Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop

"Thanks for your question. My sumps and tile drain are not quite connected at the same level. What I've done is connect the footing tile drain at the lowest level of the footing tile and the sumps are connected to the footing tile at the highest level. In cross section there are 2 separate sections to the footing tiles, an upper and a lower" -BB767

Brilliant! Noticed the separation with the drain tile and thought it was structural, now I know better.
Amazing job on the foundation. I too went with rebar, but not as much and my walls are not as thick (10" in front for brick and 8" for the rest) I used 3000psi based on the contractors suggestion. I also kept the walls wet for a week and the contractor left the walls up for two days longer, normally strip the next day.

How many bags or what's your psi for the concrete going to be?

Glad I'm not writing the check for all that mud.

That looks like a big basement. You will never regret spending the extra money for 10' walls. Ductwork and drains take up a lot of space. Fantastic job. This will now be part of my daily read. Thanks for sharing, Brian

Basement Wall Pour

This is how the build site looked this morning.



This is the garage...



...the central "core" of the house...



...and the cathedral ceilinged "great room".



Look closely at the fireplace footing and you can when the house was built...



...and who will live in it.



Since the exterior will be brick and stone, block outs had to be constructed to provide for the brick ledge. There are 2 different sizes being made, the smaller ones, seen on the top right, will go across the front of the house and the longer ones will go the rest of the way around the house.



The red arrows show the approximate width of the brick ledge, in this case 6" (15 cm). That's the space available to lay the brick on the foundation once the block out is removed. Once the forms are stripped it will be much clearer to see if you're not familiar with this. The purple arrows show this is the shorter block out for the front. In the background you can see one of the longer ones getting installed.



Here you can see the blocking all installed. The forms were also checked for "square" and adjusted as necessary. With the prep work completed it was time to prepare for the concrete to arrive.



Seen is the pump truck used to...



...pump concrete anywhere on the site without moving any trucks.



This is Mark who operates the pump truck via the remote he has on his waist. Mark has worked for Esker's for over 40 years and all that skill and experience showed during the pour, never a misstep with the concrete chute.



Here is the first of over a dozen concrete trucks needed for the pour. The concrete was rated at 3000 psi.



There were usually 4 concrete trucks on site. 2 trucks by the pump truck...



...one pouring and one waiting close by...



...and 2 waiting out in the front of the "Lodge".



I spotted this beautiful truck in line.



It turns out it was a brand new truck and was just gorgeous, nothing but the best.



The pumped concrete is seen being discharged into the wall forms guided by the fellow standing on top of the forms on the left.



Once the forms were filled with concrete the top edge was troweled to a smooth finish by Chuck...



...who also placed the anchor "J" bolts in the fresh concrete. Chuck is the job foreman for this crew. He has been with Eskers for over 40 years also. There were long term employees everywhere on this crew. Esker's is a 3rd generation family owned and operated business. Once they hire someone they tend to stay their whole career with Eskers. All that experience is invaluable.



1 week ago we started digging the basement...



...and now the walls have been poured. That's how projects are suppose proceed don't you think?

More is on the way. Thanks everyone for your continued interest.

Thomas

Great progress so far!

Thomas, thank you for sharing your project with us all.

Will be interesting to see how they fill in round those poured concrete walls.

First class job! Not surprise, you always seem able to bring in the best and most competent people. Thanks for taking us along for the ride -Ed

Thanks also for the detailed and informative explanations.

Pete

This is going to be a great post on the building of a home from the ground up! Thanks so much!

Great stuff! I'd never seen those manufactured formers before now....I'll bet blowouts are few and far between when those have been used!

(Thanks so much for taking the time to share the daily images with us, Thomas. It can't be the first thing you want to do after a long day on the construction site, not to even mention keeping all your other plates spinning...)

This is awesome!
And to think a few months ago you doubted anyone on a garage site would be interested in a house build...lol You had us at "build"!

Well, after spending SEVERAL days skimming over this thread and seeing that old shop transform, let me just say "Well Done"! I am subscribing to catch anything new that is posted.

I worked in a shop similar the that one back in high school. It was just packed with stuff covering decades of work and collecting. It had a small path carved through it all to get from one end to the other.

It's interesting to me that the concrete trucks in your area still use the rear dump style. It's pretty rare to see one of those here, I'd say 98% of our cement trucks are "front dumpers".
This style...

C_F said:

It's interesting to me that the concrete trucks in your area still use the rear dump style. It's pretty rare to see one of those here, I'd say 98% of our cement trucks are "front dumpers".
This style...

Click to expand...

We only have rear dumpers here. And none of them have wheels up high on the back. Are those meant to be lowered as a stabilizer or something? I saw a concrete slinger recently too. It had a tube at the end of the belt to direct it into the wall. That looked like a pretty slick rig for pouring foundations.

gasgas17 said:

We only have rear dumpers here. And none of them have wheels up high on the back. Are those meant to be lowered as a stabilizer or something?

Click to expand...

Yes, those rear wheels along with the middle wheels (that are in the up position in the photo) are designed to be lowered when driving at faster speeds.


Most of the large dump trucks here also have the middle wheels to help stabilize, but I think this is more common with dump trucks & not just a Utah thing.

gasgas17 said:

We only have rear dumpers here. And none of them have wheels up high on the back. Are those meant to be lowered as a stabilizer or something? I saw a concrete slinger recently too. It had a tube at the end of the belt to direct it into the wall. That looked like a pretty slick rig for pouring foundations.

Click to expand...

Extra axles (either ones such as on dump trucks that are under the main body but can be raised, or ones that are after the body (frequently called "stinger axles")) are used to distribute the weight of the payload. By lowering the axle the weight on each axle decreases, allowing a heavier vehicle to travel on a surface (such as a road) without damaging it as much.

MM

We see lots of trucks and semi's with the raised center axle. Just the stingers on the cement trucks that are pretty foreign here. On another note my brother were driving to PA back in early 2000's in a snow storm (In typical Canadian style) and to our dismay coming into NYC on the 95 we started seeing cement trucks and garbage trucks with plows. Another new one on us. We had to laugh at the police cars stuck all over the place and 3 plows doing the job of one of our plows with a side wing. And they were leaving 3" of snow on the highway.

Front or rear chute - still gotta back up eventually. lol

Aren't those mid axle trucks more common in hilly states? Never see em here in N. Illinois.

The extra axles both ahead of and behind the main rear set of duals allow increased payloads in western states. It is all regulated by the government and called out in the Bridge Weight Formulas. The allowed weights are measured in terms of load per axle in combination with overall spacing between axles of a vehicle. The key word being "overall spacing". Basically these extra axle arrangements allow trucks to carry more payload where allowed in certain states.

Thanks for the continuous flow of updates from the job site Thomas. I'm checking your progress daily. You're moving pretty quick and I hope your weather holds.

Basement Walls - Part I

It was another good day, so good I have to use 2 posts to convey all the material I want to.

Basement Walls, Part I:

We started off with stripping off all the wall forms, both inside and out. To keep concrete from sticking to the forms, they were sprayed with oil yesterday just before the pour. Today they came off reasonably easy with minimal concrete sticking to them.



That's Josh Esker standing on the wall. His grandfather started JB Esker and Sons almost 70 years ago and his Father Matt and Uncle Joe now run it. He works right along with the crew doing whatever job needs done.



With the forms all stripped they were removed from the site. That's Josh seated up high, running the boom.



The blocking was removed next. The arrows are pointing to...



...where part of the blocking was removed. The blocking "blocked" the concrete from filling this area leaving a ledge behind where brick and stone can now be laid up the face of the building.



This is Josh removing some of the large blocking.



The blocking has now been removed all along this wall, leaving a 5" (12 cm) wide brick ledge.



This is going back to when the footings were poured. The footings are at the very bottom or foot of a building.The red arrows are pointing to the grey footing tile that is also doubling as the forms for the footings. The yellow lines are approximately the place where the basement wall will be sitting on the footing. Note the footings are much wider than the wall itself.



This is a nice view of the wall sitting on the footing. You can see how much wider the footings are than the walls themselves.



With the forms all removed, the next phase was water proofing the walls.



The water proofing is a rubber like material that is sprayed on. This is the truck that houses the pump and tank full of water proofing material.



Here we see Josh using the "big" spray gun. Those walls are 10' high so the longer reach of the "big" gun helps reach everwhere.



Notice that the footing area was also sprayed to prevent water from seeping under the wall between the footing and the bottom of the wall.



It goes on very thick and is darn near impossible to remove. Water will not be coming through those walls. The water proofing took about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to complete.



It was applied to the complete exterior all around the basement wall. It was even applied to the part of the basement wall that is inside the garage and will be under the garage floor.

I'll stop here and pick it up tomorrow in Part II. Another long but very productive day. Thanks everyone for the support and interest. That's helpful to me to stay on my game. Speaking of which I am a little gamy, time to hit the shower! (Chris you'll thank me for that......trust me )

Thomas

AZStang said:

The extra axles both ahead of and behind the main rear set of duals allow increased payloads in western states. It is all regulated by the government and called out in the Bridge Weight Formulas. The allowed weights are measured in terms of load per axle in combination with overall spacing between axles of a vehicle. The key word being "overall spacing". Basically these extra axle arrangements allow trucks to carry more payload where allowed in certain states.

Click to expand...

Also noticed that those extra wheels usually have meters on them to record the road mileage. That's so the tax man can get his share.

Always wondered if it was illegal when the truck is loaded to the max and the wheels aren't down?

BB767 said:

The Corvette coupe is a really nice piece...

I'm going through it right now doing routine maintenance on a car that has been lightly used over a several year period.

The previous owner had always used Moble 1 engine oil in it so I'll continue with that for now.

Thomas

Click to expand...

Hi Thomas,

I am rather late to the party. I know you're in the middle of building your dream home right now. I'm enjoying watching the progress, by the way. I'm sure it will be quite the little retirement paradise for you and Miss Chris.

Anyhow, I would recommend being careful with Mobil 1 oil. I am referring to post number #8373. I was using Mobil 1 when I flattened the cam on my Corvette. Waahhh!!!! There is a gentleman by name of Duke Williams who is a mechanical engineer in the NCRS. He put together an article on engine oil a while back. It's in this newsletter, scroll down to page three:

http://stlouisncrs.org/news_files/St_Louis_NCRS_Chapter_July_2011.pdf

I looked at the Mobil 1 oils available, there is only one that has a API CJ-4 / CI-4 rating. It's called Mobil 1™ Turbo Diesel Truck. I can't tell in your picture which version of Mobil 1 you're using. Here's the list:

https://mobiloil.com/~/media/amer/us/pvl/files/pdfs/mobil-1-oil-product-specs-guide-2016.pdf

Maybe you know all this already, but if doesn't help you maybe it will help someone else.

Good luck with your house build and enjoy the good life!!!

Joe

Tom,
I'm very impressed with all of the thought that you have put into the house build, it never ceases to amaze me how you seem to think about every possible detail and have a solid plan of attack. As we say at work you should always plan your work and work your plan. When everything is scheduled and thought out ahead of time things will go much smoother, here is to hoping that holds true.

However, there is always room for improvement, you could have tried to set a world record.
Worlds Fastest Home Build
I'm sure you are getting much better quality though and saving a bit of money compared to how much this surely cost.

Something to mention about the concrete pumper also would be that they take a full yard of concrete to prime the pump, you have to take that into account when ordering the concrete or you will be in a tight spot.

JB

Thomas, You and Chris should be very proud. Not everyone gets to build the home of their dreams. This is something you’ll be able to set back and say “I built this”. But you have a lot of work ahead. I know because I built our home a few years ago.

I only have a couple of tips at this time for you – Don’t cut any corners (use the best materials you can) It looks like you already know that one. Also document everything. Especially the piping and wiring in the walls. Also take several pictures of all the wall framing. Once the drywall goes up it’s hard to remember where everything was located.

And be sure to termite treat the soil under the slabs before you pour.

Here is an album I did when we built our house. From ground breaking to C of O. (and this is just a few of the photos - 340 –that I took along the way.)

https://picasaweb.google.com/105028255566236290034/No1NewHouse

it was not this brand. I feel like it was maybe a little smaller as i do not remember a double turning front axle; however when we had our patio poured they used something similar to what is in the link below. There was a hopper with the concrete mixture and a water tank. Then he mixed them together right there on the spot.

http://www.habitat-verde.com/omega.html

more like this.

http://www.omegaqa.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/volumetric-trucks/howitworks.jpg

Thomas always has a plan, down to the smallest detail, that is from all the pilot training he has been thru. A pilot without a plan finds out how fast the ground comes up. Outstanding job on the house.

Basement Walls - Part II

Continuing with our work on the basement walls, here is Part II.



The water proofing material also acted as an adhesive for the 2" (5 cm) rigid, high density Styrofoam board. Let that sprayed material tack up for about 15 minutes and then just press the board against the wall and voilá....



...the board is stuck in place.



The exterior perimeter of the whole house was completely insulated, even across the front of the garage and under where the the overhead door openings will be as seen on the left above.

Because I'm radiant heating not only the basement floor but also the garage floor, I'm going to use all the concrete outer walls as part of the thermal mass to heat and cool the house. Heat from the floor will move into the concrete foundation walls and since those walls are now insulated, the wall will absorb and hold either heat or cool as needed. They now become part of the whole thermal mass of the structure. Without insulating the basement and garage walls, the heat or cool from the floors would migrate out of the structure, now it won't. And, since heat rises, heat from the basement thermal mass will rise into the house structure above, which will reduce the demands put on the radiant floor heat in the first and second story floors.



Because I plan on only heating the garage to the mid 50º (10 C) range in the dead of winter just to keep it from freezing out there, it will be much cooler than the main house. So the common wall between the garage and the basement was insulated on the garage side as seen above. That provides a thermal break from the cooler garage space and the main house.



Once that common wall was insulated it was back filled...



... with rock. I used rock to back fill since that will all be concrete garage floor. I didn't want any settling which could happen if I back filled with dirt resulting in potential cracks in the floor.



To assist with all the back fill duties, Keith (35+ years working for Eskers) operated this new, clever designed, Caterpillar all wheel drive multi-loader.



The bucket has a 1 ton (97 kg) capacity and the boom can be extended outward. Note the letter "A" on the side of the boom...



...here the boom has been extended a few feet out, the letter "B" can now be seen. Look back 4 pictures and you'll see the boom fully extended 12' (3.6 m)with the letter "C" exposed. That extension capability is perfect for extending over stub walls as you can see here.



Remove the bucket and with a different attachment on the boom the multi-loader can be used to tote material around the work site. These are the wall forms...



...going back to the truck and on to another building site.



Another clever feature of the multi-loader is its steering abilities. It has 3 modes of steering. Conventionally just the front wheels can steer, or both the front and back can steer (note the back wheels steering above) to turn in a really tight 12' radius, or lastly the wheels can be turned more than 45º so the loader can maneuver crabbing sideways. It is also exceptionally quiet when operating making it very friendly for the crew working around it.



It cost over $85,000 dollars but it is a versatile machine that greatly aids in the crew's productivity.



Across much of the front of the house will be a concrete circle driveway so that will be back filled with rock to prevent settling and cracking the drive concrete. 2' of rock has been back filled all around the house to cover the footing drain tiles and prevent dirt from clogging them. We'll wait to back fill the long walls until the floor trusses are installed to prevent putting pressure on the concrete basement walls.



All the corners were largely...



... back filled with clay on top of the footing rock.



Elevations were shot to level up the basement sub floor to prepare it for the radiant heat tubing installation. We had a little too much rock in the basement so the excess was removed.



In 5 working days...



... we went from undisturbed, level grassy ground...



...to a water proofed...



... insulated space capable of supporting a house. Once the drains and radiant floor tubing are installed the floors will be poured.

So far the project is progressing well with no hitches.....yet.

Thanks again everyone for coming with me on another adventure. I'm curious how this one is going to turn out. Stand by, we'll all find out in the next few months.

Thomas

Thomas it is looking very good. Thanks for all the details.

Well that answered my earlier question but how much crushed rock was used in the fill?

That is a top notch crew. I have been around construction most of my life, and that was a lot of work in five days. I found that if I keep the temperature in my garage 60-65 degrees it helps with the humidity. In a well insulated garage the cost is minimal. I can't wait to see your framing crew get to work. Thanks, Brian

Thanks for sharing the details Thomas.
I really enjoy following your thread / progress / activities / etc

Footing Tiles - A Detailed look

Here's a little more information on the footing tiles, also known as Form-A-Drain.



The gray plastic forms here serve as forms for the footings and also act as drains for the footings. Here's how...



The forms come in various sizes, these are 8" (20 cm) tall. One side of the forms are solid with no holes. This is the side that is placed toward the concrete when it's poured. On the other side...



...there are slits that water can flow through into the tile.



Here's a better look at the slits in cross section. The slits are very thin to keep debris out of the tile, only water can easily flow through the slits and into the tile.



There is a web in the center that also divides the tile into upper and lower sections. I connected the house drain tile to the lower section and the sump pits are connected to the upper section. The lower section needs to fill up before water will flow into the sumps.



This is how the two footing tiles are connected together via the blue pipe. The yellow arrows indicate where, once the footing tiles are completed, water will flow into the inside and outside tiles and then out through the blue pipe. The white arrow shows where water will discharge out both tiles into the house drain tile (not shown).



Here it is completed but no footing concrete in the forms yet. The white housing contains the one-way check valve located outside the basement. The house drain tile is unseen, buried under the gravel.



Here is another view of everything all connected together. On the far left you can see the white drain tile beyond the one-way check valve before it was covered in rock.

Maybe that's more information then was needed but it's rather important to get proper drainage, especially if you have a basement full of vintage woodworking machinery.

More is on the way.

Thomas

That not more than we needed, the more the better! Love this build.

Spareparts said:

Thomas always has a plan, down to the smallest detail, that is from all the pilot training he has been thru. A pilot without a plan finds out how fast the ground comes up. Outstanding job on the house.

Click to expand...

You know there is a lot of truth to that. Honestly, flying 500+ mph you have to be thinking far ahead of the machine. Even in the approach regime we're still frequently 200+ until turning final. It's vital to anticipate and be forward thinking even at those relatively slower speeds. It does spill over into my daily life.

HOTFR8 said:

Well that answered my earlier question but how much crushed rock was used in the fill?

Click to expand...

The rock hasn't all been all spread out yet but we ordered 110 tons (100 metric tons) of rock for back-fill.



This vast over-dig in the garage area took a tremendous amount of rock fill. The place where he is standing was back-filled to within inches of the top of the wall with rock. Literary tons and tons of it.



The front of the house will take several tons as well. To keep the area from settling and cracking the concrete that will be poured over it, rock back-fill is the best way.

Thomas

Joe-R said:

Hi Thomas,

I am rather late to the party. I know you're in the middle of building your dream home right now. I'm enjoying watching the progress, by the way. I'm sure it will be quite the little retirement paradise for you and Miss Chris.

Anyhow, I would recommend being careful with Mobil 1 oil. I am referring to post number #8373. I was using Mobil 1 when I flattened the cam on my Corvette. Waahhh!!!! ..........


............Maybe you know all this already, but if doesn't help you maybe it will help someone else.

Good luck with your house build and enjoy the good life!!!

Joe

Click to expand...

Hi Joe and thanks for the kind wishes and for the heads up on Mobil 1.

I was using some older Mobil 1 that was still formulated for use in older engines that use flat tappets. I read a while back that the newer Mobil 1 doesn't provide adequate lubrication for our old flat tappet engines. That was news to me. I have since changed to using Amsoil Z-Rod for the Corvettes and have been very happy with it.

I too hope your timely reminder will save someone here from a preventable problem. Thanks again.

Thomas

Nice progress on the house Thomas. It's interesting to see different building methods, materials and equipment that we don't see around here. A lot of products just don"t make their way to our smaller market here in eastern Canada. Being in the renovation business most of my career, I mostly work with old technology.

BB767 said:

Hi Joe and thanks for the kind wishes and for the heads up on Mobil 1.

I was using some older Mobil 1 that was still formulated for use in older engines that use flat tappets. I read a while back that the newer Mobil 1 doesn't provide adequate lubrication for our old flat tappet engines. That was news to me. I have since changed to using Amsoil Z-Rod for the Corvettes and have been very happy with it.

I too hope your timely reminder will save someone here from a preventable problem. Thanks again.

Thomas

Click to expand...

Apparently it's because modern oil formulations don't have enough ZDDP (I don't know what it stands for but it's a zinc compound) to properly protect the sliding interface between cam and tappet.

Pete

Excellent work as always. How's the process organised? Do you have a contracted supervisor coordinating the different contractors and sub contractors?

1963 Chevy II's First Visit

While we did get the basement plumbing done today, prior to pouring the floor, but the really really fun part of the day was...



..this 1963 Chevy II's first visit to the shop.



Stick with me because it has an interesting back story.



A fellow called me up 2 1/2 years ago, in fact just 2 days after I had retired from the airlines and asked if I was the "guy" with the old auto shop that restored cars.




I told him I did indeed have an old auto shop and yes I did some restoration work, but I only did it for myself and I didn't do it for a living. In fact I had just retired from my "regular" job, flying for Continental Airlines 2 days prior.



He then proceeded to tell me about this '63 Chevy II of his.




He had purchased it 14 years ago as a restoration project for his 14 year old son and himself. His son lost interest after about 3 weeks, so his dad, a talented mechanic in his own right, started to help him with it. Unfortunately after only a few months his father became ill and passed away.



Once that happen, work on the car stopped and it was pushed to the back of his garage, boxes were piled on it and it started gathering dust.



His explained to me he was now in his mid 60's and decided once and for all to finally get the car restored and would I come and take a look and possibly help him get the car done. How could I possibly refuse to not at least come and take a look?

Below is that same car as I found it in his garage...













Champion of lost causes that I am, after I looked it over I agreed to help him with the project. So for the last 2 1/2 years I've been going to his garage, 3-4 days a week for several hours a day to work with him on the car.



We have just finished it and...



...this was the first time it had ever been out to my shop and it was the first time I got to drive it. It runs and drives like new and looks even better in person. It was a big project but one I'm happy to have helped with. It turned out better than we had thought it might.

I had never met him before that first call to me 2 1/2 years ago, but we have since developed a very strong, mutual friendship. Working with him on it for the last 2 1/2 years has been terrific fun. Timing was pretty good too because I told him I'm going to be quite busy with my own project for the next 9 months so it was a good thing we got it done when we did.

And so it goes, on to the next project.

Thomas