Footing Work
Wed, May 15, 2019Now that I’ve got four square corners, we just need to “connect the dots” with form boards (2x10’s) and make sure they’re level as we go. I’ve also got a family friend, Scott, coming up for the day today. He is in the construction business and between the two of us, I am hoping we can be placing rebar by the end of the day.
While I waited for him to commute over from the west side, I started moving material. We have 20 more 2x10’s that need to be moved down to the basement. Getting these close to the ladder (to be slid down the ladder later) is good enough for now. We also have 20 sheets of plywood and about 100 2x4s that are currently in the way. These were delivered last week so that we can build stem wall forms. I got all that moved out of the way, and turned my attention to the rebar.
Each bundle probably weighs about 50 to 80 pounds. For now, I am just moving it close to the ladder. I will have to figure out a way to get it down the ladder later. If anyone is into crossfit, I’ve got a gym with a view and membership is free!
When Scott showed up, he wanted to double check square, and set pins for the outside wall, which is not the same as the outside of the footing. The basement wall sits off center from our footing (there are structural reasons for this that I do not fully understand).
He also started calculating the length of the diagonals for the basement. This is the third mistake we made on Saturday. We were simply trying to make the diagonals be equal (which does in fact tell you its square), but knowing what the actual diagonal should be would have more easily told us if a corner should be pushed in or out.
We spent a couple hours checking square, and setting pins for the outside of the wall. Spending this time would probably mean we aren’t going to get to rebar today, but I have no regrets. Scott was able to confirm that the corners I set yesterday were square (except for one corner being off by about an inch), and he also set pins and string lines for the outside of the basement wall, and these were also square. Having string lines for the basement wall ensures that wall will sit correctly on the footings, and provides a reference line when we start to set our vertical rebar. Any mistakes on the foundation will last for the life of the project so spending some extra time to make sure it is correct is wise.
While he was doing all that, I started moving rebar down to the basement. A gentle toss onto the pile of gravel made the work a lot easier. The below picture shows about half of it moved.
Scott set the front footing form all the way down to the beginning of the stepped area.
It started raining and things always move a bit slower in the rain. We paired up and worked on the stepped footing forms together. This is the shared wall between the basement and the shed.
We were starting to run out of time. We could either finish the forms for the basement or make a real dent in the forms for the shed (north side of basement). Since the shed forms are probably a two-man job, we opted for that, and got pretty far.
The pins have mostly been easy to drive into the ground. We have a lot of (large) rock, but with steel pins and a large enough hammer, they find their way in. As we started working on north east corner (outside footing for shed), we were on solid rock, and the pins would not set. We could get them in only 2 or 3 inches. To give the forms strength, we doubled and tripled up the number of pins we were using, which meant we ran out of pins. I will get more tomorrow.
I was going to work Thursday too, but I accidentally locked myself out of my dad’s cabin Thursday morning and lost half a day getting another key. I did record this site tour video though, which does a much better job showing where we are at with everything.
I want to be pouring concrete in early June. We have about a half day to full day of form work left, and I am guessing two days of rebar work. Then I can schedule an inspection with the county.
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