Backfilling and Grading…

Late this afternoon Paul called with an update saying that the backfilling and rough grading of the site was well under way. The girls and I visited The “L” Shaped House on our way home from the Pratt’s house and took the these photos just as the sun disappeared. The grading around the front and side really changes the “look and feel” of the site (it no longer feels like the house is way too high). The rough grading out back so radically changed the landscape that I could not get used to it before darkness fell. We will now get together with Brett and talk about how many walls to build…what to build them with…and where they will go.

Helen, Anna, and I decided to have a ceremonial “first basement walk–in/walk-out” just before we left for home… fun stuff!

The JLM sign…

I stopped by at noon and was about to leave thinking that there was nothing new to report when the sign in the yard caught my eye…now I’ll have a place to hang a basket full of  The “L” Shaped House Blog Cards!

How big is the garage?…

This question or the “that's a really big garage” comment are heard often around the “L” Shaped House. I put together a quick sketch of the garage with scaled drawings of a full size pick-up, a Chevrolet Tahoe, and a Mazda Miata “parked” inside. It doesn't look like the garage is going to be any too big to me.

The Garage Floor Footing…

The “L” Shaped House garage will have a single post between the third and fourth stalls. The post will support the center of an “I” beam that the end wall of the bonus room above the garage sits on. We poured a big footing in the garage floor to support the post. In addition to supporting the bonus room we plan to install a  jib crane on the upright post to be used for light duty lifting (200 lbs).

Jib Crane specifications (click on the picture)…

Concrete Flat Work…Day 5

The Slettens poured the second half of the garage at The “L” Shaped House early this morning. I stopped by at about 9:30 just in time to catch some of the finishing operations on the slab. The photos show Matt working an edging tool and Jim running the power trowel. The Video is an extended look at the power trowel in operation.

Fun Facts…

• The floor is 6 inches thick throughout the garage…
• There are 25 1/2  yards of concrete in the garage floor (more than 100,000 lbs)…
• There is one “tooled” edge down the middle of the space and nine control joints (Zip Strips)…

The last photo shows Jim Sletten working the power trowel over the garage floor. He has added a water pail to the handle and occasionally sprinkles some on the surface as he works the trowel. They will cover the floor with plastic before they leave. Jim will be back to help pour the new basement floor in a few weeks and Matt will be doing the tile work in the “L” Shaped House, but finishing the garage floor marks an important milestone in the project…the foundation is done!

The garage floor at 3:30 this afternoon, all covered up in plastic curing away…slowly…

Zip Strips…

Matt Sletten is using Zip Strips from Superior Profiles to control cracks in the finished concrete floors. 

 

The first two photos below show Matt and Jim Sletten installing a Zip Strip in the garage floor. The last photo captures Jim as he  “un-zips” a strip after installation (it’s all in the hips).

Concrete Flat Work…Day 5

The first half of The “L” Shaped House garage floor being poured early this morning. Matt and Chuck haul wheelbarrows full of concrete across the garage while Jim works the screed and a hand trowel. The first photo that has Matt in motion captures the atmosphere nicely (it’s non-stop action).

This photo shows the whole operation. The first truck is empty and just starting the clean up process. The second truck is filling one of the first wheelbarrows. Matt and Chuck are moving cement while Jim works the trowel and screed. The video below shows the action as the working space shrinks into just one corner.

This last photo shows a panoramic view of the work site with the second half of the garage floor visible at the bottom.

 

Aaahhh… A good day’s work. The first half of the garage at noon.

Concrete Flat Work…Day 4

The photos below show the reinforcing rod laid out on the compacted fill ready for the concrete pour tomorrow morning. The reinforcing rods will overlap the ledge around the inside of the garage formed by the foundation walls. The open cores in the foundation walls will be filled with cement. The fill is purposely set a couple of inches higher than the ledge causing the slab to be a couple of inches thicker around the edges. The slab will be “pitched” (2  1/2 ” front-to-back) to the overhead doors to prevent water from collecting inside the garage. The wood stakes are set to gauge the height of the finished slab. The slab will end up being about 6 inches thick.

Back-Filling and Concrete Preparations…

Matt decided to compact the back-filled regions both inside and outside the garage a few more times before pouring the concrete floor. The first photo shows Sam and Helen (last night) inspecting the progress inside the foundation walls. The bottom photos show the back-filled section outside the garage as Chuck works to compact the fill. The big rains over the weekend have aided the compacting process but turned the job into a muddy experience. The plan is to pour at 6:30 am tomorrow and Friday.

Concrete Flat Work…Day 3

The Sletten crew is preparing the first half of the garage floor to be poured tomorrow morning. They plan to pour second half on Thursday. The rain over the weekend caused the fill to settle to the point where we needed an additional 7 yards to bring the edges back up to grade. Matt also pumped all the water out of the deep trench adjacent the basement walkout door in preparation for back filling the footings and foundation walls planned for Friday. The excavator will start on the rough grading of the back yard at the same time he is back filling the foundation. We are doing it in this order (garage floor before framing) because the basement walkout grading will  “cut off” access to the garage from the West side of the property (and driveway) and the new driveway on the East will not be put in until later this fall.