Foundation Walls Finished

Sorry for the long delay - lots has happened!

Once the form walls were up, it didn't take much time for the concrete to come - three trucks in all. it was super fun to watch it all come together. Also, concrete dries REALLY fast.

All in all, this part took about a week and a half. Now we finish plumbing, footing drains and sealing the foundation before back-filling. Then framing!

The pumper truck extended higher than the tree to the right. It was very, very high.

Aaron was out to watch and found the corner stone from the old house to play on.

The very first concrete wall of the new house!

Following close behind was the shake-down man (don't know if that's the real term, but it sounds cool). He made sure all the concrete settled nicely.

Peter, of course, was also on hand to watch all the "concrete mixer" trucks.

Here's the shear wall of the new house. This helps it not fall apart. How, not sure. But I was told it's important.

The back wall was one of the largest walls the crew had poured before. Right after is was in they started inserting the screws you see. Those will help hold the framing. The metal strips will eventually be secured to the house for earthquake safety.

Here's the stone from the old house foundation set in concrete. It'll get cleaned up a little bit once the walls are completely dry.

After a couple days, they came back and started taking down the form walls.

Concrete sets in about 8 hours and is strong enough to support loads in about 2-3 days. BUT, I learned it won't be done curing all the way for about one year!

Project Atlantis looms again. We've got quite the network of pipes planned for under our house.

The front of the house is really starting to take shape.

After the forms were cleaned out, gravel could be spread to level the ground in preparation for plumbing work and the slab.

Here the plumbers start laying out the basic paths for the sewer pipes that will run under the house.

Our sewer main is "higher up" (closer to street level) than normal, which means there's not a lot of elevation change from the house to the sewer. This means the required slope for the sewer lines under the house wasn't quite enough in places. But thanks to savvy plumbers, we got it all worked out.

With the elevation issues fixed, they were able to finish up the lines under the slab and avoid having to add a sump pump. Sumps can fail, gravity usually doesn't. As my friend told me, "Don't forget....stuff flows downhill". Thankfully, we have just enough "downhill" now.

History in the Walls

Now that the footings are done, the crew set about building the foundation walls.

Lots of cutting and aligning have been happening over the past few days to create the walls of the basement. It's incredible how much concrete will actually go into this - another two trucks they estimate.

In about 5 days they'll start pouring the concrete into the walls, and that's when the fun starts: enter the pumper truck!

We had a fun request for the concrete guys that they were more than happy to oblige: we asked them to encase one of the old granite stones from the old foundation into the new. It'll be a great homage to the old place, and a cool story to tell whenever anyone comes in the garage.

The outer form of the house is really taking shape. You can see how tall the back wall has to.

This is the east wall, and it's big. about 9' tall in all. It's all that stands between us watching TV and all the soil in the back yard.

The top left of the house is the entrance to the garage.

You can see along the left side how much space there is from the wall to the ultra blocks. Eventually, the ultra blocks will be removed and this space will all have to be back-filled.

We recently learned that the crews have nicknamed our project "Atlantis" - apparently the water rises pretty quick here.

Here's the inside of a concrete wall form, with all the rebar and snap ties. Fun!

Along the right side of this wall will be a path that leads to the entrance of the MIL unit.

In the center there is a granite stone from the old house foundation. The crews were nice enough to suspend it in there for us so it can be a part of the new wall. When the pour is done, you'll be able to see the stone from inside the garage.

Foundation Footings Finished

With the footings done, we'll be able to dive into pouring the foundation walls this week.

With all the rain, the sump pumps are still working to keep the site dry. And given how much water is building up - and how quickly - the contractor wants to go the extra mile in sealing the foundation a couple different ways. Agreed!

The crew worked hard (in the rain) to get the footings poured. I've been asked how they can do that in the rain: since concrete is quite a bit heavier than water, it just pushed the water out of the way as it got poured. And apparently concrete can harden in cold, rainy conditions. Physics is so cool.
 

Peter was on hand as Assistant to the Regional Site Manager. If it has trucks, Peter likes it.

 

Concrete pumps are great! The dark black pipe is bringing in our liquid foundation. In all, two loads of concrete were needed for the footings.

The crew started in the NE corner of the house and worked their way toward the garage.

Almost done! You can really see how wide the footings are.

Done! The vertical rebar for the walls is all you can see now.

Warning: take extreme caution when standing on a ledge overlooking vertical rebar.

The rear footing, I'm told, is very big. This was required, in an abundance of caution, by the engineer since the rear wall is going to retain so much soil. If there's an earthquake, everyone's invited to our place to hide in the back room by this wall. It's not going anywhere - ever.

The left side of this photo is the side of the house with the MIL. The right side is our space, with the family room, laundry and bonus space. The concrete near the buckets is the base of the stairwell. The buckets are where the laundry room will be - and laundry chute!

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!