Garage - The Pour, Fist Pump

I am jazzed. I woke this morning to the sound of re-rod banging around in the yard. It really was going to be pour-day! I threw on whatever was laying around (now that I think about it, I'm fortunate it wasn't a night-gown!) and went out to see how they were doing. Last night I had finished putting the manifold on the pex loops.

 Things were starting to take shape. I could picture some heat flowin' around this winter. You can see the manifold here. It is a Watts Flowmaster purchased from our local big box store. I could only find the stainless steel manifolds on the Watts Canada site... ? It seemed rather pricey when I bought it (the hardware shown here cost more than the 600 lin. ft. of tubing), but it worked like a charm, went together easily, and is Stainless Steel. Dad would be proud. Boy did he ever love stainless steel. After I finished plumbing it in I gave the system a test with pressure guage/Schroeder valve assembly. *Note - do not use a hand/foot bicycle pump. There is way too much volume in 600 feet of tubes. I should have gotten out my real air pump but...* I pumped it up to 10psi. I know that isn't very high for a pressure test, but it was getting late and my arms might have fallen off if I had kept pumping. The first thing I did this morning was to check the pressure. It was 11psi! I was surprised at the effect of the early morning sun on the pressurized system. (or did one of you come and pump it up to confuse me?)

I had barely strung out the pre-wired set of temp. sensors before I heard the rumble of the mixer truck. It sure was fun to see someone else working on my project for a change!

The three-man crew had the pour done in no time, but spent the rest of the morning working the concrete to put a nice finish on it. I was impressed by the amount of time they spent carefully troweling around the anchor bolts and floor drain. It was a fine job. I didn't realize they were going to, but before they left they sprayed a waterproof coating on the surface to seal in/out? moisture and slow the cure.
Early this evening it rained the proverbial cats and dogs. The deluge rolled right down the drain where it belonged. I was especially interested to see if there be any low spots where water will collect and was impressed to find almost none! Good job, Doug! As soon as I got home from my job this evening I couldn't resist walking on the slab. Right away I noticed; it was HOT. I know that concrete curing is an exothermic reaction but I didn't expect it to be so warm. I could not resist the allure of the blue cat5e wire from the temperature sensors I had wired up sticking out of the slab. I HAD to plug it in!

I pulled up the little example Java applet that Maxim Semiconductor supplies on their site and plugged in the USB adapter to my notebook. It worked! This is where the fist pump and "woo hoo" comes in. (I'm probably making the neighbors nervous about living next to a guy who goes out just after a big rain, plugs his notebook computer into his new garage slab and then cheers crazily as he stares at the screen.) Remember I said it was hot? Well take a look...

 Yes, that says 115.7 degrees F. This is at 8:26PM, after a hard rain, and with ambient temperatures in the upper 60's. Exothermic reaction indeed! Another interesting observation was that the pressure in the system had risen 25%! to 12.5psi.
That was a fun day.