All Concrete

Check out her majesty... Click through the pictures to see how I got to here.

The template

I first made a wooden cutout to show how and where the thing was going to be. I also drew its footprint on the ground. No surprises.

The ass

Building the inner form for the ass of the unit. This was complex because it had to accomplish many different things, it had a planter built into it, which needed space for soil, as well as drainage, it was where all of the electricity would be coming in to the unit, and it was the main tension support for the rest of the unit, most of which would be overhung.

The ass exposed

Here I am pulling the ass piece out trying to figure out how to make the negative cuts that would eventually be pushing against concrete in a positive space. Not easy on m'brain.

The ass. Ready.

The ass all figured out and ready. I needed to put four screws to hold the planter portion in place because it was surrounded on all sides by concrete.

The rest of the inner form

The rest of the inner form was simple in comparison to the ass.

Inner form

Not a sandcrawler model.

The cutouts and electrical

Installing the cutouts on the inner form so the outer form can squeeze up against it.

The outer form

Installing the outer form.

Other side

The other side of the outer form. That giant piece of wood sticking up that makes it look like a big animal or something was a concrete splash guard for when we start dumping concrete in.

Rebar!

All of the rebar inside the form.

Ready!

we're all ready for concrete now. Those sanders are there to vibrate the concrete forms to get rid of air bubbles and to help the concrete settle down into the bottom of the forms.

Starting

The concrete begins to flow. Notice all of those bags of concrete on the left there?

Guiding

Guiding and tamping the concrete into the small little spaces of the form.

All poured!

The base portion is all poured in one solid block of very custom concrete. Now she just has to dry.

Voila!

The forms come off. Looking pretty good.

Low angle

Looks like a sandcrawler from this angle.

Cozy in there

Testing

We put the B-B-Q in there just to make sure the hole I left for it was the correct size.

Top form

The top form is installed.

Pour concrete here

Gotta have a sense of humor when doing awesome things.

Of course

That's how I do it.

Arial view

I left the bottom form to poke up into the top form so the two pieces of concrete would bond with one another. Sure the rebar is going to do that, but this way hides the tops of the bottom. There's one slightly raised section on the right where the refrigerator will go.

A little patch form

This very bottom part of the form didn't get completely filled. So we make an extra little form and we'll fix it when we pour the top.

Rebar!

Gotta make it strong enough to stand on. And that overhang is large.

Rebar!

It's almost not possible to have too much rebar.

Pouring the top

That's my brother pouring concrete, my sister vibrating underneath with an orbital sander and I'm taking a little break from smoothing the top off.

Tamping down and imperfections.

Wood trowel for the rough finishing. This is to get all the aggregate down, and the water to the top.

Topped!

Got the top all smoothed out and level and looking good.

Forms all off!

Thar she blows!

Done.

All that's left is some minor patching and sealing the top.

Yep

Some patching and sanding.

Testing

Gotta make sure that overhang is strong enough to hold up a small child.

That is a counter

B-B-Q in

Flush

A close up detail of how exact my measurements were to get the B-B-Q to sit flush with the countertop.

Peek-a-boo

Underhang garden cut out

And then a few finishing touches, like the little garden under the overhang.

Using it that first night

The night we got everything finished (we had just installed those cooking spot lights up above there), we made burgers. You'll notice a bunch of tools still out on the counter with the cooking utensils.

Done

Beautiful, no?

Side view

What a majestic beast she is.

Little planter

That is a pomegranate tree. In the custom built planter.

Even at night...

Her beauty cannot be denied.