Here's a short video in which you can see them pouring the concrete, which requires at least one giant man to lug that hose around. For the concrete pour novice, you'll also notice a guy tapping the sides of the forms to reduce air pockets and holes, another guy using a stick to lift the metal frame/radiant tubing to place it in the middle of the slab, and yet another guy beginning to "screed" -- using a 2x4 to flatten the surface -- and smooth it out with a trowel.
We designed the house to make use of passive solar gain -- using the warmth of the sun to heat the house -- and the concrete is part of that plan. Not only is it the foundation, but it will also be the actual floor of the house, and the dark color will help to soak up that sun during the day and then release the heat into the house at night. I think in the end it will be worth the extra cost to have the integrated color added, though I have to say it looked much better wet than it does dry. We'll polish it up a bit and let you know what the final verdict is.
In addition to the heat of the sun, we are using in-floor radiant heat. And yes, the pex tubing survived the pour! Did you ever wonder what a radiant heat manifold looks like? No? Me either. But here is ours. It's pretty simple since the space we are heating is so small (840 sf), so it has only three segments. Hot water goes out through one port, flows through the tubing in the floor and warming the concrete, and then the cold water returns back to the manifold to go back to the hot water tank and be warmed again.
Here's a video of the finished slab, which also shows the garage which is standard concrete color, so you can really see the difference. Since I was alone there is no family interpretive dance to christen the slab. Yes, I know how disappointed you are.
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