Now that the rough plumbing has passed inspection, you can begin to start covering up the
plumbing in the basement with gravel. You should not pour the cement directly onto the
dirt basement floor. You should provide a buffer zone between the cement and the dirt so
that if water ever gets underneath the cement, it will not erode the dirt away and cause
the cement to collapse.
Here is the basement after it has been cemented
We used four inches of limestone as our buffer zone. By this time in the building process
the house frame is on top of the basement walls, so getting limestone gravel into the basement
becomes more difficult. Fortunately, some gravel companies have "shooter" trucks that can
unload gravel through narrow openings.
Here is the cement crew finishing the garage floor
We have three basement windows that are four feet wide by two feet tall that were able to
accomodate the shooter trucks. Once the gravel was in a pile in the basement, we were able
to spread the gravel out evenly throughout the entire basement. Unfortunately, we overestimated
how much gravel was needed and we ended up having too much gravel in the basement.
We would have had even more, however if our father had not been there and canceled the rest of the order.
All was not lost though as through a combination of a lawn cart, two long planks, a rope, a
pickup truck and our tractor, we were able to haul up the extra gravel and dump it onto the
driveway.
Don't forget to put some sort of expansion joint material all along the basement walls after you
spread out the gravel, but before you pour the cement. We used some of the left over sheathing
from the outside walls and cut them down to 4" wide. This will help keep the cement from cracking
as the floor and walls raise and settle at different rates.
We also prepared the garage area for cement as well so that the company we hired to cement the
basement could cement the garage at the same time.
After the cement is poured, you need to let it sit before walking or storing items on the floor.
For the garage area you should wait at least a week before driving on it to allow the cement to
become solid. The basement you can generally walk on the next day, although you shouldn't store
anything heavy on it for at least a week.
Here is Brian enjoying the finshed garage floor