Almost Ready for Foundation

Excavation has been slow-going over the past week with all the rain. But we're making progress.

A few extra ultra-blocks were needed for the retaining wall, and some more gravel and filtration work was needed to keep the mud down. Thankfully, the excavation near trees and fences has gone really well, with nothing moving or breaking.

Soon, the footing trenches will get dug, and then the footing walls can be built. And THAT will be the first real piece of the new house.

The crew eventually made it to the SE corner and started the turn along the south property line. The yellow device in the lower right is the laser emitter. It shoots lasers.......LASERS!

Naturally, we wanted to protect those tall green trees you see in this photo. They're being held back by stakes and straps to help them not fall into the pit. Thankfully, none moved at all, and only a couple roots had to be cut.

When no one was looking I jumped down into the pit. Sorry, even at 36 it's still fun to play in a big dirt hole.

And here is the clay bottom. This trench was slow going because the clay layers are so hard. In the video below you can see just how hard the excavator has to work to remove the clay. Good news: our house isn't going anywhere in an earthquake.

 

The man in orange is named Romulus (seriously). He's one of the engineers. And if there's one thing we learned from StarTrek is that the Romulans are really good engineers. And now one is helping to build our house.

With the rain coming, and a clay floor, the crew had to be sure to cover the dirt mound and pump water out in the rain storm.

Speaking of rain, here's an example of how clay infiltrates. Answer: not at all.

As you can see, most of the area of the house has been excavated. Next up: footing trenches!

Back to Work!

With Christmas break over, the crew was back at it, digging the rest of the retaining wall areas and placing ultra blocks. With all the rain (and snow!), the dirt was now thick mud. I thought it was awesome, but the workers weren't as happy about it as I was.

Today, they were able to get a few feet further on the north property line, and will start digging on the south line here soon. Once that portion is done, the foundation folks can come in and create the forms. That's probably a week out.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas!

NE corner of the house. With a nice solid layer of clay, the water really starts to build up.

Updated panoramic of the whole job site. Things are getting pretty muddy!

The block wall along the north property line gets really close to the neighbors fence. In fact, it's just a few inches from the fence. The guys have done a great job NOT breaking the fence (built by the neighbors father almost 100 years ago).

Here's a better shot. You can see just how close they have to get to the fence.

The area within which the foundation will be poured is really starting to take shape. The wall you see on the right will essentially be replicated on the left, as work progresses.

Back-fill time! As the sections of wall are completed, the space behind the blocks gets filled with gravel and packed.

The first work day of 2018 has ended! Tomorrow should start the final stages of the block wall work.

Ultra Block Walls

With excavation underway, it was time to position the concrete blocks that will shore the soil along the property lines. These ultra-blocks (such a cool name) weigh 2,200lbs each.

About half of them will be left in the ground after the foundation is poured and back-filled. Why? Cheaper than removing them. One truck can only carry about 4-5 at a time and we need about 50.

Staging the ultra blocks while they dig out the back wall. And correct, they're basically just large legos.

The blocks here represent the NE corner of the house. Many roots died to make this wall.

It was pretty incredible to watch them dig this part. The soil becomes very hard clay that far down. That's great for our foundation, but tough to dig in, even for the equipment. It was slow going.

The workers were using lasers and receivers (is that the right word?) continuously to tell the operator how far down to dig. They'd walk over with a little pole which would beep whenever they raised it to the level of the laser being shot across the property. Lasers are pretty cool.

The white pipe you see in the lower right leads to the 30' long buried infiltration trench we now have in our back yard. Don't get me started.

The ultra blocks will line most of the north property line, all of the east wall, and most of the southern property line.

I'm sorry, but it's starting to look like a medieval fortress wall. Awesome.

Gotta have that crushed rock underneath the ultra-blocks! And anyone who has played with legos knows this strategy for building walls. #masterbuilder

End of the day now. Time to go home and get ready for Christmas. Work will start again January 2nd. Merry Christmas!

Demo Wrap Up

After demoing the house in 2.5 hrs (wow), Dave spent the next couple of days on clean up.

We removed the remaining debris and trash, cleaned out the last of the concrete from the basement floor, as well as the stones used for the foundation. We even found the old oil tank buried in the back.

Dave spent the last couple days of demo cleaning out the remaining stone and concrete. Here you can see the back footing and wall of the 1980s extension to the house. This was the wall under the kitchen floor. That pile of glass was the back sliding door.

Throughout the demo, the garage bay served as a convenient collection spot to position debris for loading into the trucks.

Uncle Dennis sure knew how to build a wall. Dave spent a good 5 minutes trying to pull these two pieces apart. Rebar is strong!

Here's a panorama of the site about half way done clearing the stone and concrete.

Look at this big rock! Dave found the oil tank in the SE corner. Luckily, it was empty.

Dave was also a champ salvager. He pulled bricks for a future-Michele project, the fir beams and stones for the future wall.

The rocks in the background were from the original front wall of the house, and carried back there by myself, Casey, Tim and Michael over a few days of back-breaking work. Thank you gents! The rocks in the foreground were from the foundation, and placed there by Dave in about 2 seconds.

Finished, Dave rides off into the sunset, like a grizzled hero from an old Western. See ya round, Dave. Ya done good.

A lot of nice clean dirt stands ready for excavation work. TBD 12/18/17!