building for our future

With the foundation and rat-slab in place, we’re ready to start framing on Monday and Michael tells me that it should go quickly. The roofers are also arriving to start work on the existing structure, tearing off the cedar shakes that have seen better days, replacing the decking (or installing it where it doesn’t exist) and getting ahead of the game on installation of the new architectural shingles that we selected for this project.

Today started with a delivery of material for the framers to use when they get going next week. I suspect that the truck from Wehrungs will be back at some point because this is a big addition! Also, a fellow named Mike who works for Michael spent a good part of the day installing bracing to the foundation...something the inspector who stopped by yesterday morning insisted be put in place to insure our walls would not collapse. Hardly. 12" block on a footing that could support a many story building with rebar and concrete filling every 32". Three and a half feet tall. It ain’t gonna move without a bulldozer being involved! But this was a “He said jump and we said how high” situation. The silly thing is that the framers are going to rip it all out on Monday when they get started and there is no rain called for this weekend. Such is life... At least Mike was able to reuse all the 12x2 lumber from the footing forms for this, um...task.

And here are the day’s pictures.

Today was “interesting” in many ways. We started out with a visit from the, umm...inspector. I’m not going to comment on specifics at this point, but let’s just say that there was a lot of testosterone spraying in our direction...and a few comments from him that were eye-popping. But he did allow for the rat-slab to be poured today and that’s exactly what Dan and Tony set about to do. By later in the day, about 13 yards of concrete were “in the hole”, either as part of the slab, itself, or in various support roles including encasing the original great room footing and filling the foundation walls where the rebar will tie into the upper retaining walls once the framing is complete. Speaking of framing...it’s scheduled for next Monday. I thought I’d never see the day!

One comment about the slab...it’s not finished “pretty” since this will be a crawl space. It’s just a “bull float” finish and even sports a few footprints from the wall-filling exercise. No biggie. Only the mice and spiders will see it under normal circumstances...

The weather today was cool and a bit “moist”, but the rain had left us. Accordingly, Dan set to the task of getting everything ready for pouring the rat-slab (the concrete floor of the crawl space...typically much thinner than a full basement floor) and attending to a few other tasks. Michael also stopped by to establish the bottom elevation of the central beam so that Dan could finish up the support posts and mark for cutting a pocket in the outer wall to support said beam. The day’s work included getting the sump barrel into the ground and the under-slab drain pipe installed to it. Here are the pictures from today’s efforts...

Today, Tuesday, it was raining cats, dogs and a few farm animals it seemed...and work was called off, to resume tomorrow once the heavy rain has left us. In my post yesterday, I illustrated how Dan and Tony placed some boards on top of the open 12" block foundation walls along the excavations. Today’s weather proved beyond a doubt that they were thinking ahead as we had substantial subsidence along the back and on the patio side. It’s not problematic to the project and happily, the new walls are not letting any of the water through. But it potentially is going to cause us to have to close the narrow pathway from our door to the driveway to pedestrian traffic...the erosion makes for a safety issue, especially for little girls who don’t necessarily pay attention to their surroundings when walking around. That will be a pain in the you-know-what logistically for foot traffic, but it will at least be somewhat temporary and just for a few weeks until the first floor is framed and the 6" block retaining walls can be added outside of the structure and backfilled.

Despite the rainy weather, Dan and Tony put in a day’s work finishing up the block foundation walls, getting the asphalt coating in the spots where is wasn’t and started to dig out for the sump system. Fortunately, the rain wasn’t too hard for most of the day, at least while they were working. And before they left, they covered the 12" block areas that are “open” with lumber to prevent any sliding soil to enter the walls...which was fortunate, as you will come to understand.

’Just a few pictures for the day:




As you can see in the last picture, heavier rain later in the day started to accumulate between the new foundation and the excavation. Soil and stone also started to slide into the gap...so those boards were a good idea.

Day two of the foundation work on Friday started a little later as our addition of an extra course of block required Dan to pick up some more 12" block from the supplier...the quantity necessary was too small to be delivered and fit fine in the back of his truck. Dan was also working alone for the day, but got a lot of work done before heading home for the weekend.

Block work for the foundation commenced bright and early on Thursday morning when Dan and Tony got right to it after cleaning off the footings and setting some lines to guide the work. A good mason really moves things along and I was very impressed with how quickly things moved along.



Mid-morning, Michael and architect Jim Gray (on the right in the picture below) were on-site to discuss the implications of actual elevations versus the assumptions that went into the plans...we determined that the foundation needed to be raised by an additional course of block to insure that we didn’t have so much of the first floor below grade that our window strategy would be affected too adversely. The windows to the patio side of the new multi-function room will need to be changed, but those in the back wall will now be high enough off grade to not be an issue for maintenance and aesthetics. This adds a little cost to the project, but eliminates one more step up to the existing structure from the first floor. The top of the stairs to the second floor is affected, but in an interesting way which will be detailed in a future BLOG entry when it is relevant.



Work continued and the crew made a lot of progress. I’ll leave you in this installment with a number of additional pictures. More tomorrow...

Wednesday arrived and Dan, the mason, hopped on his small bobcat-like machine to level out the gravel and remove a little more extra soil from “the hole” before the block arrived later that day. In order to gain entrance to the work area, he cut down the lowest corner a little with the bucket and then added a little material to create a small ramp. Not only is this convenient for his purposes, but also meant that I was able to descend into the well of our new addition for pictures this week...something that would have required a ladder previously.






Later in the afternoon, the block, sand and Portland cement was delivered. The fellow manning the truck was darn good at his job...maneuvering that boom around my beloved antique pear tree was important and he managed to get the job done with zero damage. In about a half hour, things were ready to go for the foundation work to start on Thursday morning, bright and early.

Happy Monday! This morning, Michael and his folks were here to break down the forms that were used to pour the footers that essentially establish the base for everything else structural that will be built on this project. A strong and accurate foundation is critical...and that’s what it appears we are getting. The footers are at least 12" thick and are quite wide since concrete is less costly than the labor to put in extra forms toward the outside of the dug hole. I asked Michael how much concrete went into these footers. The answer: 17 cubic yards. This addition is NOT going to float away!

On Wednesday, Dan, the mason on our team, will be returning to level the remaining soil and stone in the hole and begin to build the portion of the block foundation that will support the first floor of the addition. This will mostly be 12" block as it will need to hold up the floor as well as provide a platform for a 6" block wall that will continue vertically outside of the frame walls up to the natural ground level. In order to have 8' ceilings and levels that mate up with the second floor (loft library) of the current structure, the first floor of the addition will be 23" below the existing level of our great room. That puts between three and five feet of the addition’s frame wall below grade on two sides of the structure; hence, the encasing block wall to protect it. That wall will be capped with a concrete “topper” that will provide a clean break between the wall and the siding.

Here are a few pictures of where things stand as of 13 August 2007:

We are at the end of the second week of construction and the hole is starting to give some clues that some form of organized structure will be growing there. There was a bit more manual labor than I think the crew anticipated due to the backhoe operator not removing enough material from the hole, but they slogged through the week, finished up the forms and got the footer poured by the end of the week. I unfortunately missed the opportunity to cheer them on in the heat and humidity as I was in Munich for the week on business, but my better half got some pictures in my absence...which you see here.






The next step will be the block walls for the foundation, which will be interesting as the block needs to extend up above the floor level due to the grade. That will be accomplished with a 12" block base to the bottom of the floor joists and then a 6" retaining wall that will be outside of the framing with an air gap. This gets topped with a decorative concrete ledge that is flashed to the walls just above grade. We should see some action on this next week!

Holistically speaking, we now have a whole hole...





The backhoe needs to return tomorrow morning to trim off a little bit more soil from the back wall as the line got accidentally masked during the final hours of work yesterday. That’s a pain for him, but shouldn’t take too long. And then the crew can finish up the forms for the footing and maybe get it poured on Friday. Maybe...
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On another note, Michael discovered that our existing great room floor is, umm...not level. (What a surprise...) It’s out by about two inches across the 22' width no less. Since the addition will be built perfectly level, the adjustment will be made on the wide landing that abuts the opening to that room. This is a great example of why building plans have that little note in the key that says the builder will verify everything on-site and adjust accordingly...and why I’m so glad we are not doing any renovation in the existing house for this project!