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It will take several days to complete the stem wall.
We passed inspection and the footings were poured today.
The county will inspect the footings tomorrow. One thing we are sure of is this house will never fall down. All the footings are wider than the requirements for footings in houses back east and the county requires hurricane straps.
Second day of preparing the footings.
They completed raising the lot today and will stake the outline of the house tomorrow and perform a compaction test. One good thing about the county requiring us to raise the lot is that we will have a better view … Continue reading
The county required the lot height be raised from 1.5 feet in the back to approximately 3 feet in the front to ensure our house does not flood when it rains. Rain in Arizona? Actually, it may not rain often, … Continue reading
As they fill in the soil, they must compact it and test the compaction. The vibratory rammer reduces the air pockets and voids and increases the density and strength of the soil. After the compaction, a nuclear gauge was used … Continue reading
They completed the framing today and will start to backfill the basement on Monday.
They started framing the basement today and were able to get it about 2/3 completed.
The basement waterproofing and the drain pipe installation was completed this afternoon.
The framer came this morning to go over the basement walls with our builder. The squiggly lines are all the changes my hubby made on the fly to the entrance to the storage room.
They delivered the lumber for the basement walls this morning and will start framing on Thursday.
The power trowel used for the final step in finishing the wet concrete was too heavy to carry up the ladder and over the top, so they used the concrete pumper truck to lift it into the basement.
They finished removing the exterior concrete forms today. The plumber will be here later today to rough-in the basement plumbing. Next, the termite pre-treatment will be applied to the soil before the basement floor is poured.
They hefted these large forms up and over the 11ft wall and then carried them across a single beam that spanned the hole.
They insert a metal vibrator, which is on the end of a long hose, into the wet concrete every couple feet to ensure it does not have any air pockets in it. They will begin to remove the forms tomorrow.
We passed the basement walls inspection. They will pour the walls on Monday. The house elevation will be about where the support boards on the left side meet the wall forms (not the walkway boards). They will backfill and raise … Continue reading
We passed the basement walls height inspection.
They have completed building the forms to pour the concrete basement walls. Now we must wait for two inspections; the inside of the walls and the height of the basement.
Finally, we are back in business!! We have been fighting with the county permit office for the last few weeks. After reviewing the new footer plans for a couple of weeks, they discovered a page was missing from the plans. … Continue reading
While we were waiting on the county to review the new footer plans, we had 2 inches of rain on Saturday, March 1. The rain washed the dirt into the one corner of the basement footer forms.
We are still in a holding pattern. The county has required the builder to submit a whole new set of building plans for the footer corrections. They approved changes to the roof over the counter, but would not approve the … Continue reading
Now we must wait on the county for inspection. We switched builders in December after we could not agree on a price. The engineer for that builder had footers 7 ft wide and 18 inches deep on the plans. Footers … Continue reading
Monday 1/27 – back to work. Concrete sub-contractor building the forms for the concrete footers which will hold up the house. These measurements are critical.
The dirt pile at the end of the 3rd day. Some of the dirt will be used to backfill the basement after the walls are poured. The rest will be used to raise the lot. The county is requiring us … Continue reading
February 20, 2014
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It took 3 full days to excavate the basement. At the end of day 3, it is finally ready.
February 20, 2014
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The pile keeps climbing. The excavator says this type of dirt expands by 50% out of the hole.
February 20, 2014
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2:00pm – end of 2nd day. We thought they would have the basement completed today – not to be. It seems more dirt falls back in than comes out.
February 20, 2014
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1/22 9:37 am – starting the 2nd day.
February 20, 2014
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Dirt pile at the end of the 1st day.
February 20, 2014
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4:46pm – end of 1st day. Due to the requirement to water the dirt, this is all they accomplished on the first day.
February 20, 2014
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The white pole is to measure the depth of the basement hole. They build a ledge at four feet to ensure the ground does not cave in. They will place a fence around the property tomorrow to ensure no one … Continue reading
February 20, 2014
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12:56pm – making progress.
February 20, 2014
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February 20, 2014
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Due to the air quality regulations, they must water the soil constantly to prevent any dust. I can’t wait to see that water bill!
February 20, 2014
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Ground breaking for the basement! We broke ground this morning, January 21 at 9:20am.
February 20, 2014
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All the trees and cacti were reduced to this small pile.
February 20, 2014
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The lot was cleared on January 13 – finally after 6 months of design and waiting for permits. Unfortunately, the three large cottonwood trees were in the middle of the house so we could not save any of them.
February 20, 2014
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This is our lot as viewed from the right side in the cul-de-sac.
February 20, 2014
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