Some pics from the day, all went well, I'm told the rock came out in relatively big chunks...pretty amazing what that excavator can move.
So by the looks of things after blasting today, it seems like there will be plenty of natural drainage under the footings. The blasting guy commented..."you're not going to have any water problems". The plan is still to run perforated pipe in stone on both sides of all the footers, and he said they use sand to backfill against the foundation walls, I think the plan is to just paint the outside of the concrete with some sort of waterproofer, no mention of a membrane but I will ask the next time I talk to the head boss man.
I painted our foundations for our house with a thick tarry coating and 37 years later our basement is still dry.
Pretty cool! You have some great landscaping rocks now. Stack those up and make a great water feature around your fire pit.
Thoroseal. It's the only way to go. Thoro Thoroseal Waterproof Coating Gray 50 lb.(T1018) - Tile Grout & Mortar - Ace Hardware Used it in Alaska for foundation sealer. Used it to build a septic tank. Dry stack blocks and put 3 coats on the inside. Pour a top on it. When the inside cures, sound echos just like a metal bell. I used it to rebuild my cistern walls. Holds water like a balloon now. Resurfaced all the concrete block retaining walls. They look like brand new now.
The blasting brings me back to when I was a kid. The town installed sewer in our neighborhood and had to do a ton of blasting. We’d go around at the end of the day and collect the different colored wires- they were a trading commodity if you had the unique color
Things are moving a little slower than i would like. Footers and frost walls went in this week, concrete guy said he likely wouldn't be back to do the walls and slab for 2-3 weeks
Said he's busy with other jobs already lined up and waiting. We had our plans done and deposited back in Feb, oh and we just found out he had to hire a pump truck because there was no way to get the cement truck close enough...that'll be another $800 X2 ...once for the footers and once for the frost walls.
Seems to me he's not scheduling or planning ahead very well. He should have known what equipment he'd need, and quoted appropriately. I'd be frustrated as well.
Savor every moment. Along the way, don't let the details get you down. It will all work out. ….rinse and repeat.
That’s not a bad idea really, the concrete will take 30 days to reach full strength. Long straight runs of concrete tend to crack while curing you’ll be able to see if they did it right. Plus any good rains will show areas that need drainage addressed now as opposed to later. I rarely hire out work and when building anything I just remember Rome wasn’t built in a day
Took a tour of the modular factory today and got to see our two modules under construction. They should be done next week some time. The factory is radiant floor heated fired by a wood boiler, they use the cut offs to heat the place. Last year they started using this computer controlled cutting machine. Lumber in one side Perfectly cut pieces according to the plans out the other, including any drilling for plumbing and wiring...even routing if needed and the cut pieces are even marked for assembly...just align and nail. The factory guy said the machine replaced a dozen or so guys doing the work by hand and cut waste so much that they ran out of wood to fire the boiler last year.
