has been prepped for the beating that a dozen cement trucks will do to it.  Meals have been ordered.  Prayers have been made.  What else could possibly be done?

Friday Arrives

Friday morning arrives, a beautiful day.  Workers have been here since before 6:00am.  The first truck was scheduled to be on site at 7:00am.  When I arrive at about 7:30, there's one truck backed up to the building and another waiting its turn.

The concrete truck will empty its load into the hopper of a concrete pump, which pumps the concrete through the 4" pipe.  The driver's waiting for the word to start dumping his load.

Inside the building, the pipe turns into high pressure rubber hose, which snakes into the narthex and over to the far end of the sanctuary.  The hose is a collection of short sections which are coupled together with clamps.

Inside the sanctuary, I see a group of guys ready to go, but no concrete is being pumped.  Everybody is looking serious.  The volunteers stand ready, waiting for a command or opportunity to do something.  Equipment and tools sit idle.  The experts bustle back and forth along the hose.  I can sense a palpable level of tension in the air; something's wrong.  Loren Hillukka is conveniently standing nearby.  "Psst, what's the deal?"  I find out that the end of the hose is plugged and no concrete will flow through it.  When you have a carefully coordinated series of concrete trucks on the way, all with fresh concrete that is getting harder by the minute, this is Not A Good Thing. 

Finally, the hose is cleared and the concrete begins to flow.  I'm pretty sure I saw a few smiles at this point, but you can't see them in my pictures since everyone's attention is on appreciating the growing pile of fresh concrete in the corner.

Once the mud starts flowing, everyone goes to their assigned place.  The hose is very heavy and needs to be moved around often to evenly spread concrete over the floor.  As the man on the end directs the flow, the rest of the gang moves the hose around as needed.  They must be careful to not damage the radiant floor tubing stapled to the foam as the hose slides across.  As the concrete flows, pulses of high pressure from the pump cause the hose to move around somewhat.

Here, Daniel Hillukka demonstrates the technique.  He's pulling on a loop of rope around the hose near a coupling that joins two sections of hose together.  The coupling sits in a "turtle shell", which helps to keep it from ripping up the tubing and wire mesh.

An attempt to capture the whole sanctuary scene.

Once the mud starts flowing, it comes quickly.  In minutes, there's a good-sized section covering the northeast corner of the sanctuary.  The guys pour concrete across the front of the sanctuary, working their way toward the back.

A guy from the hired concrete company drives a laser guided power screed up, ready to start screeding when a large enough area is ready for it.

Time for screeding.  The four-wheeled machine has a giant screeding attachment on the front but yet is light enough that it can be driven over the tubing without damaging it.  The screeding attachment has two tall outriggers that detect the laser mounted on the wall at the back of the sanctuary.  Once the proper height it set, the power screed can accurately level the concrete throughout the whole building as it's poured.  This machine is a huge time saver and does a great job.

The way it works is the operator drives it into the concrete just poured, sets its screed at the right height according to the laser, and backs up.  As the machine backs up, it leaves a smooth surface behind.  Dale Muhonen keeps a close eye on the operator's progress.

After the power screed moves on, a finisher comes behind and makes the concrete surface even smoother.  After this, the concrete is left alone for a while to set up.  Once firm enough to walk on, the floor will be power troweled.  A walk-behind style power trowel is perched on top of the sump basket in the background.

As the pour progresses along the north wall of the sanctuary, someone realizes that if they don't cover the windows quickly, they're going to get covered with concrete splatter.  Here we see Brian Johnson hustling off to find some foam to provide protective cover for the windows.

Mark directs the hose while Dale and Aare look on.

Eventually, the first truck runs out of concrete.  A break in the action while the first truck leaves and the second truck pulls into position at the pump gives the men on the hose time for a breather and a chance to look around.

I had to leave to go to work at this point, but this action would repeat throughout the day, truck after truck.  The floor was looking good!