It's beginning to look like a house! ... everywhere you go...

Lot's has happened since the last post.

On Tuesday, the 23rd, the floor deck was installed. Here are some pictures of what that looked like. On Wednesday, the crew didn't come to work because it was too cold. They did try to deliver a truckload of material, but they got stuck in the snow and asked if we could please clean our driveway. Our snowblower was still stuck behind the house and Shawn tried for several hours to get it out, but the motor would not turn. He charged the battery overnight and tried again on Christmas morning, still to no avail. We left to spend time with family.

On Friday, Shawn and Pam came back to the house to get the lawnmower out so he could clean the driveway before Monday's work. The Flatwork contractor's crew showed up and they found that the wall was full of ice. So they did a bit of work, but there wasn't much they could do. Shawn and Pam tried to get as much of the melted ice out and covered the stoop with plastic.

My dad arrived on Sunday from Texas after visiting my Uncle, and we gave him a tour of the house. You can see him shivering here as he inspects the bane of our construction existence.

On Monday, both the flatwork and the framing crew showed up to work. The flatwork guys got the stoop all framed up and ready for pour, but the wall still had ice. So Shawn and I rushed home to see if we could get the ice out. It was neat to see the framing crew working, and they had a few walls up. It's starting to look like a house, finally.
After staring at the workers for a while, we finally got around to the stoop. We took off the cover and found that the rebar had been tied completely wrong. So Shawn and I had to snip all of the tie-wires and re-arrange the rebar again, but it was taking too long, so we decided to work on the ice while it was still nice out. Shawn hooked up the hose to the hot water tap and we pumped the wall with hot water, then sucked it out with the wet-vac.

We also were able to get a hold of an electrician who came out to get an outlet hooked up to the new power line. Our framer is now happy that he does not have to go change a fuse everytime he tries to use his equipment.

I left to go pick up Evan from daycare, then took him to Brian and Cari who graciously agreed to baby sit at the last minute.

When I came home, Shawn had melted and sucked most of the ice out, but by now it was dark and little bits of water refroze again, but we thought it wasn't enought to bother with it.
So we worked on applying some waterproofing material to the wood that is going to be in contact with concrete. After that, we finished tying the rebar into the correct pattern. We placed an electric oil heater under the stoop to get heat in there to help keep the concrete above freezing once it is poured. We closed the opening with 4 inches of foam so the heat couldn't escape. We went to pick up Evan around 10:30 pm.

On our way back home we bought a heavier duty extension cord so that the heater could work properly. Then Shawn tried chipping the leftover ice in the wall with a pry-bar, and then sucked out the ice chunks with the vacuum. So we finally crawled into bed around midnight. I think we did as best as we could, and we hoped that the flatwork guy could pour today, but his crew didn't show up. We left him a message just to get an update. He called back to tell us that the reason he hasn't been around is because his new baby daughter has a problem with her heart. Today she was having open heart surgery. He expects to be back on Monday, and maybe he can pour next week. We just hope his daughter is ok, and I guess we'll wait until he can get back to work.

The framer was back out today, and I expect that the walls will be framed up. Maybe they will be working on the interior walls in the basement. We'll see. I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow.

Here's a composite picture of the inside of the basement with framing as of yesterday. (Click on it to make it larger, then hit the back button to return here)

You can see all the way to the bedroom on the left (the white pipe is for the bathroom plumbling) On the right, you can see the two walls that will host the stairwell. You can also notice the nice layer of ice on the floor. I think we will somehow have to melt that so that the framer can work in the basement. We bought some Kerosene yesterday so that the framer could use his heater. Maybe he can get it warm enough to melt ice? We'll see.

Pictures! and Progress on the framing!

Here are some overdue pictures from a while back:

This picture is the view from the walkout wall towards the back after Shawn did the rough grading of the walkout area with the skid loader back on Thanksgiving.



These are other pictures of the backfill that Shawn finished right before Thanksgiving.
This one is looking east and we can see the northwest side of the garage.









This one is looking south east and you can see the west side of the house.











Now we can fastforward to Dec 17th: By the end of the day, the framer had all of the sill plate installed (except the garage and stoop area) and the beam and bottom plates of the load bearing walls.

Here Evan and I are going to check out the truck full of I-joists for the floor. The Framer got almost half of the floor joists up before the ice and snowtorm hit that night. Here are some pictures of the joists and the beams that are supporting the joists at midspan.














You can see the nice pile of snow that Shawn and I scooped out on Monday the 15th all piled by the doorway.
On Thursday when the framer started working, he blew a fuse at the old house when he tried to run the compressor for his nailers. He had a generator with him, but we needed to figure out something else or he would have to start charging us the generator use. We figured that an electric heater that we use to keep some waterpipes from freezing was plugged into the same circuit. We put the heater on a different circuit, now we have to see if that fixes the problem.
We also contacted an electrician to see if we can get a temporary outlet set up on the new power pole that we had the electric company install for the new house.

On Friday, a nice big 'ol snowtorm came through and we ended up with 6 to 8" of snow. So of course, this past weekend we had to scoop out the snow from the basement so that the framers could get back to work today. Here's Shawn buried in snow in the basement.
It was a balmy 2º on Saturday. Perfect for snow shoveling. But we pretty much had no choice but to work on Saturday since the weather was -25º on Sunday.

To help get rid of the snow since we couldn't pile it up in front of the door anymore, Shawn drove the lawn mower with the snow blower into the basement. We would scoop the snow towards the door and pile it up, then the we would run the snowblower to blow the snow out.

Here's another picture of the basement with 8" os snow.

I helped Shawn get about half of the basement scooped out while Evan napped. Then he did the rest. To finish the day, the lawn mower got stuck on its way out and since it was so cold on Sunday, we decided not to try and go out there. Maybe tonight we can use the truck to pull the lawn tractor out, if we can get the lawn tractor to start.

Shawn spoke with the framer today, and they were putting the subflooring in, and he estimated that the deck will be all done tomorrow. I have to call the flatwork guy to let him know and see when he could get out there so we can pour some concrete. Weather forecast is in the low 30's on Friday and early part of next week. So we'll see.
Pray for good weather. Also pray for my uncle Don who is hospitalized and in the intensive care unit. He is battling cancer, and the family is taking things one day at a time at this point.

Framing to Start today!

If it seems like a repeat headline, it is!

Oh, and by saying that I'd be posting tomorrow, I meant a post a week later, of course.

Last week when we had two days in the 40's, we didn't get the concrete poured. So, Shawn and I got our heads together and figured that we need to get that floor deck on so we can put some heat in the basement, more to protect the footings than anything. And if we have to stop for the winter, so be it (though the framers screams no at this!) So, we added a temporary wall to the design to support the floor in the area by the porch so the framer can go ahead and get the deck ready.

We needed to prepare for the framer, so during the weekend Shawn scooped out all of the snow in the basement. Then the sun came up and melted the nice layer of ice. So while Evan napped, Shawn and I scooped slush out and used the wet vac to suck up the water. Basement was nice and clean.

Then Monday it was -24º wind chill, so the framer decided to stay home. Then yesterday, 6" of snow filled up the basement again. But, Shawn went out there and scooped half of the basement out before I joined him after Evan went to bed. So, we got all scooped and dusted.

I just called the framer, and he said he was on his way out there to try and get the load bearing walls up. There's another storm predicted for tomorrow, 1/4" of ice plus an extra 6" of snow, so the framer is going to try to get the load bearing wall installed and the sill plate before the ice hits. We'll see if he managed to get out there today, and it any progress is made.

The plan is to get the deck framed. Then the flatwork guy said he can build up a tent above the stoop to keep some heat in there and cure the concrete. So all he would need would be a decent day of weather to get it done. We pray for good weather to come for a day or two.
What we hope is that while the framer is working inside the basement, the flatwork contractor can get a chance to pour the stoop. Then when the framer finishes the basement, he can move on to frame the main floor.

There should be more frequent posts now that the framing work has started. Hopefully the weather will not continue on this snowy streak.

Urgh. No work

Well, with the 1/4" of ice and the several inches of snow, work is still progressing at the rate of 0%.
So, unless I can cleverly come up with ways to say the same thing every day, I'm afraid I'll have to start running this blog into a different direction.

Anyone interested in reading about the mortality of a frog? No? Didn't think so. I will update in a few days (forecast is above freezing for two days this week). We'll see if the contractor gets around to pouring some concrete. Otherwise the next post will be an empty post.

Wait! I do have an idea. I'll have to bring some pictures in tomorrow, but I should have something up. No frog business, I promise. It will be house related and much overdue too!

Till tomorrow.

Update

Last Wednesday, Shawn worked to clear all of the dirt to level out the walk-out side of the grade. He also did some shaping of the grading, and finished filling in with dirt and such. He worked a couple of hours in the morning on Thursday. We left to spend Thanksgiving with SHawn's family and my Grandpa's family as well.

When we arrived on Sunday, we noticed that no work was done on the stoop. It seemed that the flatwork contractor did arrive to drop off materials and tools.

On Monday, Dec 1 it snowed, so no work was done. Tuesday, the flatwork crew installed the 2x6 joists across the stoop and framed up the stoop. At night, Shawn shoveled all of the snow from the basement, since we have to keep it clear so that the framer can work in there, whenever he shows up. He won't start on our project until the stoop is poured, and I quit asking the contractor when he'll get to it.
It snowed yesterday again, so no more stoop work. Today it is going to be cold, high of only 22ºF, but it's supposed to be sunny. But until the temperature gets above freezing, we can't pour concrete.

So, for the next ten days there will be no work done on the house, unless we explore other options with the framer so that he starts to work.

Back-fill Progress

Shawn has been hard at work with the skid loader. He has all of the front of the garage and house backfilled. This morning he was backfilling the side and back of the garage. Today he will focus on getting all of the house backfilled. He filled in the garage with some more dirt so he can drive in there, but he will wait until tomorrow morning while the ground is frozen to get in there, fill in with rock, and put in more dirt. We have the skid loader until tomorrow afternoon, and he probably won't have all of the grade roughed in, but at least the footings will be covered with 4 to 5 feet of dirt to protect from frost through the winter.

The flatwork contractor said he will be here on Friday to frame up the stoop, and I'm assuming he will try to pour on Monday. We'll see how it goes. The framer is scheduled to start Monday, but we will probably have him come a day later after the stoop is poured. So progress is being made.

If the framer starts next week, we should have a roof up by Christmas as long as we don't have too many blizzards between now and then.

Here are some videos for you to enjoy. I got distracted while filming when I noticed the dump truck backing into our driveway. Our loads of rock were arriving.


And to pass the time, here's a load of rock for you:



Here's what the front of the house looked like this morning when I came to work:


Here's Shawn working on the back of the garage.

A visit from Murphy

According to Wikipedia:

Murphy's law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states, "if anything can go wrong, it will."

I like this one: "If there's more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way"

Here are others: "Anything that can go wrong, will," the similar "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong," or, "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way." In a less dramatic fashion, the law can be expressed as "Anything that has a probability of happening greater than 0 can and will happen. No exceptions."

So basically, that summarizes the weekend. Well, not really, we did get a lot done, but things weren't the way we had planned.

It all started well and happy on Friday. Shawn and Brian worked on installing the french drain system for the eave spouts, while Pam and Derald raked leaves and cleaned the area so that rock could be dumped in. Brian left, and Shawn, Derald and Pam began to fill in around the garage with pea gravel.

Saturday morning Shawn, Derald and I worked on building up a ramp so that we could get the skid loader in the garage to fill in more pea gravel. The weatherman predicted maybe a dusting of snow during the day, and this is where Murphy's law began it's day long campaign. Instead of a dusting, we got 3" of snow. I think this was God saying: I don't think you should be working on this today, but we didn't listen, so we worked through the snow. The top 6" of dirt were frozen, but underneath it, the dirt pile was a gooey mess of clay. Great for pottery, not so great for backfilling.

While Shawn carried loads of dirt with the skid loader, Derald and I shoveled dirt around to give the ramp shape. So after about four hours of work, the ramp was ready, or so we thought. The clay was just too wet so trying to get the skid loader up the ramp was like trying to climb a mountain made of soft butter. The dirt would just slide around and the tractor would just sink in. Again, I can picture the All Mighty shaking his head at us.

We were at least wise enough (credit Derald here) to decide not to go over the ramp into the garage, because we feared we might not get the skid loader out. Here's a picture of the ramp that we took yesterday (we couldn't find the camera on Saturday. Cari, Brian's wife, took pictures with her camera, so I'll post those when I get them from her).


The other thing that we needed to do was to compact the soil as we backfill so that it won't settle as much. Well, that went about as good as trying to give a cat a bath. The clay was so sticky that trying to push the compactor was like trying to push an 800 lb gorilla that was glued to the ground. Another victory for Murphy. Actually, I think God was rolling his eyes at us at this point and mumbling about children who don't listen.

We very quickly gave up the idea of compacting, and instead used a hand tamper to pound in a few places so that we can at least feel good and say we compacted.

To get the footings covered with pea gravel inside the garage, Shawn went around the outside, got close enough to the wall and dumped the gravel inside next to the wall, then we had to hand shovel it into place. Brian arrived and continued to work on the french drain, while the rest of us built some muscles with the shovels.

In the afternoon, we filled in two feet of pea gravel around the front of the house, under the window wells, and almost all the way to the back. We couldn't finish because we still needed to hook up the footing drains to a pipe so it would drain away from the house.
We laid the filter fabric on the rock we had placed and called it good for the day and made plans of all the work we would do on Sunday.

Shawn took the skid loader to load up the 800 lb gorrilla (the compactor) so he could put it on the truck to take back on Monday. The rear right tire of the skid loader looked low all day, and we should have pumped it with air, but didn't. Here's where God said: that's it, you guys aren't paying attention! And with a nice hiss the tire went flat. And there went the plans for any more work on backfilling on Sunday.

Despite all of the progress, it was hard not to feel sort of disapointed. Pam finally said that it was God's way of saying it's time to quit now, or else. We all quickly agreed (We give credit to God for the turn of events, and Murphy can't have the satisfaction of defeat!).

Sunday morning without the pressure of having to be out there doing something (well, stuff still needed to get done, but without a skid loader we were at an impasse). So instead we enjoyed a leisure breakfast and visited with the grandparents. Shawn and Derald did go out to the basement to seal the floor drain so that water won't get in there and burst the pipes when it freezes, and we will be adding antifreeze as a precaution just in case. Pam and Derald left around 11 am, and Shawn, Evan and I played in the snow (Evan calls it nows). Here's a picture of Shawn giving Evan a sled ride. We also made snowballs, and played inside the basement. Here's what it looked like with a nice blanket of snow on Sunday morning.



During Evan's afternoon nap, Shawn and I worked on getting the caulking and taping of the waterproofing finished (Finally!). We also hooked up the drain pipe for the footings. By 1 pm all of the snow was gone. Here's a picture of me working on the caulking. You can also see the french drain that Shawn and Brian installed. The pieces of pipe going up will eventually hook up to the eavespouts from the roof gutters. The system is intended to keep rain water from pooling against the basement and minimize potential damage.

Today, we decided that since the clay is too hard to work with, we will order 4 more truckloads of pea gravel and backfill with that all the way to the top.

The rental company fixed the tire this morning, so Shawn is taking the rest of today, tomorrow and wednesday off to finish the backfill work.
His boss gave us a tip to put hay or straw on the ramp so that we can drive over it. We'll see where we get a bail of hay for that.

Weather outlook is great for the next ten days. We are delayed now, since the stoop will probably not be poured until Monday, but we'll continue to make progress and take it one day at a time.

But who knows, things are turning out this way for the better. My mum says that God always walks ahead of us. So we will just trust in him that he's the GC for this project and we will do things his way. By the way mum, did you happen to slip and forgot to pray for the snow to stay away? We were wondering about that.

No framing :(

We spoke with the framer yesterday, and he explained that it is much better for him to have the backfill in before setting the deck since the work will go much faster. The arrangement was that he would set the deck, we would backfill while he went onto another job for a week, then he would come back and frame the house. Instead, we decided that we will go ahead and backfill without the deck this weekend. He will go frame this other project (a small garage) and he will be back on Monday December 1st. That way he will only focus on one job at a time and won't have to haul equipment between job sites.

We did find a source on the interned that explained that without the deck on, you can backfill without bracing as long as the walls aren't longer than 24ft spans between corners. Since our design is not square, but has many bumpouts, we don't have any walls longer than 21 ft that will need full depth of backfill. We can backfill as long as we do it in lifts, compact each lift, and take care not to throw frozen chunks of dirt in.

Also, since we couldn't find a trencher that was able to come out before backfilling to dig the trench for the waterline, we will postpone this part until next spring. One company was going to try and make it out today, so if they do, we will have the waterline running from the house to the rural water meter pit hooked up. If not, next spring.

I should have some pictures and progress from this weekend's work on Monday.

Brian is scheduled to arrive around noon and Shawn's parents will be in around 2 pm. When I left for work, Shawn was working on putting a pipe over the water line stub that sticking out of the house so we can locate it later if the trencher doesn't come in today and we have to bury it during backfill. The pvc pipe will also protect the water line from the trencher when they have to dig it back out next spring. We will probably do the waterline at the same time as the septic sewer line that needs to be connected once the upstairs plumbing has been installed.

Weather is cold today, but tomorrow it will be up in the 40º's and we might hit 50º on Sunday. That should help thaw out the ground a bit, which is better for the backfill.

The flatwork contractor is supposed to come next week to pour the stoop, since we should have the front of the house backfilled so he can get a concrete truck close enough to pour. They way things go, I predict he will either pour next friday, or Dec. 1st. We'll see.

Framing to Start today!

Monday night we didn't go out because it was too cold. On Tuesday, the pea gravel was delivered, so it's ready for this weekend. Tuesday night Shawn went out there to dig out the window wells that need to go in front of the Office and Back Bedroom windows on the South West Wall. I joined him after Evan went to bed. It was very hard work. So 3 or 4 tons of dirt were shoveled out and carried by bucket and dumped (Shawn did his little earth quantity calculations at work!)

Yesteday Shawn stayed home to build the frames for the window wells, and I left work after lunch and joined him. Shawn had one window well box installed when I got home. You see that red bucket in the picture? That's what we used to dump dirt out. We had to shovel out some more dirt for the second window well to fit. Then while Shawn worked on framing the second window well box, I continued caulking and taping the windows and waterproofing on that wall.

The skid loader that we rented for the week arrived today, and Evan (and the cats, of course), had to check out what Dad was up to. Bandit even hopped in there to ride with Shawn for a while.

The framer is supposed to be coming out today to start setting the floor, and we had forgotten to take out the forms for the beams from the wall. So Shawn went out there early this morning before leaving for work to pop those out. And guess what? One of the beam pockets didn't get concrete underneath it, like it should. So we called the basement contractor, and he said he will send out someone today to patch it.

We are expecting a call from the framer to get an update and see if he will even be there today or not. We'll see.

Anyway, the ground is starting to freeze and we needed to backfill before then, but since weather has delayed us so much we are cutting it close, perhaps we missed our opportunity.
So, late or not, we will be backfilling this weekend, we have help coming over. Yeap, Pam and Derald are once again coming over to rescue us... er... I mean, help us to get the work done. Also, Shawn's younger brother Brian will be here Friday and Saturday, and by golly, if we're not going to get that basement backfilled! Frozen dirt or not!

Little Progress

Here's a picture of Shawn installing the waterproofing by himself a week or so ago. He deviced a way to hold the heavy plastic up by using a clamp and a tie-down rope hanging from the j-bolt at the top of the wall. This seemed to do the trick since that plastic was too heavy for me to hold while Shawn screwed in the orange clips.

Last week it rained all week, so we didn't work at all until the weekend. We received the extra clips we needed last Monday afternoon, but we had to wait to get them installed. We finished installing all of the waterproofing on Friday. On Saturday, we worked on caulking the the vertical seams in the waterproofing, caulking the top of the waterproofing, then sealing the top with some waterproofing window flashing tape. (That's the silver tape you see at the top of the clear waterproofing). On Sunday while Shawn watched Evan, I caulked more of the waterproofing and taped the seams. We have half of the waterproofing done, and we ran out of tape, so that's what we'll have to work on tonight.

We ordered four more truckloads of pea gravel to start filling in around the house. If the weather holds, the framer believes that he can finish his project early this week and come to our site on Thursday to set the first floor. Then after he is done, he will leave to frame a garage on another project, while we work on backfilling around the house. We also need to get the stoop poured around that time too, so it will be ready when the framer is ready to come back. Then we'll see how long it takes to get the roof on. If the weather doesn't turn too bad with snow storms, the framer can get the house up in three weeks. We're hoping that by Christmas we are ready for the roofers to set the shingles. We pray that is it much sooner than that, but Christmas is a good deadline. Still a busy time ahead of us, and it is not pleasant to work outside now that it is so cold.

Progress - Zilch

We ran out of clips to add the waterproofing for the basement, and the contractor can't find his supply, and he might have to order more so waiting for that. We need to finish the waterproofing so we can backfill. But we decided that we will wait for the framer to set the first floor deck before we backfill. We have done some research, and it is just the best practice to have the top of the basement secured against the pressure of the earth.
The framer is delayed, so we have no idea at this point when he will come to start on our house, so we don't know when the backfill will happen.
It's cold and wet outside, so we have really been working much, though there is plenty we need to be doing.

Right now we will focus on getting the outside ready for backfill so that as soon as the framer has that deck in place, we can backfill right away.

We need to make some boxes to go around the windows to create window wells in the office and back bedroom. We also need to get the drains all installed and ready for dirt. We will also be installing some pipe around the perimeter of the house to drain the eavespouts into the pipe, and drain it to daylight away from the house.

Progress is really slow now, since it's cold, but I guess we have to keep on chugging.

A New President.

So, we got Obama in the White House, and so far I can't notice any change yet. At least we're still going trough our tasks.

Monday and Tuesday night we worked on getting more waterproofing up on the foundation. We have the plastic dimple board installed. We need to cut it to match the slope of the ground around the house, and install the scraps onto the areas where the plastic wasn't tall enough to reach all the way to the top. Then we have to apply caulk to seal all of the joints, and put some flashing tape to seal the top edge, so water doesn't sneak behind the plastic from the top. Then we need to cover the bottom with pea gravel and put landscape filter fabric before we can backfill.

The framer is still working at the other house and said he can't start on ours for another two weeks.

Also, the excavator can't come until next week to backfill, and Shawn is thinking he will rent a skid loader and backfill the areas where he doesn't want a bulldozer to get near the house, since we don't have the first floor deck in place before we backfill. It's slow gowing now that it gets dark earlier with the time change. Shawn also wants to use the skid loader to backfill the inside of the garage.

On one hand we wish we could move faster, but on the other hand, the longer the concrete in the walls has time to set up (it doesn't really achieve full strength until 28 days), the better it will be for it to hold the earth pressure from the backfill. This will also give the slab time to cure at least a week, since it is the slab which locks the bottom of the basement walls from buckling in from the earth pressure.

Once we have the backfill in place, the flatwork contractor can get the stoop poured. So the main project right now is to backfill. We also need to build some boxes for the window wells for the office and back bedroom before we can fill with dirt. We also have to put some pipe to drain water from the window well so it won't flood in through the windows.

I keep forgetting to take some pictures, but I'll try to remember for tomorrow.

Videos

I was trying to upload these videos, but they didn't seem to work. We'll see if they work now.

Another Item off the list in the never ending construction schedule

Friday, we didn't work on the house. Instead we did some much need shopping, after we took Evan trick or treating at the mall. I'll have to post some pictures later. I didn't bring those with me.

Friday night, Derald and Pam arrived and we visited and relaxed that night.
On Saturday, Pam watched the Big Guy, and the rest of us went to work. With Derald's help and 1200 screw clips later, we finished laying out almost 3/4 of a mile of pipe. Here's some pictures as evidence. Derald and I measured and laid all of the clips for each room beforehand, then Shawn would snap in the pipe, while we moved onto the next room.
Also, where the pipe exits and enters the concrete at the manifold stations, we had to secure the pipe to make sure they wouldn't shift, and Derald did all of the work for that. Here you can see Derald attaching the pipe to a 2x4 we screwed on the wall for this particular station. You can also see grey 90º pieces of conduit that we used as pipe supports. These also will help protect the pipe from the concrete. Once it hardens, the concrete can be too sharp for the pipe at that location. We quit early on Saturday to get ready for Brian and Cari's party, but on the way there Shawn got a migraine, so he came back home. Evan and I went to the party for about 20 minutes then headed home.

Sunday, Shawn worked on getting all of the pipes hooked up together to form a single length of pipe. Then on one end we placed a cap, and on the other end we had an air valve and a pressure gauge. We filled the pipe with air to 50 pounds per square inch of pressure to see if we could find some leaks. We also needed to keep the pipe pressurize during the concrete pour. In the event that the pipe somehow gets damaged during the pour, the air will leak and you can mark the spot and try to keep the concrete from that area so it can later be fixed. We had to tighten all of the joints again as they were leaking, then we brought the pipe up to 50 psi again and left it overnight.

Also, on Sunday, Derald and Shawn worked on getting more of the waterproofing installed on the outside of the wall as we need to backfill soon.

The contractor called on Sunday afternoon to tell us that the pour was scheduled for this morning. Pam and Derald left in the evening with eternal gratitude from our part. My wonderful mother-in-law again left us caught up with laundry, squeaky clean floors and no dirty dishes, bless her heart!

This morning Shawn went out to the house and found our pressure gauge was reading 14 psi! Uh oh. That meant there was a leak somewhere. We went around and tested the pipe connections, and two of them had leaks still. Thank God the concrete trucks were running late, as that gave us time to tighten those connections again. We tried to pump the pipe up to 50 psi again, but the little air compressor had enough and blew a gasket. We at least got the pipe to 40 psi.

The crew arrived at 7:00 am to prepare, and what a difference compared to the other concrete crew. You could tell that these guys were very organized and prepared for the job ahead.
They cut a hole in one of the windows so they could get in there later and start using the power screed once the concrete hardens a little.

Here you can see them when they started pouring in the safe room. There were six crewman all working at once. One held the hose from the concrete telebelt, then two came after to do a rough spreading of the concrete, then two others leveled the concrete with a 2x4, then finally Bubba came with the bull float to get it nice and level, and smooth. Here's a video of the pour in the back bedroom. The little red clips seemed to hold the pipe ok, but the guys stepped on the pipe just in case to keep it from floating or moving when the concrete was placed. Here you can see how the concrete gets placed with a pump truck. Also, on the left you can see what looks like a huge fan. This is called the power screed, and once the concrete hardens for about an hour or two, Bubba and one other worker get back in there and begin to smooth the concrete. One of them claims it will almost as smooth as glass, so we'll see. They hang the power screed on the wall beforehand so they don't have to try and drag it inthrough the door all the way into the back of the basement and chance dropping it and ruining the floor. This way, they will climb in through the window and work they way out towards the door.

In this picture you can see the full crew in action. You can also see the temporary pipe that's hanging that we used to connect all of the loops together from the different manifold locations.
And here you can see Bubba and his big bull float doing the first pass for smoothing the surface of the concrete. The young man with the white t-shirt with black sleeves told us that he used to know the tenants that lived at our old house before we bought it. I guess this placed was called Snake Hill and he used to come and party over here quite a bit. I think I might keep the name Snake Hill for the acreage. Sounds sassy.

Well, the slab is now poured. When we left for work, Bubba was waiting for the concrete to set before he could go in and do the final smoothing of the surface. I'll have to get some pictures to share.

Here's a picture I took from outside the house. You can see on there the dimple board waterproofing on the front of the house that the guys installed on Sunday.















The flatwork conctractor needs to have the backfill in before he can pour the stoop, so that the concrete truck can get close enough to the house. The dilema is that we don't have the first floor deck on, and the walls might not take the earth pressure well without that extra reinforcement. I am also concerned that if we backfill without the deck, and the concrete truck gets too close to the house it might crack our wall, or worse cave it in.

So we are going to call the framer and see if he can get out there and get that deck on, even though he'd like to have it backfilled as well. So we'll see.
We also need to have the waterline trenched in from the meter pit location before we can backfill, but one company won't be able to come out for three or four weeks. The other company will see if they they schedule us in. So we'll see.

We missed the pour

Tuesday, the plumber left around noon. This is a picture of what he did to our beautiful flat floor on Monday. The two black tubs you see are a sump pump pit on the right, and a sewage ejector pump that will pump the sewer line from the basement plumbing to the septic tank. The blue pipe is where our water line will come in, and you can see the plumbing line for the basement.

Here's what the pea gravel looked like when the plumber left.




So we began to level out the whole area again, and even though we worked on it until 9 pm or so, we didn't finish it.
So on Wednesday morning I stayed home for a couple of hours and we finished leveling the pea gravel, and Shawn ran the compactor (that's the machine you see behind Shawn in the picture) As I got ready to go to work, Shawn began to cover the ground with a 6 mil thick plastic sheet to confine radon under the slab so that it can escape through the perforated pipe instead of cracks in the slab. Then he began to lay the blue foam to cover the ground as you can see here.

I came back from work after lunch, and Shawn had almost all of the insulation sheets installed. Around 3:00 pm, the crew from the flatwork contractor showed up to take some elevation readings and to measure the slab to prepare for the pour on Thursday. While they did that, we taped every seam on the foam with duct tape just to help keep the boards together. We finished with the foam by the time the concrete crew left around 4:oo pm. Here's what it looked like then. The areas without foam are the load bearing pads for the load bearing walls that support the joists for the floor on the main floor. We want the concrete from the slab to pour directly onto the pad concrete, so it isn't on top of soft foam that will shift with the weight of the floor above.

The carpenter showed up today as well to measure the walls so that the roof trusses can be ordered. I left to pick up Evan from daycare, and Shawn began to clear up all the tools and everything out of the basement and to prepare for the tubing. We need the lines for all of the interior walls drawn on the foam so we know how to set up the pipe according to the layouts that Shawn did in his drafting software. He began working on that, and finished after supper,

Once Evan went to be around 8:00 pm, I joined him. He had started on the first loop to the guest bedroom. We sort of stumbled to find a method of how to do it, and it was a problem that the coil of tube was of 1000 ft. It was so heavy and it kept unwinding and getting twisted and tangled up.

The professionals use a tube uncoiler, and we improvised by rigging one of our own. We took the office chair and took the chair part off the swivel feet. Shawn screwed a piece of plywood onto the feet, and we set the coil on top of the plywood. We later added a bucket full of heavy steel to keep the coil from sliding off the homemade uncoiler. But this worked great, and as we pull the tube, it uncoils nicely as we lay the pipe down.

So we marked the location of the pipes by running chalk lines (you can see the floor turning red as we walk all over the chalk and get it everywhere), and then we screw in little plastic clips that hold the pipe to the foam. Those are the little red dots you see on the pipe. There are a few things you need to make the radiant set up work. One of those things is that you have to keep each loop of pipe to the same length so that the water pressure can be kept the same on all loops. But if a room takes about 400 ft of pipe, and we kept our max loop length to say 200 ft, then it would take two loops of pipe to do one room. So each loop is designed separate, and you have to keep things in mind like, space the pipe at 6" on center in areas under carpet, and to route the hot water towards exterior walls first since they lose hear more than interior walls. But all of that Shawn figured out in the CAD drawing. Now it is just a matter of installing it.

Measuring, marking and placing the clips takes a long time. Then once that is done, Shawn simply starts at the water source location (called a manifold) and snaps the pipe into the clips following the outline to the end of the loop, then he follows his way back to the starting point at the manifold. You can sort of see this in the loop he is installing in the picture (right click on it and open it in a different window to make it bigger). All of the clips have been installed. The manifold location is to the right of the light (off the picture) and you can see the single pipe with red clips leading towards Shawn (the one without clips is what is coming from the coil that he pulls along to feed the loop). Then you see on the left towards the middle of the picture where the pipe turns around in a loop and Shawn is following his way back to the manifold.

We worked until 3:00 am this morning, and in seven hours we laid down 900 ft of pipe. It was very cold and the foam was getting brittle. There was a layer of frost building on the foam, and our hands were getting sore. We finished the loops on two bedrooms and the bathroom. We realized that we would not be ready for the pour in time, so we decided to stop and get a little rest. We called the contractor around 5:30 am to cancel the pour. He said that he would probably not be able to schedule anything until Monday. This will give is today, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday to get this work done and to make sure we do it right, instead of trying to rush.

But now we have a system down of how to do it, so we were getting faster on our work. Also, the bigger rooms like the family room and lounge, the loops are long and more simple than trying to go around closets and plumbing, so that should help as well.

I came to work a couple of hours late, while Shawn stayed home for a much deserved rest. He worked for 20 hours straight from yesterday morning until today. We will probably work again tonight, so that we can enjoy some of the weekend more, instead of work all of the time (but there's plenty to do to keep us busy! So we will probably work more)

Derald and Pam are once again coming, but the main reason is to babysit the grandkids during Brian and Cari's annual Halloween party. They do plan on helping us a little if there is work to be done, but hopefully we can relax and visit more than work.

We are so looking forward to the framer taking over the job!

Time Crunch!

We had hoped to be ready to pour by Thursday, but the plumber didn't finish last night, so we couldn't really work on getting ready. The plumber is out there today, and Shawn is picking up the compactor and I'm supposed to take off from work once Shawn call's me, so as soon as the plumber is out, we can get in and get to work.

The thing is that the concrete contractor called and said he's got a pump set up for Thursday at 8:00 am, and I really don't believe we're going to be ready, now that we're a day behind. But Shawn is still optimistic that we can pull it off, so we'll see.

We have to finish installing some perforated pipe that will hook up to the drains around the footings that will take the radon from the ground and suck it up through a vent pipe. Then we smooth the gravel again and run the compactor to settle the gravel and try to get as level as we can. Then after that, we have to cover the whole basement floor with polyethylene plastic sheets that will serve as a barrier so that the radon does not leak up through the floor and the only way out will be through the vent pipe. On top of that we need to cover the floor with the blue foam boards for insulation and tape all of the seams to keep the heat from the radiant floor from going into the ground . Once that is done, we need to layout the rooms with some markers and chalkline so we can install the tubing for the floor. We have 3000 ft of pipe to install, and I'm not so sure it will be that easy.

It's a lot of work, and I've asked my brother in law if he can babysit Evan tonight, so that we can work. It's going to be close, and I predict we'll be pouring Friday, but we will give the Thursday deadline a shot.

I'll post some pictures when I have a chance.

A lot of work happened

Last Wednesday night Shawn began to dismantle braces, and we finally finished that on Thursday night. On Friday we went to Lowe's to get another load of foam sheets that we will use under the basement slab. Friday night, Derald arrived with Shawn's cousin Kelly who came along to help us out.

On Saturday Morning, Shawn fixed the flat tires on our small trailer and hooked it up to the lawn mower. While Evan and I kept busy in the house, the crew worked on taking down all of the wood and plywood that was attached to the wall. They also loaded all of the braces that we had used for the wall onto the contractor's trailer and took all of the wood that we borrowed from the contractor for the scaffolding and loaded it up on the trailer as well. Here's Kelly with Derald as they load up the trailer.

Also, they dug up all of the mud along the footing drains on the outside of the basement so we can fill it up with pea gravel.

After lunch, Kelly worked on getting all of the rebar that we had used to anchor the braces to the ground. They were hard to get out, but she patiently worked with a set of pliers to get them out, while Derald cleaned up around the outside. I came out to help while Evan took a nap.

In the picture you can see the white roll of a dimpled plastic sheet laying on the ground. The roll is about 8' tall, and the platic is about as thick as the plastic on a milk jug. This dimple board is the waterproofing for the basement. I began to help Shawn, but the rolls were to heavy, so Derald took over. You keep the top of the sheet about 1" below where the ground level is going to be. As you can see in the picture, we had to cut the sheet because the ground slopes on this side of the foundation. The little orange dots you see are the clips that you use with a screw to secure the sheet onto the wall. The basic principle of the sheet is to allow moisture to run down to the footing drain, so it is not agains the wall and doesn't have a chance to creep into the basement. The boys got one side of the basement done. Then they covered the footings with pea gravel, then covered the pea gravel with some landscape fabric. All we have left on that wall is to apply some caulk and waterproof tape to seal the waterproofing dimple board, and it should be ready to be backfilled (once the slab in the basement and the main floor deck are in.)

A windstorm came last night and lasted all day Sunday. Gusts were up to 60 MPH, with a sustained velocity of about 40 MPH all day. So we woke up to find the lawn covered in blue. One of out piles of blue foam broke loose and the wind broke several panels apart and scattered them all over the yard. So Derald, Kelly and Shawn picked all of the foam up and then loaded it all up and set it inside the basement, where hopefully it will be more protected from wind until we begin to lay it on the floor.

After that, Kelly, Derald and Shawn began to clean out the leaves and level out the pea gravel in the basement floor. When Evan took a nap after lunch, I came out to help. Despite the sun and almost 60 degree temperature, it was cold because of the wind, so we all had to wear stocking hats and gloves. Here's Kelly cleaning up her rake and flashing a smile for the camera.
Derald used his leaf blower to move the leaves around and to clean up the top of the footings from rock. They the guys used a 2x4 and dragged it along to level out the pea rock. Kelly and I were on alert with the shovels to move rock around to fill low spots or flatten high spots as they moved the board around.


Here you can see the difference between the areas that have been leveled and the ones still left to do.



And here's a composite panorama of the finished work.

We laid some playwood on the ground so that we can walk around without disturbing the pea gravel.

The plumber will be in today and will dig into the gravel to place the pipes for the underslab piping, then tonight we will level those spots and we are renting a plate vibrator compactor that we need to run to compact the pea gravel before we can lay the blue foam on top.

The pex tubing is supposed to arrive either today or tomorrow, and we will install the tubing on top of the foam, then the Flatwork guy can come in and pour the slab.

Rain again

It's pouring over here this morning and it is forecast to rain until Friday. Yesterday Shawn finished designing the loops of pipes that will run hot water through the basement slab for radiant heat floors. He estimated the quantity of pipe that we need, and I ordered 3000 ft of pipe. Last night Shawn went out to the house and began to dismantle braces. He took the wood perimeter board off the top of the wall.

Jon, our contractor, is supposed to deliver a trailer today so that we can load the braces up on the trailer. He is also supposed to get some waterproofing material that we need to install on the outside of the basement wall before the excavator can backfill the dirt around it.
Another thing that we need to do is to remove all of the dirt that fell into the trench around the basement when it rained before we can cover the outside footing drains with more pea gravel for drainage. Otherwise that dirt will just keep washing into the drains and eventually clog them.

The next major thing we need to accomplish is to get the plumber to do his work (but with all this rain who knows when he'll be out there), so we can go ahead and level the pea gravel in the basement. Then we need to cover the floor with plastic to keep moisture from coming up through the slab, then we cover the floor with insulation, and then we install the pipe over the insulation. Once that is all done, the flatwork guy can come and pour the cement for the slab. There is still a lot of work ahead of us.

It's Done.

We arrived to find that Bill's crew was down to two men. Bill and Junior. This was definitely not the best situation, as a pour is a lot of work for two men to handle alone, but in the end it was done (though they were tired, grumpy, hungry, and cussing a lot by the end.)

11:45 a.m.

It all started well enough. Here's the first concrete truck hooked up to the pump truck, and a close up of the hopper at the end of the pump truck. We got there just as they began to pour the first of the cement into the footing pads to fix them. Junior is handling the hose from the concrete pump, and Bill is troweling the pads. The guy in the black sweater is the pump truck operator. He has this little set up hooked to his waist which controls the truck and boom, like a video game. Junior indicates with hand movements and head nods if he wants more, less, or stop concrete flow, and the direction to move the hose. It was neat to watch.

Once the footings were done, Junior climbed onto the scaffolding and began to pour the walls around 12:00 pm. Typically they pour the walls in three 3ft lifts, they decided to do two. This is risky because that's a lot of concrete for one lift and can lead to empty pockets or worse, the hydrolic pressure can get so high that it will blow out the wall. So far it didn't seem like there were any problems until they hit the windows. They cut only one hole on the windows bottoms and the concrete wasn't flowing in there so good, so they tried to compensate by vibrating more, which overconsolidates concrete, increasing the pressure on the wall. There was pop out on a couple of walls. Nothing very dramatic, so that was a good thing. This picture shows the worst one. You can see where the foam cracked and the concrete pushed it out right below the window buck. On the side that they didn't cut any holes, the wall had empty pockets because they couldn't reach the vibrator in there. Bill tried to leave us with the mess and said that we could fill them in with the flatwork guy if we cut the holes later. We said no (we're not paying the flatwork guy to pour walls). So while they poured the rest of the wall, Shawn scrambled to cut more holes on the windows so they could fill them up at the end. Here's a composite picture of the pump boom and hose.


After the first lift, Junior went around the house again to fill the wall all the way to the top (around 1:00 pm). Bill climbed up there and followed after Junior troweling the top of the wall flat and installing the J-bolts that the framer needs so that he can install a sill plate on there to frame up the first floor. J-bolts look like j's and the the bent part is imbedded in the concrete and the top that sticks out has the threads. The sill plate is drilled at the bolt locations, then a washer and and a nut are used to fasted the sill plate to the basement wall.
Here's what the j-bolts look like after installataion.

2:30 pm

After the basement walls were poured, they moved onto the garage. Once the garage was poured, Junior and Shawn went back and filled in the rest of the bottom of the windows where Shawn had cut the new holes. Shawn was holding the pump hose, while Junior ran the vibrator.

3:00 pm

The pour was finally finished. Now, Bill and Junior began straightening the walls. Bill set up a string from one corner of the wall to the other and pulled it tight. He directed Junior onto which braced needed to be adjusted so that the wall could be tilted out or pulled in until it aligned with the string. Since the braces were on gravel, some of them would just sink rather than move the wall, so they had to improvize and re-adjust some of them. Shawn helped with that part. By 4:00 they were onto the garage, and that's when I left to pick up Evan from daycare. You could tell that Bill and Junior were tired, and were getting sloppy. They started out with the walls aligning pretty good, and Shawn said by the end they were calling it good enough. We'll see what the framer has to say about how square that basement is.

But we are just thankful that it is done, and we can move on to the next phase. Shawn's dad, Derald, let us know that is again coming this weekend to help. So, we're onto the basement slab and radiant work, and we'll also be working on digging the mud that fell around the footings, so we can fill up with some gravel and then we can cover them with landscape fabric to keep the drains around the foundation clear, so they will drain water away from the footings and minimzie any risk of frost heaving or settling, and to keep water out of our basement.