The original plan for this week was to backfill the cellar, set up and pour footings for the walls, and then work on the stem walls. We changed this by shifting to dirt work after the footings so we could access the main floor with the excavator for leveling. Also, I changed up the schedule so Wylie wasn’t up at the site for long periods. It was a long, hard week that may not look like much progress, but I am quite satisfied with it.
It took most of a day to backfill the cellar, as I did a lot of hand-tamping in tight quarters. Ultimately, it came out well (left photo).
Logan dumped a batch of rock into the cellar, so it will have a non-muddy floor (right image). The pad in the upper left is for the hot water tank. The main water line comes in on the top side of the photo and is plumbed to a frost-free hydrant that is to the left of the photo.
Logan used the excavator to lower the hot water tank into the cellar (left). The tank takes up a corner of the cellar, but rests on its own pad. There is plenty of room above the hot water tank to accommodate the shower plumbing that will go in just above. It was great to get this out of my garage, but I suspect it will be a while before I get it plumbed in.
We made the footing forms using 2″ foam and Foothold ICF footers. They went together quickly and easily. On Logan’s recommendation, we rented a rotary laser transit level — this worked well to get the forms in correctly.
The middle photo shows a load of premix gravel from Fisher Sand & Gravel, who made up a batch of small-aggregate just for us. By backing the truck in close to the mixer, we could shovel right out of the truck.
The right photo shows about two pallets of cement (30 bags per pallet).
Logan ran the hose and finished for just over half of the footings pour (left photo), and I ran the hose and finished for the remainder. My finishing work leaves plenty to be desired.
Still, the poured footings (right) came out looking really good. We used 26 full bags and a half bag of cement for the footings. With just Logan and me, we were pretty zonked by the end of the day.
There isn’t much for us to do some times while Logan is running the excavator, so Wylie and I went on a hike and met some neighbors I had never met before. My cross-country routes back to camp left us pulling stickers and dodging nettles.
There was also time in camp for reading. Logan is reading a history book on Theodore Roosevelt and Wylie and I read a short book by Roald Dahl. For better or worse, the internet works well so I can keep up with email… and Wylie can watch YouTube episodes.
Somewhere along the line I read that it’s good to put down insulation outside the walls. So we laid down 4 feet of 2″ foam and then covered it with plastic. (Left photo.) This was then buried and packed with the excavator.
We used gravel and the rotary laser transit to level the pad area, using crushed rock as a base. Then we laid 2″ foam over the pad area except over the cellar. (Middle photo.) The foam will later be covered with plastic and we will put rebar over that before pouring the pad.
Finally, at the end of the day we set up a corner of ICFs (upper left in the right photo). We are a little off on the cellar wall levels, so we hope to slide the ICF corner over the cellar and then trim and shim as need be so the final walls will be level. You might also notice that Logan moved the mixer pump so it’s right next to the pad — this was more adventurous than it sounds, involved some yelling and close calls, but there were no fatalities, major injuries, or substantial property losses.
Overall, we had a good week and I’ve yet to find major mess ups. Logan and I once again completed a pour by ourselves, but it was a long, hard day and I will be quite happy when the concrete pours are done. With luck, we will be doing two pours next week (the ICF stem walls and the main pad), and I hope we can get help for both — help will be essential for the pad.
That was a good week!