Pouring Footings

This week had the footings ready to pour on Wednesday and Scott Seabrooke came to assist with this fun activity. We picked one of the worst days of the summer with the weather over 30 C and high humidity.

It was very tough work and we all went through gallons of water trying to stay hydrated. We couldn't stop for a rest because the concrete was setting rapidly in the heat. We also had to get all the rebar dowels set for the columns and along the sides where the foundation is reinforced because of the high backfill elevation.

Thursday saw the forms being stripped, drainage pipe being laid around the perimeter and the stone being placed around the footings and under the basement floor area. There was a lot of stone (four truck loads). I was glad that it was on the "stone slinger" truck and we weren't having to wheelbarrow it around to get it in place.

Excavation for House

Last week saw the excavation and footing forms being constructed. Drain Bros arrived on Monday July 23rd and spent two days doing the house excavation. They had a very large backhoe and as expected, we hit the limestone rock layers around 1.5m (5 ft) below the surface.
This rock bottom meant over excavating as we followed a layer. It also presented problems for securing the footing forms as the normal process of driving stakes in the ground, just doesn't work on layers of rock.

Having 14 separate pier footings (front & rear verandah's and screened porch) outside the main foundation also meant a very large excavation.

Jeff got lots of exercise bending steel reinforcing rods for placement in the footings.