Porches Prepped - Day 12

So, I am really only counting working days where there's some significant time (half day or more) or work accomplished.  We're at Day 12 now, though there have been many days here and there sitting, with nothing happening.

Today was about a half day I think.

You can see that they added a bit of fill (granite dust and crumbles from drilling our water well) and compacted it, then added welded wire for reinforcing the concrete. Our porch is about 9ft x 20 ft.

Here is our front porch/pad.  It is 4ft x 8ft .  We will probably brick/paver/flagstone in an area around it as well.  You can see the welded wire within the frame.

Another view of the front porch pad.

Here's the finished utility room pad.  It was poured and textured (for safety) yesterday, but they did some sloped fill around it and tamped it down.







So, the plan for Monday is to stain our concrete slab.  Next Thursday the front and back porch slabs will be poured.  They will eventually be stained with the same stain as the interior slab.

Slab poured!!

So, we're at Day 11 of real work now.  Today the slab was poured!

Two truck loads of concrete were used.  I think in the end we used about 18 cubic yards.  19 was ordered, so we had a bit more than we needed.  We were able to pour the utility room "porch", but the other two pads weren't ready (and the workers needed to be able to move through those areas anyway).  Better to have a bit too much than not enough!

The concrete crew was very efficient, they were impressive to watch.  Our house was sort of divided into quarters and they began pouring in the western most "quarter" first.

You can see the metal "pins" that the concrete crew installed here - they have supports on them to hold the metal "board" that they used to create a temporary form and then they used it to scree the concrete.

Here's the shower form and drain form readied for the slab pour.  Our contractor will later create the more finished pan for the shower that we'll then tile or plaster over.  Not sure yet.

Here's the crew waiting for the first pour for the first quarter of our slab.

To handle some of the extra, a form was built for the utility room "porch".

The first of the pour is being directed into the interior weight bearing wall, on top of the concrete poured when the footings were poured.

Here's a video showing the technique this crew uses to spread the cement.  Hard work!












The first one quarter is poured and screed.

Waiting on the chute to be adjusted for the second quarter.

Second quarter is being screed.

Half the slab is poured and screed now.

Third quarter being poured. This is still the first truck load.

Still working on the third quarter pour.

The foreman climbed up the chute to get the last bit out from the first truck, still on the third quarter pour.

Cleaning it up a bit while up there.

The second truck has been backed in and is being directed so it can finish the third quarter pour.

While the rest of the crew was working on the third quarter pour, one fellow began using this tool:  roller tamper.  It helps to push the aggregate down.  He rolled it in each direction (East-West and then North-South) on the half already poured and screed.   There were multiple handle sections he could put on or take off depending on how far he needed to reach.

A different angle and closer up.

Roller Tamper again.

Next up, this fellow used a bull float on the poured half.  He did it in both directions again.  It's a very heavy looking tool.  It left definite lines.

This shows the bull float in use from a distance, you can see how far out he is able to reach.

Here, you can see the lines this tool leaves behind.

While the one guy was working on the troweling and the rest of the crew continued with the pour and screeing, our contractor set these bolts in the south facing wall's slab. Our south facing wall will be our only exterior stick framed wall.  The house is passive solar, so there's a lot of glass and it didn't make sense to try and make this wall a bale wall.

Here the fellow is using a fresno trowel, similar looking to a hand held pool trowel (rounded ends).  He did this in both directions also.

They are screeing the third quarter and about ready for the fourth and final.











After waiting a bit, the surface is ready for two men to work a smaller fresno in sweeping motions on the first half of the slab.

Here you can see them both working.  They rested the handles on their shoulders and would sweep the fresnos back and forth.  They had to be very careful of the angle.  Hard work engaging the core muscles for sure and lots of upper body movements.

This is called a power trowel.  The foreman here had a bottle of water he squirted ahead of the machine in the direction he was going.  This machine buffs and smooths the surface.  It is generally how commercial concrete floors are done.  It also does some more compacting as it works, creating a really hard surface.

Here's the finished slab.

It's been getting into the upper 80s and lower 90s.  Our pour began at 7am to try and beat the heat and let the concrete have time to really harden before potential monsoon rains in the afternoon.  Our contractor covered the slab with plastic to hold the moisture in and slow the cure down, while also protecting the slab from a possible hard rain.

While the concrete crew worked the slab, our plumber visited again.  He ran our bathroom drain line and our water supply lines to the bathroom under where our porch slab will be.







Quite a lot done today!

Pouring the Footings!

So, this week the guys worked really hard.  The footings were poured Monday. Brent has been gone, so when Brian needed a few branches trimmed and a scrub oak removed for the concrete truck's access - it fell to me.  Fortunately I have used our chainsaw before and Brent had just either sharpened the chain or put a new one on - it cut like butter!

Brian had asked for the smaller truck due to the tightness of access and that they were only filling narrow trenches (the footings) with cement, so it did take two truck loads. The truck was able to back in to the front southwest corner and all along the east side of the house.  A wheel barrow was used a bit in the middle portions, where the truck's chute couldn't quite reach.  There were probably about 4-5 guys from the cement company and then Brian and Robin working - all working hard and efficiently.  Looked like a well rehearsed task for all of them.

They began with filling the south footing.

Here they are filling in the trench for the footing for the interior weight bearing wall.  This was not smoothed and was left rough and "chunky".  The slab will be poured right onto it.













Here you can see they've been working on smoothing the surface of the footings and Brian is embedding the "j" (or "L") bolts into the concrete footing.  The sill plates will have matching holes drilled into them and be set down onto those bolts.

Here's an overall picture of the End of Day 7.

You can see the bolts better here.  The darker ones without nuts are where the box beams will sit.

This shows the difference in the footings.  So, the higher, smoothed  surface is the footings for the bale walls.  The rougher, lower concrete filled trench are weight bearing walls that will be stick frame and have the slab poured right on top.  Our south facing wall has so much glass (passive solar) that it made more sense to make it a stick frame wall rather than a bale wall.

This is showing the interior weight bearing wall in the east side of the house (looking north).

This picture is looking to the northeast and is our bedroom/walk in closet/bathroom.

This is our front door.

This is looking to our guest room/office (front/south side of house) and the utility room (rear/north side of house).  You can also make out the location of the interior weight bearing wall for the west side of the house.

Here I am standing at the southwest corner (front) of the house looking to the east along the south facing/front wall.

Here, I am standing at the northwest corner, looking to the east along the northern (strawbale) wall.















Feels like lots of progress made!!!

A Little Progress

The plumber came out and did the first round of plumbing stuff on June 26th.  This was Day 6 of actual work days..  We had to decide where we wanted the on demand water heater.  Initially the plans were for one in the bathroom and one under the kitchen sink.  But, I wanted hot water for the washing machine in the utility room.  I rarely use hot water, but I wanted the option.  So, it was decided to put a single, larger unit in the utility room.

The plumbing inspection was done on the 27th and we passed.  Brian came out and did find that the plumber was off by 2" (too short) for the vent pipe for the toilet.  He thinks it will still be fine as it will be running up a load bearing wall and our load bearing interior walls will be framed with 2x6's.

The close up plumbing stuff you see, the forefront of the picture, is the bathroom.

And, then things just sort of sat.  I was wondering why, but trying to be patient.  I finally emailed and was told he was waiting for the bamboo.  I said we don't need the bamboo until we are putting the bale walls up.  Well, he had thought to use the bamboo in the same way that rebar used to be used under the old codes - embed one end into the concrete and stab your first course or two of bales down into the bamboo.  We didn't feel that necessary and possibly even a bad idea.  We talked about it and in the end we all agreed to not do the embedded bamboo.  So, they could get going again, but by then it was July 3rd.  They finished the footings rebar and then we just had to wait for the footings inspection.

The footings inspection happened on July 9th.  We live in a rural area.  There are no inspectors here in our county.  They come from a small city 2 hrs away twice/week to our county.  So, you have to sort of plan ahead and get on their schedule or you might have to wait a while.

The earliest concrete pour he could schedule (with a morning appt as it is hot here) is for July 15th.  So, that is where we are sitting.  The footings pour will occur this coming Monday morning and Brian and his helper, Robin, will begin prepping the pad for the slab pour.  There will be another inspection, which Brian will get scheduled for probably on July 23rd. The slab pour is scheduled for a nice and early 7am either on July 25th or 26th.  I think once that slab is down, things will move along a bit faster.  I feel like we've been sitting around with nothing happening since June 26th, so I'm feeling a bit impatient.  Especially as the first week saw so much get done so quickly.