I'm thinking that we should ship John over to Okami to oversee the concrete pour. Nothing like having in-house expertise!

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I don't have as many Festools as Fred. Or Marcou's, or Brese's, or Lie-Nielsen's, or Lee Valley's, or Blue Spruce's, or Harold and Saxon's, or...

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Water separates the people of the world; wine unites them.

"If you have good manners and are well spoken, you can be welcome anywhere." -Mom, 1959

Absolutely, and then he can come here to help me finish MY shop.

By the way, I also use to do brain surgery and shoe repair, but only part time, so I'm not very good at either one.

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John

Okami,

We're so, so, so terribly sorry, we only raised enough to buy John a one way ticket; you're stuck with him now.

Ship him over we've got a lot to do, John before winter rolls in!
Then we'll head back to sunny California for the winter

Thanks for all the advice, it really helps!
Since I'm only doing small sections at a time, I might just continue to smooth it with my 400mm float. I maybe dont have the skills to use a large float, and it will always be an improvement on the surface thats there now
John, I think I understand that I shouldn't concrete all the way up to the existing walls, and need to leave a gap for movement? If that's the case, how do I create that gap, do I wedge a form (piece of wood or board) in between the wall and the concrete and pull it out before the concrete fully sets?

This is what I mean by concreting up to an existing wall

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https://www.instagram.com/britcraft

Okamisan, I would use a rolled foam expansion joint (example in link below).

You can glue the foam directly to the wall. Leave a little foam above the slab surface and trim it off after the concrete sets, then caulk the joint to prevent seepage.

Rolled Foam


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John

Thanks for your help, John!
I'll see if I can find some of that, it's going to be useful

Exactly how LONG did you work at that concrete job John?
You seemed to have been at it for years. Retained a lot of knowledge.

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Some t-shirts, a hat, some free pencils,....... way, way, too many tools,...... 1 TOOLIE, (thanks RWeber!)but mostly, a satisfied customer

I worked at it for only about 3 years, just long enough to figure out I didn't want to make it a lifetime career. It is back-breaking work.

That was over 40 years ago. But I've been able to retain some of the skills by doing concrete work for myself and friends over the years.

When you know how to do stuff that people need, you always seem to have lots of friends.

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John