After all the prep work on the floor the prior day I hung around to watch the flatwork. I got to the house about 6:30 to put expanding foam in some of the cracks in the foam and cut some strips of metal lathe. Zane and Robert arrived shortly afterward, and the four of us double checked a few things and waited for the concrete truck to arrive.
‘Bob’ got there right around 8am, and backed the truck up to the bedroom window. I didn’t have any boots, so my role was relegated to handing tools and a few other miscellaneous tasks. As the concrete began to roll into the space, Doug and Zane used their ‘come along‘ tools (like a rake without teeth) to level out the concrete. It was pretty amazing watching them take the fluid mass and level it out out perfectly up to the chalk line. I followed them around, pulling up on the metal mesh to get some concrete under the pex tubing so it would be embedded closer to the center of the concrete rather than on the bottom adjacent to the foam.
Across the transition from the main floor we dropped in the strips of metal lathe to give the concrete a little support across the bigger drop.
It only took them a few hours to get everything smoothed out, and Zane and Robert left, and Doug continued to work on the floor with a bull float. The truck had about 3/4 of a yard of extra concrete, and between the scrap lumber, the extra concrete, and a plethora of tools the temptation was nearly irresistible.
Doug gave me a quick form building tutorial, and I built two quick forms out of plywood and 2×4’s in the shape of the stair treads. I worked in some of the still-wet pile of extra concrete, and went to work with the trowel and edger. When it was starting to set up, we sprinkled in some color hardener to shore up the surface and add a few experimental shots of color. The corners were a little rough and I’m not terribly confident in the integrity of the forms (especially since they are now curing sitting on the uneven driveway) but it was a very fun experiment. I read Concrete Countertops by Fu-Tung Cheng a few months ago, and it was great to see some of the concepts in action.
Now that I have a little experience (and relatively easy access to extra concrete, it would seem) I’m going to build some real forms and try to make another version of the treads. The ones I did today were right side up (with the showing side of the tread up) but I think It would be easier to keep everything smooth if I made them upside down, with the face of the stair inside the form. More on that later.
