2016 02 16 Foundation Concrete ..

2016 02 16 Foundation Concrete .. 

Today was a beautiful sunny day.  The concrete pump arrived at about 8, but because we were waiting for a county inspector the concrete pouring was put off until 10.  The inspector arrived about 9:45, and a few minutes after 10 they started.  There was a large crew (12 or 13) and it went fast.  By 1:30 almost everything was poured.  11 trucks, 110 yards.  They needed more and had to get two more trucks out, which took until about 2:45.  Almost everyone was gone by 3.   Non-stop, and fast!

They started with the wall between the crawlspace and the utility room at the east end of the house, went around the utility room, and then moved from east to west through the house.  After the concrete first poured had cured for 2-3 hours they could remove some of the cross bracing on the forms and finish the top surface.  At the end you can see the smooth surface and some of that form lumber laying around.

In one of the photos you will see someone in a hardhat operating what looks like a drone controller.  He is moving the business end of the concrete pump around.  He can follow the work closely and make very small moves with the controller. The concrete pump itself was parked in one place for the entire job.  This made things go quickly but it also meant that the trucks could come and go from already disturbed landscape.  

In another photo you will see someone in a long sleeve blue T shirt and hard hat - that is the owner of the concrete company.

2016 02 15 Rebar .. Rebar .. Rebar .. Done ..

2016 02 15 Rebar .. Rebar .. Rebar .. Done .. 

I have been neglecting my writing duties, although I have been taking a lot of photos.  Watching all the steel go into the foundation has been very interesting.  There is a lot of steel, and it is all wired together and positioned by hand.  It all has to be positioned fairly precisely.  

I am going to put photos from a period of about 10 days in this post, ending with the forms and steel completed and ready for concrete.

Some of the photos show long pieces of vertical rebar.  The "finished floor" level of the house will be about 8 inches above that.  So at the west end of the house finished floor is at about grade level, at the east end it is 8-9 feet above.  At the east end of the house there is a utility room that is deeper than the crawlspace.  Water heater, etc. go in there.

At this point everything is done, awaiting concrete .. in a couple of these photos you can see the anchor bolts that will hold the steel that will hold up the house.  Those had to be positioned very precisely with templates, and the bolts are covered with tape.

2016 02 03 Foundation Continues .. Rebar ..

2016 02 03 Foundation Continues .. Rebar .. 

First shot taken after work ended today.  Forms have been covered to keep ground warm.  Cold and snow predicted over the weekend.  

Some wind and cool cloud to the east .. once we are here I am really looking forward to watching the weather.

About a foot of snow fell over the weekend.  It was a wet windy storm.

I did not take any photos on Tuesday Feb 2, but a lot of work was done on the foundation forms.  They were raised to the required height and leveled.

Today (Weds Feb 3) they started to add rebar to the foundation.  The pile of steel in the third photo is about 1/3 of what will go into the foundation.

It was a pretty wet storm.  The site is wet and sloppy..

2016 01 27 Foundation Starts ..

2016 01 27 Foundation Starts .. 

Work on foundation forms begins .. power and utilities buried .. first couple of photos are of the power and other utility conduits being buried.

The foundation is marked precisely.

And work on building the foundation forms starts.