House Build 2023

   / House Build 2023
  • Thread Starter
#91  
So, I'm not exactly up to real time with this post. Here are some blocks for your enjoyment.

A crew came out to start laying and got rained out so they set up the layout and staged some blocks.
20230714_172706.jpg

I got a text at work from my small child that "people are here". By the time I got home for lunch they had already finished and were packing up. They couldn't have been there more than 3-4 hours.
20230717_112825.jpg20230717_193313.jpg
 
   / House Build 2023 #92  
It's truly amazing what an experienced crew can get done in such a short amount of time!!!!
 
   / House Build 2023 #93  
4570Man has it about right for my area too. As many twists and turns as this house has, I can't imagine it would have been any cheaper to put up batter boards and pull strings.

I did not measure the trench but I think it was a 2' bucket. Those blocks are 8" wide if I remember correctly and it looks like the footer is about 3 blocks wide.

It takes forever to put up batter boards especially with any hill involved. And if you messed up you could spend thousands fixing it. It’s well worth the money for the surveyor to do it IMO.
 
   / House Build 2023
  • Thread Starter
#94  
I think that got us to around the 4th of July.
20230701_203513.jpg

And a break to plant an apple tree. I decided against the shovel...
20230701_173439.jpg
 
   / House Build 2023
  • Thread Starter
#95  
Next was filling the foundation in with sand. I should have done this part myself, could have saved a couple thousand on this step. But, not having experience I thought there was more to it. The block layers just left out a couple of areas to give the dump truck a way in. Dump trucks brought material, the dirt guy used a mini X to move the sand around to course grade then walked a little D4 dozer up to compact and do the bulk of the fine grading, then it was rakes.

Looks like quite a few pieces of equipment out here...
20230724_114545.jpg

Gaps in the blocks
20230720_175211.jpg

Good and level.
20230724_114704.jpg

Cleaned back out for the block layers to fill back in.
20230724_114701.jpg
 
   / House Build 2023
  • Thread Starter
#96  
This is the real reason I was a little miffed about paying someone to grade the foundation... It was a wasted effort. The plumbers left it as bad as if it was never leveled in the first place! The first thing they did was dig a bunch out of the garage area to pile on top of the blocks to get their mini x on top. Then dug another big area out for material to pile onto another set of blocks to get it into the house.

At least the plumbing looks good though. It passed inspection with no more than a cursory glance. Inspector was out of his truck no more than 30 seconds.

20230803_131624.jpg

Oh, and I forgot to show the safe room in the post above. Blocks go all the way down to the footer with re-bar up in the blocks that is poured into the footer.
20230720_175153.jpg
 
   / House Build 2023 #98  
Next was filling the foundation in with sand. I should have done this part myself, could have saved a couple thousand on this step. But, not having experience I thought there was more to it. The block layers just left out a couple of areas to give the dump truck a way in. Dump trucks brought material, the dirt guy used a mini X to move the sand around to course grade then walked a little D4 dozer up to compact and do the bulk of the fine grading, then it was rakes.

Looks like quite a few pieces of equipment out here...
View attachment 819018

Gaps in the blocks
View attachment 819017

Good and level.
View attachment 819020

Cleaned back out for the block layers to fill back in.
View attachment 819019

Slab houses aren’t a big thing in my area but I’ve built 2. The first time I graded the area slick and accurate to grade. And the same thing happened that the plumber made a big mess. Also the added volume from the pipe required material to be removed. From that experience I decided to just dump the material in the best I could with the skid steer and not rake anything and also leave it several inches low. Then do the final grade work after the plumbing is done.
 
   / House Build 2023 #99  
If I ever get around to buying property and building our retirement home, I plan to hire Eddie Walker as a consultant :) I'm always amazed at the little nuances that Eddie chimes in with that make perfect sense and can only be learned by "been there, done that". The 42" door is a prime example.

We have some friends in OK that built their retirement home. The main structure of the house is actually (3) Morton Building barn packages. Their house design is about 100% perfection as anything I could have ever dream up. In fact, when we visited them the other week, they gave us their plans to copy. Like others, I want my Master bedroom closet to connect directly to the laundry/utility room and I want that Laundry/Utility room to have a door to the outside, so I have access to the garden and a clothesline. Our friends did a massive utility room/laundry room that even slopes to a central floor drain. The entire room serves as a laundry, farmers kitchen, which could also allow game processing if you put a stainless table in the center and/or you could grow indoor hydroponics against one of the walls. Attached to this room, they have a big walk-in pantry, that I'd reconfigure as a walk-in gun safe, storm shelter. It's a really well-designed house layout.
 
   / House Build 2023 #100  
I've been really impressed with everything that has been done to build your house so far until I saw the wire mesh. Technically, wire is stronger then rebar at holding concrete together. Concrete will always crack, but the goal is to minimize it. Two ways to do this is using as little water as possible in the mix, and reinforcing it with metal, like rebar.

For the rebar to work, it needs to be on chairs so it's at 1/3 up from the bottom, to the middle of the slab. The same applies for wire, but since it's impossible to walk on wire while spreading it, the biggest lie in construction is told over and over again. We'll pull it up while spreading the concrete. And for the first half hour, they do this for pictures, but then they get too busy spreading the concrete, and quite pretending. I've seen crews where a guy was supposed to just pull up the wire, but he never makes it through the entire pour. Even worse, when they do play that game, and pull up the wire, they walk on top of the wire and push it back down again.
100% of ever slab done with wire ends up with the wire under the slab.

The main reason to use wire is it's easier. No tying, no bending, and a lot less physical work. Guys who do this also tend to add too much water to the mix. You have to be there to make sure they don't add extra water. Water creates volume, when that volume evaporates, you are left with a solid mass that has to deal with losing all that volume. This is why concrete cracks!!!! The less water it has to evaporate, the fewer the cracks. In a perfect pour, the cracks are all so fine and minor that it's almost impossible to see them. In a wet pour, the cracks can be massive!!!!

Cracking from a lack of compaction will take a decade to happen, and even then, it's pretty rare. Cracking from too much water is very very common.

If the concrete is flowing like liquid when they pour it, you have too much water. It should slump. It should pile up on itself and not want to flow. This is where all the work is, spreading concrete that doesn't want to spread is very hard work. Adding water so it flows easily is ten times easier for them. If you have a lazy crew, they will add water. It spreads easier, it finishes easier, and they are out of there sooner. The cracks will start in a few days, long after they are gone. And then you just have to live with it.
 

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