Foundation Work Continues

D&S Foundations continued setting the forms. What a big, heavy job.

Doug’s value was evident today as he made some onsite adjustments to basement window sizes and to the window wells.  He also let the foundation contractor know to block out for HVAC ducts in the back of the house since we have to hang joists on the side of the foundation wall (the back walls are taller than the front wall so the joists attach differently since the floor is level throughout).  This could have easily been missed and would have been a pain later. And, he also specified the size for the cutouts for the steel beams (again, something else that isn’t specified in the plans that I wouldn’t have known).

Doug met with Kyle (architect) and the Sierra Pacific window rep this week to order windows.  Ten of the windows and doors needed to be adjusted a bit, so again I’m glad that someone was watching out for these details. That would be an expensive mistake.

I also let Doug know we want to add a garage service door.

Spoke to Kyle about ideas for the garage remodel.  The county says nothing can be added, even decorative, within the 15’ rear setback so the design constraints are a bit tough.

They will finish setting forms Friday or Wednesday and should pour the walls next Thursday.  The structural engineer will inspect the fours and rebar before pouring the walls. Doug will be out of town on vacation, but only in Granby so he can come back if necessary and with the structural engineer inspecting this should be fine.

After that the waterproofing sub will waterproof the walls and the drainage sub will install the perimeter drain, sump pit, etc. before the structural floor is then poured.

The foundation sub ("Gabe" or D&S Foundations, I believe) are out early setting forms. Here's a picture from the web cam.

Foundation forms are being installed

I fixed a hose going to my irrigation drip line this morning that was run over by the concrete truck and leaking.  I also cleared a path through the side of the dirt pile so I could drive in and pickup my trailer.  Any excuse to use my little Kubota tractor is fine with me.

No one was on site until around noon, but they got a lot done after that. About half of the outer portion of the foundation forms were in by this evening. It looks like very labor intensive work!  The forms are aluminum and look much better than the wood forms I have seem production builders use.  They look very sturdy, straight and smooth.  Doug said they are trying to get them finished this week.  No one will be working Saturday-Tuesday for the 4th of July holiday.  The structural engineer will inspect the forms with rebar in place before the concrete is poured.

Windows need to be ordered this week. We decided to go with Sierra Pacific. Very similar to Semco, which Doug has used a lot, but Kyle (our architect) really likes the Sierra Pacific windows.  They are casement style windows with extruded aluminum on the outside and wood on the inside.  I will cut a check for the order deposit tomorrow.

A couple of Gabe's workers were on site all day marking foundation lines and clearing dirt away from the newly poured caissons. The excavator showed up with a bobcat and cleared away excess dirt created from drilling. Void forms (cardboard boxes basically) were delivered and are stacked in the vacant part of the remaining house.

BTW, the web cam is awesome. I would recommend it to anyone building a home. I can see what is happening all the time. Thanks to Steve Nold, my network engineer for Brass Key Property Brokers, who setup the FTP site and page I will have a snapshot every minute of the construction progress and will eventually create a time lapse video of the building from start to finish.

It was a very busy Monday morning. They had two caisson drilling rigs, a concrete pumper truck, and various cement trucks. They are drillings the caissons. William from Scott Cox and Assoc engineers (Soil Engineers) says the holes look good and they have no water in them. They are plenty far into bedrock (the gray clay about half way down the basement wall is the start of bedrock, which is really just undistributed soil, not rock). The report called for 26' deep piers. I spoke to William and Doug about if a 6" void is enough, William said it is, but 8" will be better, so I said let's just go with an 8" void which make it that much safer that the soil will never expand and damage the foundation. We will lose 2" of basement height, but the ceiling was over 9' anyway so this seems like a good call.

I also asked about backfilling with our "bad" (expansive) dirt. He said it would be fine, but road base or some other non expansive soil would be better, and then put a few feet of our "bad" clay soil on top of the road base to keep the water away. Harold's Excavating will come back out with a bobcat or backhoe to clear out all the extra dirt from the caisson holes.

Bad news from the county- on the garage remodel it violates the setbacks so they won't allow the new roof structure to be added within the 15' setback. I need to talk to Kyle and see what the next step is.