A Solid Footing (2)

So to minimize moisture and maximize "comfort" working in a 36" crawl space it was recommended that we have a solid concrete floor. Here are the stages, including moving 10-1/2 tons of 2b gravel from a pile to the floor of the crawl space..., because the truck couldn't get close enough to dump it inside.

That's our friend Pat and my nephew Rich, hard at work. (They're smiling because we're almost done.) And here, probably the best this thing has looked since we started...

Then onto the vapor barrier. This was a 6 mil thick plastic anchored to the edges and joined at the seams with "Gorilla Tape"...

You can see the access for the well water intake in the foreground.
And finally, the concrete floor. Here we had the driver mix it up very wet, the easier to spread it around. It was at this stage that our amateur status really started to "shine"...

We had been worried that a forecast for early heavy rain would cause problems, and that we'd have to reschedule. But the rain held off. This is still "green" (not fully dried), and you can see the bridges of 2x12s we'd recovered from the forms. These are what we used to get into the middle and hand-finish the surface.

This photo is captioned "Not Great but Good"--the wrinkles and ridges shown here would remain. Eric had rented a tool called a bull float, which is a like a giant magnesium squegee that weighs about 15 lbs. and comes with a pole 15' long mounted to the head with a toothed locking swivel.

Unfortunately, this thing gets really heavy, and can actually stick to and get caught in the wet concrete (if you're not very good at this!)...and Eric broke the swivel. That meant we had to finish the floor by hand. The sun came out and it was HOT! We darn near got heat stroke, and didn't even manage to finish it all. But it's fairly level, and actually sufficiently smooth that it will work. Good thing very few people will ever see it once the house is up.

This is not as easy as it looks

We haven't posted much since mid-June, because we've really been hustling to get to the point where we have a solid deck for the structural insulated panels (SIPs), which we had hoped to have delivered and erected by now.

But this is a big project. Here's the 1st pour:

Honestly, the driver was awesome...look how close he got! He came in at each corner, and the chute managed to reach all the pads in the center, as well as the footer itself. This spared us trying to catch concrete in a wheelbarrow and trundling it over to pads that were farthest from the perimeter. We'd read about "slump" and "psi", but this was real, and the driver was good at guesstimating the "wetness" of the concrete that would allow us to spread it quickly while maintaining strength. 4000 psi was specified for the pads, and 3000 psi for the footer. But we worked out that we could save delivery charges, and get both trucks (12-1/2 cubic yards) with a 3500 psi mix, since we thickened the pads and footers by a couple of inches.

Here one of my nephews, Trevor, helps to move wet concrete in the footer form to level it off.

And here's a finished section along the east side of the house.

Here's the deal: concrete comes out much faster than you expect, and it hardens much faster than you're ready for!

We Passed!

The codes officer came out the next day and approved our forms and reinforcement. On to pouring concrete...

1st Inspection Prep

An update. We spent much of the last 3 days bailing out hundreds of gallons of water from the center pads, while the perimeter trench dries out after a weekend of heavy rains. This is probably the most discouraged I've been, and Julie had to bouy up my spirits as we got absolutely covered in mud, while we removed the plastic sheeting covering the footer trench--we guess it must have kept at least some of the water out, but not much.


We also finished the rebar, fixed up a few small areas, and just generally have tried to make it as pretty as possible for the codes inspector, who's coming tomorrow at 9.

We'll let you know how it goes!

(Originally posted 6/14/11. Occurred after "Rebar Adventure".)

The Rebar Adventure

Julie here this time. So we were ready to put the steel rebar in the trench for the footer to reinforce the concrete, but we had to bend it first. Eric looked up on the Internet how to do it. Here’s his explanation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg7gUl7K0Eg

Then here’s the video of us doing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyrliGrgntw

It was hard work, although fun making the video. We got four pieces bent. After awhile, we started making stupid mistakes because we were so tired. So we made up a new rule:

Rule 1: Always check to make sure you haven’t worked too long and gotten too tired. If you have, you will make bad decisions and/or could hurt yourself.

We decided to go home and finish the other four pieces later. Good thing we did, because after we went home and looked at the book we realized we had bent the rebar in the wrong place. This meant we would have to UN-bend it, and re-bend it correctly. Ack!!

Rule 2: Re-check your instructions before you start.

So unfortunately the next day we were both free to work it was blisteringly hot: 99°. Naturally we didn’t get started until the hottest part of the day. We unbent the four pieces and then bent all of them in the correct spot. Unbending was nearly impossible, so Eric came up with a brilliant idea. (We always come up with the brilliant ideas on the second try.) He bolted a pipe vise to a piece of wood, then drove his car over the piece of wood to hold it down. Way easier than me trying to hold it down by standing on it! It actually went really well, and was much easier using the vise. I could even do it myself:

My sister said "If you can bend steel rebar, I'd better not #*$! with you," which made the whole ordeal worthwhile. The bad part was that it was so unbelievably hot we nearly got heat stroke. We worked for an hour and a half, and then took a break for lunch, which was a good thing, because I was getting sick to my stomach. I mean, we took plenty of ice water in a cooler – some of which I poured down my back periodically, but you have to have food. After lunch we went back and finished. Yay! 16 pieces of rebar bent correctly, and placed in the trenches. Now we can pour the concrete!

P.S. You will notice I am wearing goggles. So was Eric. I read two things somewhere on the Internet: One, that steel rebar is made from low-grade steel, and therefore very brittle. They encouraged us to wear eye protection, so we did. The second thing it said was "Bending rebar is not for the faint of heart." I suppose that's true, but, you know, it really wasn't that difficult.

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!