Concrete Evidence!

Rob and Troy our concrete guys have been a hard working crew of two.  They have completed two pours and we have three more pours to go.  We think this is great progress and we were getting fairly certain that there would be no concrete at all for our house start this year.  How wrong we were!  At the writing of this post, we have the crawlspace footing and walls completed.  We share some pictures below that try to capture the activities in September so far.

Lo and behold, a full double rainbow appeared over our house construction site as we began work.  This has to be a good way to start.

Gari observes the beginning of the footing forms for the house crawlspace.

Rob and Troy begin to set the first footing form boards.

The outside form perimeter is set.  You can see Rob's laser level on the tripod inside the footing outline.  A big part of setting the first pour forms was getting the outline square and ensuring that the form tops are plumb and level.  Rob used the 3-4-5 measuring diagonal calculation method for finding square, and used the laser for finding level.  Rob described the next step of this phase as 'building boxes inside of the big box'.  He has the form boards laid out in the close proximity to where they will be set.  It was like a puzzle selecting the optimum form boards, as Rob tries to avoid cutting down his form lumber whenever possible.  You could tell this was not his first rodeo!

Rob and Troy working on the last two form boxes.

Rob used many string lines to guide the correct placement of the form boards.

Last box... which will be part laundry/bathroom and part guest bedroom.  This plan is our design, but structurally engineered by licensed professional engineers in Idaho.  The footings are larger than we have been accustomed to, as they measure in at 20"W x 10"H.  We have been used to seeing 18"x8" footings previously.

Rob setting the rebar steel.  Three bars horizontal in the footings, wire tied at the overlaps, and set on stools to place the steel at center height within the footing.  Very nice work guys, thank you.  The Shop crew just threw the steel in the footing ditch and in theory pulled it up as the concrete pour took place; theory being the operative word there.

A little detail below showing the nice rebar setup at an intersection of footings.  Bent around the corner, wire tied and set on stools.  Very nice!

Finished forms for the house crawlspace footings, and ready for concrete pour the next day.  This pour will be the first of five pours.  The crawlspace walls will come next, then more excavation to prepare for the wrap porch and garage footings, next the walls for the garage and porch, and finally the last pour for the porch and garage slabs.

Right on time the first truck starts to unload into the footing forms.

The first truck finishes it's load, while the second truck stands ready to complete the pour behind.

Close up of Rob working the shovel and Troy working the hopper chute.  These guys have worked together since high school in southern California.  They operate as a well oiled machine together.

The center footing, which will be a pony wall underneath the house, had to be completed with a few wheelbarrow loads to reach the center points.

Rob sets the rebar hooks that will connect the footings to the walls, as Troy finish trowels the footing surface.

Finished crawlspace footings; now just let it cure.

The footing pour was on a Friday, below is the following Monday.  Rob and Troy arrived early and removed the footing form boards, and began to set the crawlspace wall forms.

The wall forming is interesting.  Connecting rods are placed through holes in the wall forms and are secured with "Johnny Braces" on each side of the wall form, inside and outside.  A 2x4 board sets on top of the Johnny Braces and is cinched down with the brace design. The rods maintain the proper wall width of 8", while the 2x4's hold each wall form section to the next.  Then 2x8 board braces are nailed to the 2x4's and pinned to the surrounding ground to hold the wall forms plumb.  The 2x8's also become ramps for the guys to walk up as they work the pour around the foundation.

Gari inspects the workmanship as the wall forms are about to be closed.  Gari gives her full approval!

First crawlspace wall course set with rebar steel installed within.  To get the 5' headroom that we designed into the crawlspace plan, Rob will add a second course of forms to add 12 more inches.

Rob and Troy begin to build up the 12" top form course.

Finished crawlspace wall forms below; all steel installed and ready for the second pour the next day.

A little additional detail on the extra bracing that Rob and Troy built into the forms to ensure nothing moves when pouring.  You can see the top course of three steel rebars at the top of the form right.  They wire tied all the steel again, just an outstanding job.  It is such a pleasure to work with people who care deeply about their quality of work, we don't see that every time, that is for certain.

Wall pour day!  Rob tamps the concrete down into the form trying to eliminate any rock pockets, whilst Troy directs the chute and ensures the concrete comes up to the grade nails that they installed inside the forms.

Rob installed foundation anchor bolts in between concrete trucks.  There were three trucks for the crawlspace walls, carrying a total of 22 yards of concrete.

Second truck finishing up.  Rob continues to tamp and Troy continues to trowel the correct amount of concrete to the grade nails.  We could tell the guys were starting to fatigue by this time, it is very hard work, but they kept going with the same good quality.

Below is the finished product of the second pour, completing the house crawlspace walls.  The garage will connect to the house at the foreground wall and will be 16 ft wide.  The 8 ft wide wrap porch will start at frame right above the washroom jut out and wrap all the way around the crawlspace walls back to the foreground shared garage/house wall.

A beautiful sunset takes us out of this phase.  Hopefully the next three pours will go as well.  Because the weather is cooling quickly here, we believe that the flat work of the fifth and final pour for the porch and garage slabs will be accomplished next spring after the weather warms above freezing.  Time will tell.  In any event we are thrilled to have gotten as far as we have, because we were doubtful that any concrete work was going to occur at all this year, as we had planned.