Day 5-6 Placing the Rebar

On Wednesday, I rented a plate compactor to compact the sand.  As it turned out, the sand is pretty much in a compacted state when it is spread.  So Tanner and I shoveled the sand out of the pad and Dad helped us understand how to screed the sand to a level even with the bottom of the forms.  This way we would end up with a 4" slab rather than, who knows how thick?!  Tanner and I were so busy Wednesday I didn't get any pictures, cause my Dad had to leave and he took the camera.... :-(  ...sorry.

Day 6 Thursday.

Conner, Tanner and I started the day at 7:30 AM.  We had a very productive day.  We finished the form work by adding boards to the openings in the forms where it was high and putting braces to help hold the forms in place.

Here, we are placing the rebar in the forms.  We put them every 18 inched both ways.

When you  set rebar, you have to tie them together with wire so they stay.  Mr. Hamm also found some rebar "chairs" to help hold the rebar on the ground and make sure it is in the middle of the concrete section.  We also set up the handicap ramp (lower right of picture) from the parking lot.

Here is the slab ready to pour.  We not only put braces on to stabilize the forms, we also backfilled it with dirt to add some more strength.