A Slab, A Third Wheel And A Fifth Wheel

After the realization that the latest pour was a total loss, I formed up and poured another one. I used the palm sander to vibrate it, but also used the air hammer as I had done before. After a trip to Nevada to visit little brother and his family (and cute little brand new grand daughter) I came home yesterday and pulled the slab out of the forms and flipped it over. It came out very nice, no voids and just a few bug holes. I'll try to grind and polish it tomorrow, if I have time. Our grand daughter is moving in because she got a job in our area. It is her first, real, job. In today's economy and high unemployment, she is fortunate to find full time work. She is working at a day care center. She has been taking child development classes at her local community college, so it has paid off for her. The only downside is that, at 22 years old, she has no license or car, so guess who is going to chauffeur her about? We will be pushing her towards a bit more independence and big girl behavior by finding her a car so we can enjoy the new RV that we bought last week

Success 2 - Failure 2

I spent this morning moving the slab to a pair of saw horses so I could begin the wet polishing process. The attempted repairs that I made, yesterday, with the Fixall/sand/pigment concoction failed almost instantly. Fixall, as I should have realized, is a plaster based material and the water and grinding action caused it to wash away like coffee grounds going down the drain. I had already decided that there was a, near 100 percent, chance that I would have to redo it. So be it. It is our home and we have to live with it. For me, at least, I plan to die in this house so, if I have to look at it every day, it needs to be right. A certain amount of, "That's good enough", does work for me, but there isn't room for very much. Back to Home Depot for another sheet of melamine board and rebar. I'll re make the form, bend up and tie the rebar tomorrow and re pour Thursday, as long as I don't have any other calamities. I am, by nature or nurture, a very impatient person as well as being a hot head. I surprised myself by not throwing one of my usual temper tantrums. Perhaps because it is a bit difficult to give a 300 pound slab of concrete a flying lesson

Into The Void

I'm supposed to be getting better at this sort of thing. I poured the third piece of the counter last week. Yesterday, I pulled it from the forms. There were a number of, very large, voids, especially at the edges. When I made the pour, I tried vibrating the mix with a palm sander, that I wrapped in plastic. It seemed to work well. The mud moved and flattened out as I pushed the sander in. Maybe I didn't hit the edges well enough to allow the mud to settle into the edges of the form. There is a possibility that I will discard the slab and do it over. In the meantime, I'm going to try to save it. I mixed a slurry of Fixall, sand and pigment and troweled it into the defects. I'm going to grind it today with the wet polisher and see how it looks. The problem, that I think will arise, is the lack of aggregate in the slurry. There might be a noticeable difference in the surface appearance since the patched areas are just sand and pigment. We'll see. I am disappointed, but remain stoic and optimistic. I will finish this job and It will look nice. I know that to be a fact because that's what Wifey told me and she is never wrong.