The April and May weather in Swan Valley has not been the best for the house construction project. Our first goal this year was to complete the concrete flat work, specifically the porch and garage slabs. The porch slab provides the foundation for the porch columns, which bear the load of the roof trusses and roof structure. We really can't get to framing until that concrete work is complete. We had planned to finish that last season, but contractor schedules and availability just didn't work out before the weather shut us down. We have been on site now for 7 weeks and it has been a looooong wait to get the concrete poured, not to mention a bit of a rollercoaster ride. For the 3 sided wrap porch we have a plan to pour tinted concrete, which we have never attempted before. We had toyed with the idea of stamped or sculptured concrete as well, but realized that isn't a great idea in this climate with the ice and snow. The stamping can give the concrete many different textures, we were thinking of a split stone texture. Instead we have opted for a sweat finish. That is a finish that leaves repeating swirl texture on the surface. It is called sweat finish because it takes a lot of effort and leaves you in a sweat by the time you complete the work. We think it looks very good, so we have high hopes. With the tinted concrete it is important for overnight temperatures, or any temperatures at all to stay above freezing, hence our long 7 week wait until this point.
We established a concrete pour schedule of May 10, 11, & 12 after the weather seemed to be improving and staying above freezing overnight.... Then this happened; we woke up to 3 inches of snow on May 9th. Well that shut down plans for the May 10-12 concrete pours. Unfortunate and fortunate thing was, we couldn't get concrete the next week May 16-20 so that meant more waiting, but the weather turned colder and we had overnight freezing this week, so we are feeling like we are getting some extra help from on high.
Unsettled weather coming home from a trip into town on May 12th. No, this Idaho winter weather is not finished with us yet!
Jim & Michelle arrived from North Carolina. They will be working the summer season at the Hansen Guest Ranch. We can just about see the place from their parking spot below. We were putting the finishing touches on the gravel pad at frame right below, when the plate vibrator quit running. You can see that yellow thing off the driveway to the right, that's the Wacker-Neuson plate vibrator. We want to use that compactor more, so we will be attempting to replace the piston rings and that project will probably end up in the blog before long.
The weather improved for a minute so Gari painted the foundation at the porch. The idea is that the siding will be dark like the shop wainscot in the background, and the porch concrete will be tinted a similar dark color, so we thought that a bright strip of concrete between the two would stick out. The solution was to paint it another similar dark color. Should be an interesting sight.
Long shot of the painting project. Looking northwest down the Snake River Valley.
Our concrete guys decided to use the week concrete was unavailable to form up the porches to get ready for the pours next week. Troy installs the rebar doweling into the foundation.
Below, Troy, Rob & Steve install the perimeter form boards using the laser level.
The way Rob set the edge form was to fasten one form board with tapcon anchors to the existing frost wall. The top of that form board is flush with the top of the frost wall. Then seen below, a second form board is nailed to the first form board. The top of this second board is flush with what will be the top of the porch concrete. This way they can screed the concrete at the top of that form board, and this configuration provides a small cantilever that helps hide the joint between the top of the frost wall and the bottom of the porch slab. Very clever these concrete guys.
Work stopped at the north side porch where they ran out of form boards. All the reinforcing steel is installed though, which is the more time consuming work.
The south and east porch sides completely formed below. This will be the first pour on May 24th; that is the schedule right now. Fingers crossed on the weather. Rob split the porch into two pours because the entire porch area is too big for the two of them to complete the sweat finish for the entire porch before the concrete begins to set up too much and change the texture of the finish. He therefore split the porch into two equal pours so the same recipe can be used with the tint to match the color between the two pours as closely as possible.
Then our framers showed up a day or two later. Nate and Chet start to install the pressure treated sill plate below. The first lumber on the job!
Going around the east side.
The next day the guys built out the pony walls in the basement. The floor joists will be supported by these load bearing walls. Chet cleans up the job site at the end of the day.
Gari runs her magnet around the job site after the work stopped for the day.
Steve smiles... even though the hair from his head seems to have migrated to his chin!
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