A couple of years ago we had the idea we should be fixing this problem. So, the usual call contractors, have them come, have them give you estimates, have them not come after you decide on one of them, etc. and a year and a half passes. One of them who never came kept saying they would come, or we would've given up on them earlier. In the fall of 2024 I emailed one of the contractors who we had not chosen earlier (he was more expensive), and asked if he was still interested. He said yes, for an additional 10%. We agreed.
By the time it came to actually schedule this work, it was getting towards winter. There's a little concern about pouring concrete in the cold, but they said it would be okay. (We will see, if this subsides in 10 years, we will be sad. But they say there's some additive that they put in it to make it strong even when poured in the cold.)
Unfortunately, when we were going over the original work, I mentioned that we are extremely lazy about closing our garage doors, and thus water gets in, and I never did mention dancing. So he decided that "to be helpful" he would give us a sidewalk finish rather than a slick finish, so that when water froze we would have better traction getting to our cars. Unfortunately this means we have too much traction for dancing. After it was kind of too late, I asked if he was planning to polish it, he explained about the traction thing and I explained about the dancing thing. If only he had asked. If only I had known that there was an option to have a different finish. Anyway, it's possible he will come in the spring and shave it down to be smoother. Or maybe we will see about getting some kind of temporary flooring that can be easily put down.
I took pictures!
The hole.
First, we had to take all the belongings out of the garage and put them somewhere.
Next they had to demolish the entire existing floor.
They had to get the chunks out after cutting them.
There was a lot of garage floor to remove.
All the concrete is out, and they are cleaning up with shovels, particularly along the edge. Originally the asphalt had slumped and there was a 2 inch lip. They cut away some of the asphalt and made a smooth interface.
After flattening the dirt on the bottom, they filled it in with gravel.
All the gravel filled in and flattened.
The cement truck came the next day!
Pouring the first bit.
After they poured the first inch or so and spread it out, they laid in some rebar mesh.
After pouring the layer over the rebar, they smoothed it with a machine.
All done! Wet cement.
We also had them do a little bit more outside; the area had been subsiding and had become full of dirt as a result of storms. The angle is where there was a large crack which seemed to be a good place to abut.
Done and dried! We could walk on it after 24 hours, and put a car in after a week.