Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Pumpkins and our porch floor



It's Halloween night here and we await the little gobblins of the neighbourhood. Being our first Halloween in the 'hood, we're not sure what to expect. Without subdivision masses nearby, we may have a few hundred mini candy bars and such not to feast on for the next few months!

Monday, the crew from Lafarge arrived and began preparing the base for our porch floor and main entry door step. We decided to go with stamped concrete so that it would have natural cobblestone or slate look, but without the uneven ground that stone usually offers. It's close to the same price as installing a deck, only we won't have to replace it in 10 years or less and we won't have much maintenance.

On Tuesday morning after our first snowfall, the crew poured the concrete and trowelled it smooth as you can see here above. They ran into a brief snag when the snow began running off the roof like rainwater as it melted and splashing back onto the wet concrete. Fortunately, I had some extra plastic they could use to create a barrier.




Then they applied a powder they call a "release agent" which enables them to apply a stamped pattern without pulling the concrete apart. It also colours the crevices of the concrete to give it depth.



Here's one of the stamp pads they used yesterday.




Here's a glimpse of the pattern on the porch floor before they seal it.



A wide angle view of the porch floor before it is sealed or landscaped.



And a view of the front entry before sealing and landscaping. I'm thrilled it's done before Spring! It will make the house feel so much more finished.

This week we'll be applying flashing over the exposed rigid pink insulation that wraps around our foundation. We hope to finish spraying the drywall with plaster.

And, Charles and Phil are back in town, so we're hoping to make a big dent in plaster the straw walls. The countdown in on... Can we move in before the end of November??

5 Comments:

Blogger Christie and Scott Mackison, owners said...

Hi,

Your porch looks great!

Can you explain how that flashing detail works (above the rigid pink insulation). Do you tuck it under the plaster stop at the base of the plaster?? Thanks in advance,

Scott.

11:28 AM  
Blogger Kara said...

Hi Scott,

We screwed the flashing to the 2x4 bottom plate that the straw sits on and caulked each screw and edge. We bent it to have an angle so the rain would run off. Kind of like a lazy "z" shape that has fallen forward, if that makes sense.

5:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cute door.

Your porch also looks quite cozy now. It's easier to envision with rocking chairs and sleeping dogs.

11:49 AM  
Blogger Christie and Scott Mackison, owners said...

Hi Kara,

One more question - in your archived blog entries, it looks like you already stained your floor w/ ferrous sulfate. Did that not work out?

Thanks - we're planning on doing the ferrous sulfate over Thanksgiving. Just curious about what we're getting ourselves into.

Scott.

10:13 PM  
Blogger Kara said...

Hey Scott,


Nah, our ferrous sulfate didn't work at all. We tried to do it before the timber frame went up and got some colour into the fresh concrete slab with three coats, but not the kind of colour we'd hoped. I did some test patches after that and it was still really faint in colour, and I wanted it to be obviously mid-brown. It might have been the type of ferrous sulfate we used - but I have no insight there. We've switched to acid stain since it's tried and true. I've yet to do a test patch though. Will report on that when I do.

Cheers,
k

11:34 AM  

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