Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Impressive house slab!



Here are some pictures of the beginning stages of this house. It has a pool next to the golf course, which we will have to work around, both the dimensions and the elevation. The footers are 2' wide, 1' thick, with (3) #5 rebars. There are many 45 degree turns, which means many string lines to find these corners. So many it looks we are weaving a blanket! We have layed it out in one day, and dug the footers (approx. 400') in one day also! We will be putting the rebar and uprights in it tomorrow!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

We will be starting a new home next week. This is a very nice house- with a total of 4000 S.F. plus! We will be posting pictures of the house throughout the process, so our viewers can take a look at the quality and methods used. This is just one of the many projects we have going right now, but this is a nice one that we would like everyone to see!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

TIA Pictures














Some pictures of the TIA job.....

TIA Pictures


Reply to "Ask the Builder" question

I am a concrete contractor in Tampa FL.  I  operate commercially as Velocity Construction. Before having these businesses I worked commercially for 23 years on high-rise and super flat concrete construction. I give these qualifications, to lend weight to my comments. In the article you refer to a rebar mat and 4500 PSI concrete. I feel this is an unecessary expense for the homeowner, and have been pouring 3000PSI concrete with fiber for years on my own with no cracking. I think that this whole cracking issue is in fact a misnomer, as concrete has to crack being a rock like substance, and joints therefore should be referred to by there true name which is control joints. By "controlling" the cracking by joint placement, the ugly joints resultant from uncontrolled cracking is replaced by straight attractive joints. This cracking issue is addressed in Concrete Construction Magazine in the July issue and in fact they have a competition for joint placement. Proper ground preperation and the proper "slump" meaning stiff but workable concrete I feel are a more important discussion than the use of expensive materials. A rebar mat is completely unecessary- are you going to land your helicopter on it? 5 inches of concrete is also unecessary- 4 inches is what all residential plans call for! Again 4500 PSI concrete is an unecessary expense. You have to realize that the average homeowner is looking for an affordable solution- not building the pyramids! What if they decide down the road that they want to change their back yard. Do you realize how incredibly difficult it would be to demo concrete with a rebar mat? That is something typically used in bridge construction


. Of course your recommendations will result in a stronger slab, but the resultant hundreds if not thousands of extra dollars of labor and material will not justify the extra strength. Over-building nearly always results in problems down the road.

TIA!

We are performing a new job for Kimmins Contracting at Tampa International Airport! It is a pump enclosure with split-face block and structural concrete. It is interesting, as it has 13" of concrete with a double mat of rebar. It has 8' walls, and is a good example of the kind of work we are capable of. Our relationship with Kimmins is excellent, and we hope to do more in the future! Kudos to the project manager, Dario Munoz!