Pouring the foundation slab - Building a Brick House DIY - Episode 4

We're building a house ourselves, and we bring you each stage of construction in this home-building series.
In the last video, I showed you how we prepared the wooden formwork for pouring the foundation slab, prepared the base, and laid composite reinforcement mesh. Also, take note of the sewage system, which we wrapped with miralon before pouring concrete to create a expansion joint between the concrete and the pipe. This protects the pipe from damage during pouring and curing of the concrete, and allows for post-concrete work, such as replacing the vertical end of the pipe if needed.
Today, I'll show you how we poured the concrete slab. According to the project specifications, the foundation slab should be made of C16/20 concrete with a minimum thickness of 150 millimeters. We calculated how much concrete we would need and ordered about 30 cubic meters from the concrete plant.
For pouring the foundation slab, ideally, you'll need 4 or more people. One person handles the hose coming from the concrete mixer and coordinates with the mixer operator, another spreads the concrete with a shovel or rake, a third person levels and smoothes the concrete with a prepared iron rod, and one person continuously measures the concrete height using a rotary laser with a measuring rod.
Approximately two hours later, it was done. But there's no time for vacation, you need to take care of the slab. To prevent it from cracking, it's necessary to prevent too rapid drying. Typically, slabs are regularly watered. If it's hot and sunny, you need to start watering it within a few hours. Just be careful not to create indentations in the concrete with large drops or a strong stream of water. I watered the slab about 5 hours later in the evening, and then I watered it 3 times a day for at least one week. We made the slab in spring, so it wasn't that hot, but if you're doing it in summer, I recommend covering it with a tarp or geotextile fabric as soon as it's walkable, at the latest within 24 hours, and keep watering it. The tarp or fabric prevents rapid evaporation of water, preventing the slab from cracking.
In the next video, we'll look at laying the first row of masonry and building the load-bearing walls.
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