diggin' the walkout

[frwinks]

Finally got the OK from the building dept. to start diggin'... and after 15hr of seat time I'm 75% there. The wall I'm diggin out is 26' x 8' tall and I'm going out about 60'-70' out to level (with a slight slope away from the hose). Diggin' in pond clay (tea time of over 85) is soooo much fun. I'm also hauling the dirt about 200ft away from the house one bucket @ a time
now for da pics..

first and second pass



forming the pile


some hidden gems




one bucket @ a time


the inspector


end of day one.. 10hr


The front turfs on the tractor were not in the best shape to begin with. The stress of full buckets of clay being carried all day long was all they needed to call it quits. I ordered a set of Carlisle TrackChiefs from StateWide tire in IL, who happened to have the 25x8.5x14's in stock, and had them delivered by my bro within a week. The new tires are a huge improvement and with a max load of just over 2100lbs. per tire, I don't think they will have any problems handling whatever I can throw at the tractor

 

[frwinks]

a shot from this morning...another 4-5hrs and I'm there


and enough clay to line a small lake


next on the list is dig all around the house to replace the weeping tile and under pin four corners of the house for point loads for the addition. Hopefully one day we'll have something that looks like this or something with a roof/windows/walls and such (this is just a SU model to show the framework)

 

[JDeerekid]

Wow nice work. It is amazing what these little compact tractors can do. Keep us updated with more pics. We love pics.

 

[Gizmo2]

A lot of work. Bet there are plenty on here that would give quite a bit to have the real seat time you have had thus far on this project.

 

[frwinks]

Over the long weekend I put in another 12hrs and finished moving all the dirt and digging the entire perimeter of the house down to the footings.
Now that that's out of the way, I can work on the new footings, get the concrete truck in and move on to blocking the new wall.

 

[johnk]

FRwinks,

I sure wish I had a project like that to do. You reqlly have gotten a lot done for the time you were working on the job. Nice work and keep us posted. thanks for the pics..

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

great job!
excellent project!
look forward to seeing more of it.

 

[atgreene]

Looks good! Be real careful of a cave-ins if you get down in the hole. That's a narrow hole to be in if it lets go.

 

[frwinks]

Looks good! Be real careful of a cave-ins if you get down in the hole. That's a narrow hole to be in if it lets go.

didn't help that the backfill was sand...man that stuff moves fast
good thing the only portion dug by hand was a small section (8') under the enclosed porch. Other than the sand the rest is all red clay, that stuff doesn't move

another 20hrs diggin this weekend, some by hand, some with the hoe. With a new lower grade on the back we had to address the frost issue. Our engineer designed a 6ft corner underpinning that will take care of that.
Since it's not recommended to drop down 4ft in one shot, he designed two zones. Zone1 (closest to the wall edge) goes down 4ft and zone2, which starts 3ft back from the edge goes down 2ft. We decided to tackle zone2 this weekend plus some of the footings inside the house.
the corner accesible from outside (don't mind the dog... he was trying to burry all his toys in every hole we dug)


this corner can only be accessed from inside


My girl setting up for the dig


a new 42x42x18 footing will go under this corner



and the existing 24x24x8 pads will be replaced with 36x36x12 to support new 10x10's instead of steel jackposts.


Now I just have to form all this stuff for Wed. inspection and hopefully pour on Thur.

 

[POC]

You, my friend, need a dumptruck!

If I start up there to Ontario in my DT now, I'd get there about this time next year.
It's a 1958 IH.

 

[frwinks]

You, my friend, need a dumptruck!

If I start up there to Ontario in my DT now, I'd get there about this time next year.
It's a 1958 IH.

NICE...I'll start plannin' now

just a quick update...everything went as planned on our first pour, 4footings and both zone2's done in under an hr.
Big red




one of the zones gettin' filled


This pad is 4'x4' and will hold two of the main posts of the frame, a 12x12 and a 10x10. We thought we'd have some fun with it since it's right in the center of the basement. We'll end up polishing and covering it with claystone (we have quite the collection of stone forming from all the diggin')

 

[3RRL]

Man, quite a project. You have dug and moved tons of dirt!
Are you sure it was you or girl that did all that? It's great to see everybody involved.

 

[frwinks]

shhhh.. don't give away the secrets
Both of us have been working hard and having fun @ the same time with this project so far.. just want to finish this phase before the cold sets in....for the next 4-5 months

We poured the rest of the footing pads, and both zone 1's for the underpinning on Friday. After getting the concrete truck stuck and unstuck, we poured just over 5 meters in under an hr again.




We poured a 24"x8" footing for the new prow wall.


and finished off the pads inside the basement.



yet another load of stone Tammy collected


Saturday night we decided to take down the existing wall. Our mason recommended to re-use the 10" blocks from this wall for the new prow wall. Since the blocks are solid and it's saving us $$$$, I figured I'd save him some work (and us more $$) and take in AWNNN

8pm


found someones juice can from the 70's in one of the blocks around 9:30pm


10pm


11:30pm


all blocks cleaned and ready for Ray the mason around 12:30pm

 

[Egon]

Really nice pictorial tour of the job. Thanks for posting.

But one thing; now that you are finished. Some folks say you are not supposed to dig with a loader bucket!!!

 

[Luremaker]

That's one big job you guys are undertaking! I hope you can get it all closed up before the snow flies. We had snow flakes in the air on the weekend. Winter's coming fast.

 

[frwinks]

thanks and we should have it "winterized" in the next two weeks...fingers crossed....

We laid the prow frost wall and started the center pilaster yesterday... a lot of cutting, but I think it looks wicked (too bad I have to backfill it all now). With the long weekend coming up, we should get most of what needs to be done...done (framing the prow wall, floor extension, and weeping tile laid out for inspeciton next week).

 

[frwinks]

we didn't get as much as I wanted done, but the wall is up and the floor extension is in. Looking back, we should've formed and poured the frost wall and the pilasters I spent half a day filling hollow block cells with TypeS mortar
With the temps falling quickly around here, I'm hoping to get the weeping tile/waterproofing/insulation done this weekend and finally backfill around the house

 

[rtdiggr]

WOW nice work, it looks like it is coming along nicely. That is a beautiful part of Ont. you live in.

Shane

 

[frwinks]

hey, thanks!! where in ON are you?

well, we had out first snow fall today.. a week too early IMO
After wirebrushings most of the old tar/sand damproofing off the walls, we applied BlueSeal waterproofing membrane. The stuff was pretty easy to apply with brushes, smelled OK, and turned the basement walls a pretty blue color, which Tammy really liked.



Unfortunately, it did not dry in the 24hrs they claim on the label (I guess due to cold temps at night), so Sunday we spent cleaning up and insulating/backfilling the prow wall.
It finally turned dark blue yesterday, about 48hrs later, ready for backfill in most cases (and code). We dediced to go the extra step in making sure our basement is dry.
We attached the Delta plastic membrane last night, again a pretty easy process. Once everything is laid out, it goes quick and the .22 caliber Ramset is fun to work with

 

[rtdiggr]

Little Vegas aka Niagara Falls

Shane