Stingers and Concrete
Heather's Tool Tip of the Day #2: A Stinger is a tool used to vibrate the concrete after it is poured to help remove any air that might be trapped in the mix. According to architectureweek.com,trapped air will form bubbles that create small holes and pits in the surface of the concrete as it sets up. Plunging the stinger into wet concrete vibrates the concrete and releases the trapped air. Also sometimes referred to as a "stick vibrator", a stinger looks like a large metal rod attached to a hose that is in turn attached to a motor. When it is turned on it vibrates and hums. "Stingers" come in a variety of sizes and configurations. Some are round and some are square. The dude that was "stinging" our concrete was using a round one.
Now - if you're using a stinger in the pour of a concrete countertop (ie, a much shallower container), architectureweek.com suggests that you "run it along the surface of the wet concrete, taking care not to let it dip into the concrete..." According to them, "this technique is very effective. It's also very messy".
If, after reading all of that, you need to take a break now to go have a cold shower I completely understand. Do what you gotta do. (In about a week I'm gonna see people arriving at our site via some really interesting search strings thanks to this post).
So... now that you're back, as I'm sure you've deduced by now, our footings did in fact get poured today! Here are a few pictures to give you a sense of what was going on.
Oh - before we get to the photos, let me share a couple of additional factoids I picked up from George:
1) there's about a ton of rebar in our footings right now, and I believe George said that they poured about 20 yards of concrete into our footing forms all told.
2) they are using a special concrete mix containing fly ash (I think between 15 and 25%) as specified by Rob, our architect. This mix is also apparently referred to fondly in the industry as "eco-mud" :-) According to the Northwest Ecobuilding Guild web site, fly ash increases the strength and workability of the concrete, and substitutes energy intensive cement with a waste product. Yet another green element to our cool house :-)
In that last photo you can see the dude in the background "stinging" the concrete as it is being poured.
And here's a little video (yeah - I know it's sideways but my version of breezebrowser doesn't rotate AVI files... and I forgot that when I shot the video. Still, it's kinda fun. :-))
There are even more pictures from today in our House Building Photo Album.
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