Building a Shop - 106 Inspections and Concrete

Has it really only been a week? Between the daily news feeds, routines, managing brush and this construction project, days really just zip by. Today (24-June-2025), we got the concrete poured, but we had some inspection adventures along the way.

  

Inspection One

I brushed on the finishing of the rebar in my last post. The guys completed the work on Monday, June 16. In between were a few partial days around other projects to get the rebar set up and to dig out the trench and set in the PVC pipe for the lift controls. Feeling we were ready, I scheduled an inspection for Wednesday, June 18. Since this was the day before a US holiday (Juneteenth), my scheduled inspection was met with multiple other projects trying to get their inspections done before the weekend AND multiple inspectors deciding to call off, extending their respective weekends by another day. The result? The inspector was pissed before he got there, which is never a good set up for an easy inspection. We did not pass for 4 reasons:

1. rebar lying directly on the compacted gravel, not physically suspended 2" above
2. overlaps of rebar were not a minimum of 20"
3. rebar in footings supported by rebar driven directly into the ground 
4. type of PVC used (white, not grey) for the controls is not rated as electrical conduit

The rebar lying on the compacted gravel, while a fair observation, may not have been entirely fair. I have learned that it is a fairly common practice to lift the rebar as the concrete is poured. I am sure the inspector was right to point it out, remaining within the letter of the regulations. Ultimately, I want / need a floor that will not fail, so now that I've bashed him for not being fair, I'm good with it. I mean, even if the concrete pour-er does lift the rebar as they go, how do they decide how high and keep it relatively consistent? And then, when the concrete is super wet, what is to stop it from floating back down to the bottom anyway? So.. physically suspended makes sense.

Once the inspector explained that the overlap is what creates the strength at the transitions, I understood the 20" minimum overlap. This is especially important in the footings which will be supporting the weight of the building. Then, there's the rebar driven straight into the ground. The inspector felt that this would encourage premature rusting of the rebar as water would be in direct contact with the rebar beneath the concrete and rust would then leach up into the rebar within the concrete, eroding it's strength.

 

The last item about the PVC was 100% my fault. I watched numerous videos by homeowners installing their own lift in their existing garage floor and they used basic white PVC. The PVC is intended to house the hydraulic hoses for the lift plus the low voltage emergency shut off. Because the shotoff is electric, the PVC has to be rated for electrical conduit, which the white PVC is not. So, Wednesday night, I ran off to HomeDepot and got about 7 meters (20 feet) of 2" grey PVC conduit and a corresponding grey 90* bend.

 

Solving For Inspection One

wrong copper wire on left

On the afternoon of Juneteenth, Vai and his crew arrived, dressed for a barbecue, carrying bags of little concrete blocks. While a couple of his guys dug out the white pvc (under and around the rebar) and installed the grey, the other guys were removing the vertical supports and suspending the rebar on top of the little concrete blocks. In less than an hour, they had resolved all of the things that the inspector identified and then left for their family barbecue.

 

One last item that the inspector wrote down, but did not fail me for, was a suggestion to install an "Ufer". The inspector recognized that since I had something that required an electrical conduit, at some point I would need a good electrical ground. While an Ufer is becoming more common, most electrical installations are grounded with two 2 meters long grounding bars driven into the ground 10 feet or more from each other. An Ufer uses the rebar in the foundation as a ground and is an accepted grounding practice, provided the Ufer is tied into the foundation rebar at at least 3 points and the segment tied to the foundation rebar is at least 12 inches long. When I was getting the grey PVC, I got a 2 meter section of thick copper grounding wire for this purpose. I later discovered this was the wrong material.

 

Inspection Two

west footing cleared

I scheduled a follow-up inspection for Friday, June 20th and we had the same inspector we entertained on Wednesday. He knew exactly what he was looking for, so he went straight to the trouble spots. Rebar suspended above the gravel? Check. Overlaps at least 20 inches? Check. No rebar driven into the ground? Check. Grey PVC? Check. Ufer? Not quite. The inspector indicated that the Ufer needs to be rebar and that the grounding wire from the panel to the Ufer is the material that I was using. Doh! Kindly, he indicated that if I did the replacement with rebar and sent him a picture, we would get the approval for the grounding Ufer. He also pointed out that we had too much dirt in the bottom of the western footing. Again, he said if I fixed it and sent a picture of it cleared, we would get approved.

 

I found a section of rebar in the construction rubbish that had a 90* bend in it, was 14 inches long to one side of the bend and about 4 inches on the other. Basically, it was perfect for this purpose, so I tied it into the foundation rebar at 4 points, pointing the short end straight up, about 18" south of the northeast corner of the foundation. So no one tripped over it, I spray-painted it orange. Last, with a hand-held digger and a plastic cup, I cleared the western footing of debris. I sent pictures of these things (along the right side, here), and we got approved.

Concrete Pour

orange Ufer

With the approval in hand, we looked at calendars and weather projections. We wanted to pour on Friday, but we had a strong feeling (that was warranted) that we were going to get hit by rain. It rained on and off all day and the here and there all weekend, so we were right to delay.. to Tuesday, June 24th. The concrete pump arrived at 8, Vai's crew appeared shortly thereafter and the concrete truck arrived around 930. Vai's crew wanted to confirm the placement of the lift forms and they firmed them up with some cross-bracing against the exterior forms so they would not move during the pour. Then, they solved for what I had been referring to as "the wings" on the lift forms. In the drawing, there are 2" wide by 4-1/2" deep by 9" long channels that jut out from the front and rear of the main lift recess. These are for the supports for the ends of the lift when it is all the way down. Frankly, they look like tripping or tool-losing hazards for when the lift is up, so I may create some fills for when the lift is up. To create the 8 recesses, we combined a 2x6 (actual size 1-1/2 by 5-1/2) to an old fence board (3/4 by 5-1/2), cut into 9" sections and then rough-screwed onto the forms. While the wood bits are slightly wider and deeper than required, I felt that was a better situation for the arms to descend into than slots which were either too narrow or too short. If it becomes a thing, I will solve for it then.

 

gettin after it

Once the forms were ready, they started pumping concrete and in about an hour the footings, and floor were poured. I went out to pay the concrete truck and Vai's guys were finishing the last of the floor with barrows of concrete. Somewhere along the way, one of his guys rotated the Ufer into the concrete, so we fished that out. While it's no longer orange.. it's more concrete color.. I am glad I asked about it. This serves as a reminder to check everything as you go. While they are the experts, you ultimately own it. Government inspection is to make sure no one gets hurt and it's structurally sound. Any small error that doesn't get into inspection territory is yours to verify. Anyway, Vai's crew stayed for a few hours floating it smooth and monitoring the concrete. The result at the end of pour-day is pictured at the top. Now, we wait for it to cure and then we can move forward with the steel building on top of it.

 

Wrap Up 

That's it for today. I don't have any car content as I honestly have not had any time to play on the cars this past week. Around managing the concrete work, Boo and I have been clearing brush around the tool sheds and weeds along the eastern and southern sides of the new shop space. I am still waiting for the new flywheel and clutch/pressure plate from Kennedy. I hope to have them in time for Independence Day weekend so I can do the engine-trans R&R over those 3 days.

 

As always, thanks for following along-