New England B.S. Thread

No wonder you got divorced, lol.

 

When tailgate is down, there's no clearance to drop a table on a half swing-out. So the slide out objective would be to clear the tailgate?

 

Right, I meant especially because he is buying a bigger house. He's moving to a more expensive town, actually haha (and has a 2nd kid on the way)

 

@DoubleRGirl Need new tires soon?
http://jalopnik.com/finally-you-can-get-hello-kitty-tires-for-your-car-1800680187

 

Did someone say Fluid Film Day? I'll drive to CT for that! Where is it?

 

It would actually be more like 40 weeks if I recall correctly. But it's amazing to correlate births to big events. Just makes me think we need more big events.

Interest peeked, more info please.

 

@Cativelense has a list on the CT thread. He's been kind enough to keep the list for @surfandturf

I believe this will be a low key get together as its at surfandturfs home.

Here's a link to the details: URL="https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/hey-connecticut.309240/page-190#post-15974432"]Hey Connecticut![/URL]

 

Friends!

I have a concrete / construction question for everyone. My house has a pretty standard 2-car garage with a seemingly regular foundation. The only thing that is unique is that I actually have a small pit in the garage with aluminum grates on top of the opening to allow for vehicles to drive on. The depth of the pit is probably 3' or so, so I can't see myself ever using it and when I've checked it out to inspect it, outside of a 5 gallon pail of old motor oil, it seemed empty, without any drains or anything I could find.

The problem I have is that my garage floor concrete has cracked near the pit. There was a piece of rebar or metal in the concrete that rusted out, which must have cracked the concrete and the years of vehicles with road salt had weakened the concrete. There are some cracks in the area, including one running through the center, but none of them appear to be structural (they pass the two nickel / 1/8" width test).

That being said, what's the best way to patch the floor so that when I pull the Vette in, I don't bottom out. I currently have a piece of 1/2" thick particle board over the area since the car doesn't actually sit in the cracks. I haven't done too much reading, but I feel like just dumping Quikrete might not be the best solution. I had been toying with getting a piece of reasonably thick aluminum at some point and lagging it into the floor over the pit anyways, but I want to address this area first. The concrete divot itself seems very strong, but I don't know the best way to patch it without creating a big headache.

Photos are attached.
IMG_1272[3851] by Mike M, on Flickr
IMG_1271[3852] by Mike M, on Flickr

 

I'm in! @Cativelense mind throwing me on that list? a 2hr drive is still worth it!

 

Nice! I finally get to meet the man!

It'll be in Granby CT. Let me know if you guy are in and I'll add you to the list I'm putting together for @surfandturf

 

Thanks, I'll let you know if I can make it happen.

 

Hey, they make sizes to fit the F150!

Ooh, very, very, very tempting. The real question is... can I show up in the Ferd?

I would patch it with concrete but you have to prep it correctly.
1. Take an angle grinder and saw cut down about 2" down just outside the perimeter of the cracked off area (this is assuming the surrounding concrete is sound which, based on your post, it sounds like it is).
2. Chip from the cracked area to the cut mark you made at the perimeter, this will give you a clean edge to place the new concrete against and prevent you from having to 'feather in' concrete at very small thicknesses. Shallow placements of concrete rarely hold up, especially to vehicle traffic.
3. Wire wheel the remaining areas, get rid of that rust and exposed rusty metal. You don't want to leave any flaking metal because it will just continue to rot away and potentially weaken your patch from the inside.
4. I can't tell the thickness of the concrete, but you might want to use a few pins drilled into the old concrete to help bond the new and old. SS masonry anchors can work for this in a pinch. Just drill into the old concrete a few inches, glue in the rod or anchor, leaving a few inches exposed for the new concrete and you're good. It just helps lock the 2 concrete placements together and will help prevent the patch from popping out. Likely overkill, but cheap insurance.
5. Find a bonding agent for concrete. It will brush on and bonds the new concrete to the old. It will help prevent water from working down the crack between the new and old concrete also. If you need recommendations, let me know. Most of the stuff I would use is not readily available in stores. If you have local contractor friends, or know of a local construction supply store, hit them up. Try Home Depot or Lowes as a last resort. They sell bonding agents but they're nothing special. Again, overkill but it's the way I'd perform the patch. If you want to skip this step, you can just dampen the face of the existing concrete and move on to the next step.
6. If you've used a bonding agent, make sure to follow the prep steps for the product you used. If not, make sure you keep the surface of the old concrete damp. If you can leave soaking wet towels on it overnight in advance of the new concrete being added, that would be best. You don't want to just wet the surface of the old concrete, you want it to absorb in a few inches. This stops the old concrete from wicking the moisture out of the new concrete. Mix the concrete, place in the hole, poke it a handful of times with a rod to consolidate and trowel finish. Once it's hardened, you can use the same wet towel to 'wet cure' the concrete if you're feeling fancy. Just place the wet towel over the concrete and keep adding water to keep the new concrete wet, otherwise you're done. Don't get crazy with wet curing, it's just a patch and if you followed all the other steps it will likely out last the rest of your floor anyways.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Damn... I won't be in town for the fluid film day.... I leave the 15th.

Any chance he'll be doing a round 2?

 

Not sure, but I'll find out and let you know.

 

My buddy does it for $50 in his garage if you want it done on a different day

 

Where's he located?

 

Florence/Northampton, MA it's where i wrench on most of the TW trucks I work on

 

Sounds good - I'll hit you up when I'm back in town. I'm on the fence to fluid film... I have a love/hate relationship with fluid film - especially on my suspension.

 

Sounds good man. You have my number

 

Just to add another voice here, that is exactly, perfectly, the correct way to do the patch. (Also, thanks for getting here before me and saving me a whole bunch of typing.)

You can make your own bonding agent - It's Elmer's Glue mixed 50/50 with water. When I worked for a cement and concrete additives company we actually bought it from Bessie the Cow and re-labeled it as our bonding agent. Throw a cup of it into the mix water for the concrete as well - improves surface finish among other things.

On the wet curing - use a towel if you will be diligent about keeping it wet, otherwise use 2 layers of burlap, which won't wick the moisture out of the concrete if it dries. If it does dry out, just wet it again. In addition to improving the strength of the patch, wet curing will keep the concrete from having a dusty surface once it does dry. Keep it wet for a week if possible.

If you are going to use Sakrete (or similar), get one of the products that contains a corrosion inhibitor to prevent future spalling from the rebar. Too tired and brain dead to do a search right now, but it's usually a quick-set or a post-and-pole product, since the same chemical is used as both set accelerator and corrosion inhibitor. Sorry, no home-made version of corrosion inhibitor.

Mix the concrete as stiff as possible while still being able to work it into all the nooks and crannies of the hole. More water = weaker concrete + shrinkage.

Lastly, you might want to caulk the cracks in the floor to prevent any more road salt runoff from getting down to other steel that might be embedded in the floor.