The foundation wall was completed this week and backfill began! It’s crazy to look at the garage construction site and see something that more closely resembles the beginning of a garage. It’s also strange to think that we could see the footings/wall and the hard work that went in to them, and now they’re (mostly) buried – forever!
Here’s more details on what was worked on this week:
On Tuesday, form work was completed, and they began pouring the rest of the foundation wall. They brought in a special pump truck to put the concrete where it’s supposed to go.
The pump truck attached to the concrete mixer and away they went!
The operator in the red construction hat is using a remote control to control the pump and arm! Cool side fact: he worked on the Zion Nuclear Power Station decommissioning. He was in charge of moving the spent nuclear rods. He’s probably radioactive.
On Wednesday they came and took down the forms. It was neat to see the foundation wall before backfill began. I almost wish they could have kept it like this for us to admire for a while, but I’m glad they’re moving at a quick pace!
They began backfill on Thursday, using the soil that was already there, and bringing in several (at least five!) trucks of pea gravel to fill the inside, and two trucks of crushed stone for in front of the garage door opening.
They completed backfilling on Friday and began grading the inside of the garage. We had them remove the existing concrete pad that will be in front of the new garage, because it got busted up from the heavy equipment. You can see that it’s been removed in the image below:
On their to do list for next week is to finish grading the inside of the garage, then put down insulation and wire grid. After that, Steven and I (and maybe a friend will help?) are going to attach hydronic radiant heat tubes to the grid using one zillion zip ties, then they pour the slab on top of that. Here is a drawing of the tubes that our amazing architect (ME) drew (ha, after Steven drew it on grid paper):
Click to see larger
We’re supposed to get a lot of rain this weekend and we’re nervous about what that’ll do to the garage site, especially if that water is trapped underneath the garage space with no where to go because the ground is already so freaking saturated. We put some tarps out today, and we’ll see how much rain we get! Eek!
Wow! That is very impressive – more work goes into a garage than I thought. I will keep my fingers crossed that the rain doesn’t mess up the project.
Are there going to be hand prints and dates in the newly poured cement? Every thing looks great, looks like you have a great crew working for you.
I hope so! I think they might pour tomorrow when I am in the office though and it will be settled by the time I get home! 🙁
Thanks, we do 🙂
More than I thought too! We can’t believe how much they’ve had to do for the concrete and land work!
The rain was not as bad as we thought, and Steven pumped the water out of the tarps, so it worked well!
Oooh, radiant heated flooring! Very fancy!
Hopefully the doesn’t throw things off too much – I think it’s done for a couple of days, now, thankfully. I was thinking yesterday that I wished I had a fancy weather station like you have, because I’m curious how much rain my place specifically got over the weekend!
Yeah! If we like it, we’ll eventually tear up the existing concrete driveway and put it in there too 🙂
OMG yes you must get the fancy weather station! Let me know if you want deets. It shows SO many stats, including pressure, which I use to compare my headaches to 🙂
And the lighter rain and tarps held it off! Steven used a pump to empty it a few times and I’m about to go help him fold up the tarps now 🙂
Wow, I knew you were doing this intense garage project, but the sheer scale of it surprised me. What a big project! Does this feel like something you’ve worked up to, or could you have tackled this five years ago?
Also, I would totally help you attach zip ties if we were in the same place! We could listen to your exercise playlists while we did it!
Good question. I think Steven could have handled it then, but what he’s learned from living here will make it go much smoother and faster. There is always room for improvement though!
OMG we are doing the zip ties today! My fingers are so sore! Wish you were here!