Bustin' concrete

Usually we've photo-documented some of the more momentous renos or changes we undertake. Today when F and I pounded and pried out the concrete from the garage and back work area, we dropped that ball. I do however, have a few pics of what it looks like afterward (which isn't really that interesting), and the tools we used to do it.

First off, we're breaking out these two 50 plus year old pads because they're terrible condition - cracked and heaved and uneven. Also, this winter the frost heaves were particularly pronounced, which effected the doors. It's become obvious that these pads need to be removed and one, in the garage, will be replaced. The other pad will be replaced by an independently floating wooden platform.

Both pads came out more easily then I'd anticipated. We used sledge hammers and a heavy, chisel-ended steel bar.

    

    

This steel bar is the best $41.50 I've ever spent! Once we'd cracked the concrete by pounding it with the sledge (we found that, consistently, if you pounded a slab in the centre of it 10 times, the cracks would spider out from that centre spot and then the whole pad would break apart) we were able to pound the chisel end of the bar into the cracks and pry the slab apart.

Then we'd load the chunks into the bucket of the tractor and cart it away to a pile where it will be picked up by a local backhoe operator. (Apparently there's high demand for broken up concrete to be used as fill.) We started at 9 and finished the garage by 12.

After a lunch of smokies and beer, we attacked the second pad in the back of the barn. Again, in 3 hours we had finished it, even though by the end we were quite spent. We toasted the day with a couple more beers and a pipe of tobacco. 

By the way, I'm also moving and rebuilding my workshop from this mess ...

... to this modular masterpiece (yet to be completed)!

No ride today, but I did work on my bike (It had developed an annoying creak during the ride to the WFF last Wednesday, and then the chain broke, which caused the rear derailleur to deflect into the wheel and break a spoke, which the fine folks of Olympia (through the support of the WFF) fixed at no cost while I was at the fest. It seems though that just about everything on the bike loosened up after the ride (I suspect she was a bit tired from the year of commuting) and the creaking just didn't stop (turns out I'd broken one cup in my bottom bracket too).).  I rode 23 ks of gravel and dirt roads yesterday on my crossbike, and the day before that I rode 58 ks on the road (the Rosetown loop).

I'll try to be more regular ... I'll try to do my best, but I may not.