Basement Slab Poured

Friday our builder called to say that the basement floor was poured. Further, he was fairly convinced that they had beaten the winter weather. They should be able to proceed with the house even if the weather turns nasty. If it gets super cold, it may mean a delay of a few days. But we have enough done now that we don't have to worry about being delayed until spring.

When we arrived after Mass on Sunday, we found the makeshift door blowing in the wind. We had a lot of rain Saturday night accompanied by a lot of wind. The tarps were not covering all of the 'roof' (actually the main floor underlayment). Water covers about half of the floor. It was dripping from above.

Wet basement floor.

Power float used to smooth the concrete.

We were expecting the slab to be poured on Tuesday and the backfilling to be done the next day. Since the slab was not poured until Friday, the backfilling is still not done. With the holidays this week, it may not get done until January. The good news is that the excavator is still on site.

Excavator still on site.

With all of the snow melting and the rain, there was a lot of water inside the basement. They put it to good use digging a trench for the water to drain from the basement. We have our own mini Erie Canal (kinda reminds me of trenching around tents when we are camping).

Trench to drain basement.

I wanted to see how much of the main floor was exposed when the wind blew the tarps.

Checking the tarps.

It looks like only a quarter of the floor area is exposed to the weather.

Tarps blowing.

Nearly Ready for Basement Slab

The next big step is to pour the concrete basement slab. Once it cures a bit, they can back fill the basement walls that are below grade. The concrete slab keeps the ground (especially the water and frost in the earth) from pushing in the basement walls.

The rough plumbing is already in, but it still needs to be buried better.

Bathroom drain needs more gravel and less water around it.

We are concerned about the water inside the foundation. You can see it in the trench next to the foundation in the next picture, as well as around the drain pipe in the previous picture.

Water inside the foundation.

We will be insulating under the concrete slab to keep the basement floor comfortable and to reduce energy costs.

Insulation

While Marlene was on site, she investigated the amount of tree shadow that would be blocking the sunlight coming in the windows. This was the day before the winter solstice at a little before 12:30PM. This is quite representative of the longest shadow of the winter. It looks like the tall cottonwood tree to the south is far enough away from the house.

No tree shadow on the house.

It was estimated to be about 80' tall and the house is about 165' from the tree. My experiments, carried out at home, showed that a 22" vertical ruler cast a 48" shadow at the sun's peak on the solstice. This gives a ratio of about 1:2.2. However, the base of the tree is several feet below the basement floor level. We will get a better read on this next year when we are actually living there, but for now it does not look like a problem.

Basement Closed In

Thursday and Friday were busy days on the house. They framed in the south and east basement walls, set the steel I-beam, put the floor trusses in place and put on most of the floor decking. Expecting snow this weekend, they covered the openings with visqueen, covered the main floor with tarps and even put on a temporary plywood door.

Northeast corner.

Plastic window covering.

With the OSB sheathing in place and the "gangplank" leading up to the door, it almost looks like we are ready for extensive rains rather than just winter.

Anyone seen Noah?

Ready for snow.

It is a good thing they were thinking ahead. As I look out my window on Sunday a little after noon, I see a lot of snow blowing. We probably have 8 inches already and it is still snowing.

Framing Started

This week they frame the basement and put on the main floor trusses and decking. On Wednesday we visited with most of the kids (Heather, John, Becca, Alex, Rob and Pete). We watched them swing a little steel and walked in the woods.

Some of the wood framing is in place.

They had a crane on site to lift the steel I-beam pieces. We watched them pick up one.

Lifting the beam.

Guiding it over the house.

We were expecting the beam to be put in place, but no, they just laid it on the basement (dirt) floor. How anti-climatic!

Lowering it to the floor.

We availed ourselves of the opportunity to take a walk in the woods. This was the first time John had seen the property and only the second time Pete had.

"Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland"

12/7 - Rough Plumbing for Basement

On Friday the rough plumbing for the basement was installed. Again, there is not much to see, but certainly an important step.

Work proceeds even with the light snow covering.

Burying the pipes.

12/5 - Foundation Walls Backfilled

Work has been progressing on the house, but not in especially visible ways. The basement and foundation walls have been backfilled somewhat. On Wednesday the drain tile was installed in the footings.

Installing drain tile.

Drain tile partially in place.

The front entrance to the house will be on the west side of the house. Under the foyer we will have an unheated root cellar. We plan to use this as an actual root cellar for the produce that we hope to grow on the acreage. In front of that is the porch. In the next picture you can see the foundation for these.

Future porch and root cellar.

12/1 - Foundation Walls

Saturday we spent the day cleaning the gutters, raking the leaves and tilling them into the garden at our old house. We had to get the outside work done before winter set in in earnest. It was not fun chipping the frozen leaves out of the gutters. They came out in chunks of ice a quarter of an inch thick. Once this was all done we headed up to check on progress on the new house. We were hoping to leave earlier, but the work needed to be done.

Darkness fell as we drove the twenty minutes. As we drove up to the house site, we could see foundation walls! With the headlights illuminating the site, we took a few pictures and and then headed back home.

West end of south basement wall.

The foundation and basement walls that will be below grade are Superior Walls. These are insulated, pre-cast concrete walls. They brought them in on a truck, used a crane to set them on the pea gravel in the footing trenches and then they were bolted together. The walls are almost a foot thick.

North end of east basement wall.

There will be a steel beam running down the center of the basement to hold up the floor trusses for the main floor. They placed small concrete pads on top of pea gravel. The posts that will support the beam go on top of these pads.
Post Support Pads

Our builder was concerned about the gravel freezing before everything settles, so he covered the footings with tarps.

Jim covering footings.

11/25 - Stuck in the Mud!

Sunday after Thanksgiving we decided to do some trail maintenance, mainly mowing and cutting brush so we could cross-country ski this winter. I spent Saturday afternoon getting the mower deck in shape and ready for installation in the field. Marlene raked leaves while Norah and Kitty played in them. Sunday afternoon we hitched up the trailer and headed north. When we got there, the cul-de-sac by the house was deeply rutted. I decided that it was likely we would get stuck if I tried to turn around using it. The ground to the west of the cul-de-sac looked decent, so I swung off the driveway on that side, got turned around and was making my way back to the driveway. I hesitated a bit trying to decide which way would have firmer ground. Once my momentum was broken, I was lost. Trying to get going again just resulted in burying the wheels deeper. Fortunately we had the camera with us so Marlene was able to record these auspicious moments for posterity.

I unhitched the trailer, but still could not get any forward progress. I got out the jack and we grabbed some nearby boards and started digging out. After jacking up the front and placing boards under the wheels, I succeeded in moving forward a few feet. Once the wheels slid sideways off the boards, they sank into the mud again.

I opened up the trailer and got the shovel out. I dug the chunks of clay out from where I needed to place the jack.
Digging Out

I quickly discovered that the jack was sinking into the mud faster than the car was going up. I put a wide board under the jack and got significantly better results.
Board needed under jack.

I jacked up each side and placed the boards under the wheels again. This time I got the tractor out of the trailer and the 50' length of rope that I keep in the car, which I used as a tow strap.

Handy to have a tractor along.

With Marlene on the tractor on the firm driveway pulling and me driving the car while trying to keep the wheels from spinning, we made some good progress even after driving off the end of the boards. This lasted until the left wheel hit the edge of the firm driveway. Instead of driving up onto the road, the right wheel started digging in.

So close...

At some point we took break and carried our picnic lunch over to the snow-covered picnic table. We didn't even bother clearing the snow off the table. We found a couple of dry spots on the bench and proceeded to eat a quick lunch.

One more round of jacking up each side and placing boards under the wheels. With the edge of the driveway so close, the boards were slanted upwards quite a bit. And the slick mud had coated the tires thoroughly. Even with Marlene on the tractor and me giving the car as much gas as I could without spinning the wheels, we could not get going. Finally Marlene revved the tractor all the way up and the car popped forward and out onto the driveway.

I took the tractor and dragged the trailer up onto the driveway. We hitched up the trailer, put the tractor back into the trailer, threw all of the muddy gear into the trailer and headed home. It was starting to get dark by this time. Two and a half hours of getting out of the mud and we had had enough. No useful work was accomplished today.

Messy Stuff!

11/23 - Walkout and Foundation Trenches Dug

The builder and his team are trying to get enough done before the freeze sets in that they can keep building through the winter. The day after Thanksgiving they were hard at work digging out the walkout in front of the basement and digging the foundation trenches.



Anyone care to go wading? Winter is coming as the ice on puddle shows.
Walkout Excavated

The shallow footing trenches have been dug and filled with pea gravel. The foundation and basement walls will rest on the gravel.
Footing Trenches

11/14 - Drain Tile Laid and Basement Dug

Rob joined us late in the afternoon to visit the job site and check on progress. He took these great pictures. Thanks Rob!

So what has changed from the weekend? They have laid the plastic drain tile on top of the gravel septic drainfield and covered it with straw.

Checking out the progess.

Here is the proud couple standing in front of their new septic field, complete with tile. Does it get any more romantic than this?


Septic drain tile is in.

They also dug the basement. How exciting to see a hole in the ground! The first sign of progress on the actual house.



Rob shot this picture while stainding in the basement excavation facing west. Len is pointing out the west-most part of the hole where the root cellar will be under the front porch.

Len points out the root cellar.

While we were there we did a little trail maintenance. Mar bought Len a heavy-duty 4 wheel wagon for his birthday. That was loaded up with the chain saw, brush wacker, lopping shears, etc. It was late enough in the afternoon that the light was failing, so the picture is a bit blurry.



And with this post I am completely caught up on old progress. The next post will be current info when we stop by sometime over Thanksgiving weekend.

11/10 - Septic Drain Field Dug and Backfilled

On Wed. (11/8) they dug out the septic drainfield. It turned out that the sand was at 16.5 ft instead of the expected 13.5 ft. For some reason that we still have not heard, the size of the field had to be increased from 1600 sq ft to 1800. Just more money poured into a hole in the ground. They backfilled with gravel on Thursday or Friday. We went out and looked on Sat. Thank you to our intrepid photographer Marlene.


More heavy equipment!
Guarding the gravel?

10/31 - Well Drilled

After having lunch with Heather and John in Flint, Becca and Alex drove down and checked out progress with us. We arrived just as the well driller was leaving. they found water at 80 or 90 feet. They were able to pump it out at 120 - 125 gal/min. The average house uses 10 - 15 gal/min, so we have a great flow rate.

These were some BIG trucks.
This is the 5 inch well casing, capped for now.
From a different angle.

Becca and Alex joined us as we walked the loop in the woods.

Becca and Alex in the woods.
Compacting the driveway after the big trucks.

Thank you to Marlene for some great photos.

10/26 - Driveway Construction

Rob and I stopped by on 10/26 to check on progress. We were treated to the sight of heavy equipment at work.

Another load of gravel arrives, ...
... gets dumped ...
... and gets smoothed and compacted.

It was amazing to see how far a double-bottom gravel hauler load of gravel goes. It seems like a huge quantity until it gets dumped and leveled out. I think the driveway only grew 20 or 30 feet from this load.

It actually looks like a driveway!
Rob checks out the work as the edge gets scuplted.

Too bad there was real work to be done back home. I could have watched them all day and enjoyed it.