A Solid Footing (1)

For now, the rains have passed. We have gotten quite sloppy working in the mud to finish this (southeast corner)...

 ...and this (southeast side and NE/NW corners). Hard to get a full shot from these angles.

Tarps:

Have several. Even with this large one we had to bail out a couple of these holes. In the foreground of the uppermost photo, that corner was a bit too low (we are looking to have a footer w/ a base of 36-37" and a level top at 24" from grade. Some of this is, like, 41" below grade, so now (argh) we have to shovel some dirt back in. This is erosion. We thought about something like starw bales, but it actually wasn't as bad as we expected it could have been. But it will be a concern that the earth on this end is actually softer than that at the northwest side (background). Not just because of the rain and because the foreground earth is on the downhill side, but also because the earth at the opposite end is really hard. Grey and shaly in spots. If we had it to do over again, we'd have dug out another 2' outside the footer trench, especially on the northeast (upper left, nearest the shed). This would leave more room to work, help us keep the floor at a better level, and leave extra room for the French drain.

We're going to add a drain in the southeast corner; just run 2" PVC across the footer (cut w/ hole saw) at a slight downward angle, and elbow up to a drain that will emerge from the corner of the concrete crawlspace floor. We'll dump the drain into the French drain on that side.

Rebar coming Wednesday. Tip: 20' pieces are cheaper...but how to cut them? I have an angle grinder with a metal cutting blade, but we'll need juice. So either we get our old generator running (carb rebuild + fuel system flush = no dice :( ...or we have to get another generator.

But...144' of footer looking pretty level! Have to finish and stake the 2 "odd" pads seen in the center-left here, but it's coming along.

Progress

After a very wet and very busy spring (our last blog entry was in March!) we have been at it when work schedules allow. Keeping after the "prairie" took a weekend. Most of the trees survived the first winter (our spruce from Christmas looks iffy, and the dogwoods got a bit chewed up). And we've been leveling and hand cutting the foundation details, footer walls, central support piers, that sort of thing. We've made quite a bit of progress, having just a few hours here and there to get after it.

This is how it looks tonight. You can see the beginnings of the forms for the central pads, and the edging of the footer wall. Both are down to frost depth. The forms will be built up starting this weekend. They'll be higher in the upper left, where the grade is lowest, although we're filling some of that in w/ dirt from the trench. The upper right is cleanly cut, running toward the lower right of the photo. The nearest footer can't be seen in the foreground but is also cut to depth. Soon...concrete!