End Week 5: Finishing the Basement

Day 31

The last of the concrete form walls have been removed today. The basement is shaping up!

A quick view inside the safe room before topping it off with a concrete ceiling. 

The rebar is in place and ready for the ceiling to be poured. 

By the end of the day the ceiling had been poured.  That should keep the tornadoes out, though I am not sure about it being missile proof according to FEMA standards. Either way, I think we'll be ok.

 

After laying down a layer of plastic for waterproofing the remainder of the gravel was spread in preparation for pouring the floor.  Note the red line outlined at the bottom of the walls...that is where the concrete will be poured up to. 

Servall treated the basement for "pests" before the end of the day.  Protocol I guess. 

Day 32

The next morning the sun was barely up, we rolled out of bed and looked out the window to find this...

About 6-8 men and clean up fire and a concrete truck.  Not something we tend to find on our quiet little spot on the hill. The concrete was flowing and men were frantically working to finally wrap up this basement gig. 

 Again, rebar as a matrix for strength.  The long pipe pumps the concrete in and fills to the desired depth. 

When I came home for a peak at lunch they were smoothing the concrete with what looked like a mix between a fan and a buffer.

Thanks to White Construction out of Paducah, KY for what hopes to be an awesome basement.  It was refreshing to see such hard workers that took pride in the quality of work that they produced. 

DAY 33

 As promised the next day we got to go play in "the hole"!

 

From inside the safe room.  Our first real room in our house! So exciting!

After seeing how awesome our concrete hole was we considered living here for a while and making a "roof-top deck" out of the ceiling of the safe room.  Just a thought...

View of the finished product: the retaining wall and view through the basement doors and into the safe room door.