Mat foundation pouring operation - photo

[mwmkravchenko]

That's a decent sized pour. I think the biggest I've ever seen was the foundation for a cone crusher for a gold mine. I wasn't actaully on that project though. For projects I was on maybe some of the big equipment bases, like this giant vibratory screen a few years ago. Hard to say. The big solid cubes of concrete are no fun though. It's the pours with all the weird geometry that are interesting. Have you ever done a project with pre-stressed concrete? I haven't, but I find that interesting as well. Even just jelly bean pre-fab core slabs are kinda neat (but I've never done that either - only installed them after they were fabricated and delivered to site).

The last pour I did was a re-pour of my garage floor! Large concrete work is decades ago. I might be doing a 40 x 60 shop building. But that will done pretty much off of trucks with those mini pumps/conveyors on them. I'm getting lazy!

As for pre-stressed. Nope. Like you it interests me. I have an idea for a decent sized vertical CNC milling machine that could use some pre-stressed sections. But that will be a geopolymer concrete not a Portland cement based concrete. Basically Roman concrete with a few chasers like a flow agent and some fiber reinforcing. I'm nowhere near as proficient at concrete work as I once was. But I appreciate what it takes. Few people give it much thought. As you say. The fun ones are the crazy shaped ones. Just the forming can be some serious carpentry skills on some of the stuff you see.