Concrete vibrator?

[shanesmith80]

After talking to a plumber mate, I've been advised best to go with some mortar to hold together. Then probably not necessary to core fill, which will help save a few bucks.

NcArcher is right. Concrete slab with besser block base. Then a suspended slab. Then tiles/ bricks for oven base, then dome oven.

Form work and reo in ready for concrete turning up tomorrow. Hope the wheelbarrow holds up, had to do some last minute maintenance today. Wheel not spinning real well. 🤞

[rwbuild]

Put a couple of chairs under the mesh in the middle so the concrete does't push it to the bottom. There being no plastic under the slab will make it go off very quickly and will cause shrinkage cracks and you will also have a sweaty slab inside when its closed up. Put plastic under the slab before you pour and if you don't get the driver to add a touch more water than normal as well as wetting the ground (not sloppy, just wet to about 30mm penetration) and you will have to definitely vibrate it which will help with making it more waterproof but more importantly will help with reaching the correct design strength when cured. Steel trowel finish.

[Bushmiller]

My memory is that concrete achieves 75% of it's strength in 28 days but continues to increase in strength for a long time after that. The trick is to slow down the curing time of the concrete. This is achieved by wetting down the concrete once the initial troweling has been finished (starting the next morning). Keep it wet and if possible covered too. Just a sheet of plastic or a tarp (for a slab this size) will do. The slower it cures, the greater the ultimate strength. In this manner you will be able to achieve far in excess of the nominal 20MPa you ordered.

Regards
Paul

[rwbuild]

How did your concrete pour go today?

[shanesmith80]

The pour went well. Managed to offload 12 barrow loads in 10 minutes. Thanks rwbuild for the tips. I ended up putting a few more chairs in, after all I've got about 100. I considered putting plastic down, but in the end didn't. not sure how the ad hoc vibrator went, only time will tell. Kept it well hydrated yesterday and is covered up with some black plastic today. Probably leave it like that and in the form till Tuesday/Wednesday next week. I do have a photo but it's on the camera and the computer is busted and takes too long on the iPad. I of course did put our names in it.

Thanks again ain for all the tips. You have all earns a pizza.
Cheers
shane