Burying pipe & smoothing the dirt

Last Wednesday we were right on schedule with what needed to be done in preparation for the slab pour next week. 

First, Ken traced a circle on the block that we would later remove in order to place the 8" PVC pipe

We used an air hammer to chip away at the block

He let me take a shot at it, and it was definitely one of the more fun things I've done so far!

That's what the hole looked like once I was finished. The dirt near the block then had to be shoveled away in order to make room to slide it in there.

Once the pipe was in place, we had to connect the fitting (that 90° piece) using PVC cement. The purple stuff above is used to clean both pieces before gluing together.

The finished product.

Once finished installing the pipe, it was time to smooth all the dirt. We ran a string across the dirt from chair block to chair block in 20ft segments and measured the distance from the dirt to these strings. (The dirt has to be at least 3.5" below the string since the concrete has to be at least this thick). If the dirt was less than 3.5" below, we had to shift dirt around to make it deeper. On the flip side, a distance much larger than 4.5" isn't favorable because that just equals more concrete to be poured (and paid for). 

This is what it looked like once we finished leveling the entire thing

Finishing up the garage (which Ken pays special attention to)

We worked on the lot yesterday (I'll hopefully post that stuff within the next couple days) and knocked out 90% of the stuff we aimed for (we ran out of material at the very end). The other 10% will be completed tomorrow in preparation for an inspection on Tuesday, followed by concrete pouring later this week.