The gravel under the back patio slab

The gravel under the back patio slab, a photo by Donna & Andrew on Flickr.

The backfill around the sides of the basement is almost finished

The backfill around the sides of the basement is almost finished, a photo by Donna & Andrew on Flickr.

A wall appears!

Yep, there's a wall - at last!, a photo by Donna & Andrew on Flickr.

And thus begins the slow process of removing all that wood to expose the fresh concrete walls beneath.  It took a month to put all this up so I suspect it'll take several days to clear it all out.

Pouring the Walls

We poured the walls today.   Truck after truck offloaded their soggy content into a receptacle where a pump promptly pushed the wet oozing mess through a long hose and regurgitated it between the meticulously spaced plywood forms.   The workers filled the walls to a height of just 3 feet then circled around again to lay down another three foot layer on top of the first.  This process repeated itself until the entire perimeter of the walls were filled to the top.  



Pouring concrete into a form often results in pockets of air throughout the concrete that can weaken the material when it cures. In order to remove these air pockets, you must consolidate the concrete throughout the form, evenly spreading out the material to leave no possible spaces. By inserting a concrete vibrator rod into the concrete, you can vibrate the material within the form, settling the concrete evenly. This removes the air pockets that reduce the concrete's density, increasing the overall strength of the material.  Kinda makes you wonder what they did before this technology existed, huh.