Foundation Issues

Tue, Dec 11, 2018

Last week, our structural engineers pushed back on the numbers provided by the geotech. The geotech agreed to re-review the numbers and see if there was a way to increase them.

Well, we heard back today, and we can basically double the capacities! Yay!

It’s actually not very good news. With the original numbers, the pilings would have to be placed at 3’ on center. Since the pilings are 2’ in diameter, that meant they would be spaced just a foot apart from each other. It would be impossible to bore out holes that close together.

By doubling the numbers, we can stretch the spacing to about 5’ on center, which means the holes are still just 3’ apart. That doesn’t work. The piling option is a no-go.

If you recall, our remaining options are to dig a deepened footing, or move the house. I’ve been against the deepened footing because of safety reasons. The footings would need to sit at least 10’ deeper than where we are now. To dig a 10’ trench may be possible, but who is going to jump down in that trench and lay the rebar? Or set the forms for the wall coming up?

I’ve been watching trench digging safety videos on YouTube. Any trench over 4’ deep is no joke. Even with training and proper equipment, people still die doing that kind of work. I have neither.

We’ve already taken measurements to see if we could even move the house. We can’t. Not without redesigning it, at least. We have no where near the room to move it to the other build pad. Even if we scooted the house to the south by 10’, we would not have the needed width for the garage (which has the masters directly above it, so we can’t just make the garage smaller). If we move the house, we have to start over with the design.

I’ve said before that there is some excitement in the challenges we have been facing on this project. This is the first one that is just depressing. In fact, it’s the first time that I have some real doubt in our ability to develop this project.

Our options are:

  1. Deepened footing
  2. Redesign house so that it can be moved
  3. Cancel project

This was also the day I decided to start this website. I had been keeping some notes on the build, but didn’t have them all in one spot, and in as much detail as I wanted. Sometimes writing out your problem can reveal a solution you would not have thought of otherwise. Or maybe I just wanted to have something to show for all our effort, if we indeed decide to cancel the project.

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