August 2010 Archives

We have a first floor.You can't tell what holds up the plywood - or that this isn't regular plywood but rather engineered sub-flooring from AdvanTech Flooring. It's only 23/32" instead of 3/4" plywood. But, it is rated for 24" on-center spans and, while the plans called for 16" centers, Victor dropped that to 12" centers for increased floor strength over some of the big spans we have. It's also supposed to be a "green" product (because it uses scrap wood? I don't know), and is supposed to be able to sit in standing water for 30 days without issues. Plus it has a 50 year warranty. Though I doubt the fine print will let us cash in on that - nor do we want to need it.



These pictures were taken while they were still working the basement putting the last of the lally columns in place but you can see the safety rails around the far (main) staircase; they built a similar structure around the near (office) staircase before they left for the day. Took Double Hammer Construction less than a day and a half to install everything since they came yesterday with nine guys, plus the owner, and Victor, our general contractor. Today, Saturday, was only six guys and Victor, though Victor had to run some errands getting replacement lumber for items that were wrong, broken or short.

Up until now, all the wood was temporary. Temporary electric service. Forms for the footers, or braces for the ICF walls. But we are up to the point where we use real wood. Granted, most of it is engineered but that's still okay.

Due to the rain, we got the delivery but not much else happened. Mostly wood, mostly engineered, though there is some "plain" wood and some steel lally columns.

Before they poured the concrete yesterday, they put PVC pipe "sleeves" through in the places we think we'll need things going through the wall. For example, in the front of the house (under the office) we have two 2" and two 4" openings for telecommunications (Comcast, Verizon, etc.) lines. There are openings for water and gas service, the sewer connection, where pipes will run to the geothermal loop field, etc. Around these openings and anywhere else the foam wasn't present, spray foam was used to fill the holes

Then they poured the concrete for the walls, working their way around the walls three times so that the concrete had time to settle before the next layer got poured on top of what was already in the form. If you use too few "lifts," the concrete doesn't compact in the wall properly and you have voids leading to structural weakness. Then, on Saturday, they came back to remove the bracing and work platform they built, as well as to apply the waterproof dimple membrane to the outside of the wall. (See the entry from August 5th for more detail about the membrane though I've included a close-up of the membrane with a dollar bill to give you a reference as to the size of the dimples.)

We're ready to pour the concrete for the basement walls.

In this panorama picture, you can see the planks used to access the structure, the walkway created just inside the walls and the bracing that supports the walls as the concrete is poured in.

A panoramic view. As with all the pictures, click for a bigger view.

Four to five courses of ICF block up, along with much of the bracing. Here's a look at the site today. You can also see the transition from 8" block for the basement walls (below ground) and the 6" blocks for the garage wall (above ground).

Frank and his crew started the day drawing chalk lines between the pins set by the surveyor while waiting for the ICF block to be delivered. Unfortunately, the truck got lost and did not make it to the site until around 1300h. Once the truck arrived, they started setting block along the chalk line.


The basement is built using 8" ICF block. That is, 2.5" of foam, a space for 8" of concrete and then another 2.5" of foam. The rest of the house will be built using 6" block.


When necessary, the block can be cut using a utility knife.


And, if there is a gap such as where the footer meets the block, it can be filled with expanding spray foam such as Foam2Foam.


This is what the site looks like after they unloaded the tractor trailer of block and worked for about four hours setting block.


We can also finally start to see the footprint of the house. Walter had to overdig the hole for the basement and footers to leave room to work and drainage around the house, and then the footers themselves have to sit out beyond the basement walls in order to support the weight of the house. And the basement walls are 13" thick when you account for all the foam and concrete so the footprint gets significantly smaller, finally.


The vertical rebar sticking out of the footers will help hold the concrete for the walls to the concrete footers, while additional rebar is added to the ICF walls for lateral strength.


As we get to where the basement wall ends and the first floor will go, Frank and his crew will embed Simpson Strong-Tie connectors into the walls to support the floor above.


And, finally, before the space outside the basement walls is backfilled, Frank's crew will attach Platon membrane to assist with waterproofing the walls.

Next step: Pin the foot(ers). Another visit for the surveyors, this time marking the footers where each of the corners should be located. The surveyor drives a pin into the concrete at the correct location and, when the masons get ready to build the walls, they use the pins to draw a chalk line so the wall stays straight.





If you could see in the other pictures, it's worth noting the sump pits have covers. Keep stuff from going into the pit now but will also keep radon from coming up later.


We still have our concrete-encased electrode ("Ufer ground") too.