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| The Lafarge truck outside our place |
We passed both inspections (engineer & city) and so this morning, at 9:30am, the Lafarge cement truck rolled up to our place and got set to pump. We showed up just after 10am, and they were in full swing. The whole thing was fast and efficient with one person running the truck, one person running the "concrete hose" (aka. line pump), and then two others (our formers) vibrating (to remove air from the concrete) and troweling the footings level. We used 28 MPA (hardness of concrete) with 30% flyash - which is a "green" aspect to concrete (concrete's really energy-intensive to make, and fly ash is a by product from coal-fired power plants that used to go to waste...the fly ash also helps to strengthen the concrete). I opted to go for Lafarge in part because I know they've been a strong advocate on the global level for improving the carbon footprint (and other conservation issues) associated with concrete (WWF has had a partnership with them for many years now). I'm not suggesting they're perfect, but at least they're aware and trying to make a difference on a number of fronts, which is a step beyond ignoring the problem.
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| Fastfoot plastic sheets in place for footings |
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| First pour! |
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| Kristina: pregnant supervisor extraordinaire |
I also opted to use Fab-Form's Fastfoot product which is basically "footing in a bag". The reasons: it results in less use of lumber, it results in less waste of concrete (attested to by the fact that we managed all of the pour in one go, despite thinking we might need some additional concrete), and it waterproofs the footings, which is a nice plus to have when you're sitting on clay at the bottom of a hill. They seemed to work really well and I'll guess I'll find out tomorrow or Monday how they look (NOTE: checked in today...looking good and hard)!
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| Final section of pour with Mark looking on supervising |
So, we now have footings. Apparently they'll have enough strength to actually build on by tomorrow afternoon, and then cure over the course of several weeks until they reach maximum strength. On Monday, the insulated concrete forms will arrive and get set up. Hopefully that means we'll do another set of inspections on Tuesday, and the second pour on Wednesday, with backframing beginning on Thursday. At that point, the house will really start to take shape.
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| Footings: troweled and with rebar tied-in. |
In other news:
- No baby yet
- Most of the windows are apparently ready (way ahead of schedule!) which is good...but we still need to get some other ones into production (front and rear). Hopefully we can do that soon - possibly as early as next weekend even if things go really well (though I'm not crossing my fingers on that).
- Think I've found some fir flooring that can be used to replace the damaged stuff upstairs for a few hundred dollars.
- I'm concluding that I'd like to have some storage space up in the attic and ultimately, that we'll put in an insulated shed at the rear as well.
So - wish us luck for the baby and the finishing the rest of the foundations this week!
Really glad the FastFoot worked out for you.
ReplyDeleteLooks like things are progressing well on both the house and the baby.
Your windows are indeed very early. Best practice holds production of windows until manufacturer comes and performs final measurement check of all rough openings. You are now going to need to double and triple check the openings with your crew to ensure all are sized appropriately included the slack around each frame as recommended by the manufacturer.
Glad you are at the stage where stuff starts to go back together instead of ripped apart. Surprises should start to wean off and it is a lot more emotionally rewarding.