Several days past and we finally removed the wood forms from around the foundation. I was anxious to see the back wall. The middle of the wall near the corner bumped out to about 18 inches wide. The wall was wavy, and it looked like a piece of art, but that was not my intent. Maybe I could improve the appearance later. (I never did; we sold the house and the buyers did not notice.) The rest of the foundation looked okay. There were minor puck marks and stones exposed, but most would be covered when we regraded around the garage.
On to the floor. We needed to fill in the inside of the back of the garage foundation. I do not remember how much gravel I ordered, but my back still remembers that it was a lot. We had the gravel delivered and dumped into the inside of the foundation. That was still not close enough as we filled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow to fill up the hole. Once we leveled it off and made sure the gravel was eight inches from the top of the walls. We laid down the steel wire mesh. We were ready for laying the concrete floor.
Rehtorbym, my Dad and I would take on this part of the project. I believe my Dad had some knowledge of laying concrete, so he was our expert and supervisor. I had some concrete tools from my grandfather that we could use, and I rented a bull float. For those non-DIYers, a bull float is a large magnesium piece of flat metal and is attached to a long pole to smooth out the concrete. My Dad suggested we get a long piece of wood to level off the concrete as it was being poured. At the time we were confident that this concrete job would go far better than the foundation wall. We were way over our heads…
We mistakably picked to pour concrete on another hot day. With tools in hand, we waited for the cement truck with about 5 cubic yards of cement. It backed into the driveway and rolled over where the ruts were made from the other truck. It stopped just before the back wheels barely touched the front wall. The chute was extended, but again it could not reach the back of the garage. Standing by the chute, my Dad aimed the flowing cement so we could start spreading it. After we shoveled a large amount of cement to the back of the garage, Rehtorbym and I tried to level off the cement with the long piece of wood. The board just flexed, and we could not move the cement to level it off. We shoveled some the excess cement away and tried again. While we were making some progress, we were not successful leveling the cement. We needed to move as the cement was setting up fast in this hot weather.
Not learning any lessons from the last cement pour, I was only wearing tennis shoes and I was ankle deep in cement. Sloshing around in the cement, Rehtorbym and I tried to keep up. We would shovel cement in the low spots and shovel cement from high areas. We would try leveling off the floor as we moved closer to the front of the garage. My Dad tried troweling from the edge of the walls, but the middle of the floor was untouched. I believed that once we got the whole floor laid, we could smooth it out with the bull float.
Before the cement truck driver left, he saw us struggling with the bull float. He took the opportunity to give us a quick lesson. We appreciated the assistance, but the cement was setting up in the sun and was becoming difficult to smooth off. While Rehtorbym was working the bull float, I was kneeling on the wall of the foundation trying to trowel the cement around the edges. As the sun settled behind the trees giving us (and the cement) a break from the sun, we finished the floor. There were ridges all over the surface. While satisfied we were done, I was extremely disappointed in the end product.
I would rent a floor grinder after we finished the garage to flatten out the ridges. It helped smooth the surface, but it exposed the aggregate (stones) in some areas. I planned on painting the floor later, but never did.