Concrete Floors

June 18

I headed up to the lot about 9:30am and arrived just in time to see the cement truck pulling away.  As I got to the basement I saw that 7/8 of the basement floor was poured and leveled. 

The sub told me that because our footings were a little deeper than they are used to (because of the radiant heat) they ran out of concrete and were waiting for a second load to come.  He also said he'd have to pour the garage in two separate pours because of the raised area in the larger garage.

You can see how deep the concrete floor is going to be.  This was a great relief to us because now we are not worried that the framers will puncture a tube when they install the sill plates for the walls.


When we came back later in the afternoon it was all finished.  The landing area in the garage looks great.  This is where we will keep our extra freezer.  We will eventually install a sink here too.  This raised level should help keep the leaves and garage debris down in the garage and out of the house.

One more overhead shot.  When we came back the next morning we saw a large crack running across the entire floor.  Luckily, it will be covered up by carpeting so we don't really care. 

Soon we'll have walls up in the garage and we won't be able to take these overhead pictures.  Which, for Noah's safety, is a very good thing.  He is way too brave and we worry about him stepping right off the garage floor and falling.

Just in case you wondered, the pressure in the PEX held up just fine.  In fact, the pressure went up just a little bit while the concrete was curing which we thought was interesting. 

While we were there the first load of our lumber arrived!  Noah loved watching the driver maneuver his fork lift and when he stopped to talk to us for a minute Noah was ready to jump up in the cab and drive.

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June 7
The forms were removed from the foundation walls this morning and the concrete continues to cure.  They put a black waterproof material on the exterior walls of all of our living spaces where they would be covered by earth.  It was interesting to look into the garage and see the waterproofing on the inside of the garage wall (the outside of the family room).

The plumbers came in and started on the underground plumbing.  They started on Thursday and finished sometime early Friday morning.

We thought it was hilarious that the plumbers used duct tape to hold this large pipe in place. 

This pipe provides access to the backflow preventer, and once the gravel was placed, the duct tape wasn't necessary anymore.

Rob walked around the basement for a while trying to figure out what all the pipes were for and how they related to the floor plan.  Some were completely obvious (the basement bathroom drains), some we will figure out as the plumbers start working on the main floor and we can actually follow them up through the walls.

June 8
All of the underground plumbing was finished and passed inspection.  That means they are ready to throw the gravel and then we will be able to start on our work in the basement.

Does it look like a house yet?

We Have Footings

Thursday, May 24
We went up to the lot this afternoon to meet Jesse, our build supervisor.  He seems like he will be a nice guy to work with and reassured us that our presence was always welcome on the site, as was our input. 

When we got there the footing forms were all in place and the pumper truck showed up and got situated for the first concrete pour.   It was pretty impressive to watch the pipe extend from the truck. There was just a minute where the truck bucked a little bit and Jesse said he'd been on a job where the ground was too soft and the driver hadn't set his bracing properly and when the crane and pipe extended out in front of the truck the balance and weight were off and the truck tipped over.  That would have been crazy to see and I'm glad the driver today did everything correctly.

The forms were ready and the pumper truck was ready and in place so we just needed to wait for the concrete trucks to show up. 

We only stayed to watch them pour the first few feet of footings.  The driver of the pumper truck wore a remote control unit around his neck and controlled the flow of concrete and even moved the crane with the joystick controls on the box.  See kids, playing video games can prove helpful in your job as an adult! 

We came back after running to Home Depot to order 61 sheets of extruded polystyrene boards that we will be laying down in a week and a half.  Luckily, HD will deliver them right to the lot for us so we don't have to figure out how to transport them and where to store them.  We'd love a little help laying down the foam boards (and getting them cut to fit around the plumbing and monolithic footings) and then getting our pex tubing laid down and fastened to the boards.  As of right now we are shooting for Tuesday, June 5th through Thursday, June 7th.  Those days are a little flexible depending on weather and subs.  We are already about a day and a half behind the "original schedule", but what happens on a spreadsheet doesn't always translate perfectly to real life.

Seeing the forms and concrete laid out like this really help us get a feel for the house.  Of course, it helps that I've been designing the hydronic heating plan on Visio and Rob's been designing the wiring plan so we both have the floorplan pretty well memorized. 

I LOVE seeing our trees peeking into the picture.  I LOVE that we have trees!

What can I say?  It's wet concrete.  It's our house.  It's inevitable.  This will be under the front door for ever.  After I drew it in, Rob started getting second thoughts about ruining the integrity of the finish so I smoothed it over a little with my finger.

Here we are standing at the footings to the front door of our house.  The garage wall is the long wall to the right in the picture.  All of these footings are going to support our house and keep it stable and safe.

Jesse said they will let the footings cure for a couple of days and then get the forms in for the foundation.  I'm excited to see those go in because then it will really start to look like a house.
We have a dumpster parked right in front of our lot.  Literally.  I hope I don't have to spend too much time going around cleaning up after the subs.  Today we found a beer can, the crust of someone's sandwich and this uneaten lunch.