The Concrete Underground

[red]

Have to be careful with the flashing. The water will wick back. Most of the Anderson flashing comes with the end dams prefabricated. (If you check the bottom of windows you're see a relief saw cut -it's there to keep the water from wicking back into the building.) A sharp edge/end is what it necessary for the water to drip off, instead wick into the structure.

 

[ConCretin]

Another wet day, which slowed us up a bit. Finished excavation for the last of the foundation and got started on the footing formwork

On our commercial projects we use CAD to layout our formwork in advance and our doing the same here. Using the drawing, the guys were able to pre-cut all the lumber and preassemble the formwork in sections while the excavator was working. The photos were taken about an hour later.

The same CAD file produces the coordinates for the total station that we use to establish points for all the strings you see. This process makes for very accurate formwork and saves a bunch of time.

This part of the structure is where the terrace wraps around the end of the house near the main entry stairs. You can also see where the CIP concrete chimney will be (in front of the guy in the yellow shirt in the top photo).

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

I'm glad you know what you're doing because I'm confused as hell, impressed, but still confused.

 

[ConCretin]

Someone needs to get on that conveyor and take a picture from up top...or get a helicopter!

Or just hook that big picker crane on the back of someones harness and get 'em up in the air for a birds eye. . .

I've been thinking about how I could get more of a birds eye view - I'll keep working on it

That boom is longer than our ladder tower (100'). I know it sounds long but when you start reaching out from as close as you can get to something, that boom length probably gets ate up fast.

Your right about that, Nutts. Ya can always use more reach.

Very nice build!

Sounds like you get a lot of rain in Maine. You may want to consider bending end dams into your flashing. 3/8" - 1/2" would be plenty.

I always run the metal flashing past about 3/4 inch each side then seal under against the timber with silicone.
Never had any leaks that I know of.

Have to be careful with the flashing. The water will wick back. Most of the Anderson flashing comes with the end dams prefabricated.

Good catch. I'll definitely revisit this and make some adjustments. Maybe a longer piece of flashing with end dams and a lip bent into the bottom to create a drip edge

 

[ConCretin]

I'm glad you know what you're doing because I'm confused as hell, impressed, but still confused.

Don't feel bad Buzz. I've got the plans and I'm confused most of the time. It must be damn near impossible to follow along from photos. It's a complicated build especially for a house. I must have a screw loose.

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

Shouldn't you be asleep? It's 11:45am here so it must the middle of the night for you.

 

[ConCretin]

Actually I should be at work - it's 6:50 am here.

 

[cderalow]

Actually I should be at work - it's 6:50 am here.

You're an hour late if you go by my standard!

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

Actually I should be at work - it's 6:50 am here.

Ah. I forgot that you've got more than one timezone like this little fly speck of an island. I just immediately thought 8 hours the same as the west coast

I'll go and sit in the corner with my hands on my head until I stop being so stupid

 

[GOLF for LIFE]

6:50 AM, when I was working I was up at 4:00 am and off to work by 5:AM. Took me a few years to break the 4:00 am routine.
I've been following this thread with great interest from the start LL makes my small projects insignificant. But we all can dream. Looking forward as all here are to the completed home and garage.

 

[bugnout]

Great thread. subscribed

You mentioned earlier that you were trying to keep rocks and native soils away from the foundation and using sand for backfill. Is this for better drainage?

I just built a house with walkout toward the lake. Soil in my area is pretty much sand, thats what we used for backfill. I had my excavator bring in big rocks in to hold back the hillside, give it a natural look. He got some of them pretty close to the concrete foundation, Should I be worried? what don't I know about rocks being close to the foundation?

 

[the_art_of_design]

Just a suggestion to help ease the photo/ location confusion.. You could post snap shots of the foundation plan with the completed areas highlighted in yellow so everyone has a point of reference. Also good if you ever need to look back and find yourself wondering, where the heck is that photo from?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Justanoldguy]

You mentioned earlier that you were trying to keep rocks and native soils away from the foundation and using sand for backfill. Is this for better drainage?

I figure the rocks will damage the waterproofing over time.

 

[faxij]

wow. found this awesome site and perv'd a bit. found this. needed to register, just so i could sub this.

i love this. this is kind of how i visualize my dream property (recent graduate, about to start earning money). except, i do dream of a boat-house (or garage). one can dream right?

on another note. it is my birthday, just turned 25. i am german so when our soccer team just lost to italy, i was in pieces. your updates picked me up and made for a truly happy end to my birthday. so thanks for that LL.

i just saw the suggestion to make up cam's for some timelapse. i absolutely second that. automated is cool and all, but you could simply start by fixing a camera mount somewhere high (or 2-3, for more perspective? ) and just take the camera and shoot 1 picture for each mount each day. should not take much time and would be a great start. it would be awesome though if you could manage something automatic that will take a picture each hour or in a similar frequency.

anyhow, awesome stuff. awesome project. i love architecture, but have always been hesitant to concrete. very curious to see how this pans out.

and once again, thanks. dont know for what, but just thanks

 

[JimVonBaden]

on another note. it is my birthday, just turned 25. i am german so when our soccer team just lost to italy, i was in pieces. your updates picked me up and made for a truly happy end to my birthday.

Being a German American married to a Portuguese Citizen I was doubly bummed over the last few days. I was hoping to see Germany against Portugal.

Oh well, there is always GJ to keep my spitits up.

Jim

 

[KEH]

That project is beyond neat! Maybe you could do some business in the Western states along the lines of fireproof structures.

Suggest the book, "Concrete Planet", sorry, don't remember author. He covers discovery and improvement of concrete over many centuries. Two items of interest:
1. The Roman temple, the Pantheon, has a large dome, is something like 1000 years old, and is made of concrete.
2. Modern steel reinforced concrete structures last only about 100 years. The steel rebar rusts inside the concrete, swells, and cracks the concrete. Galvanized steel adds only about 20 years.

Cutting ice in the winter used to be a big business. One danger with cutting ice off a river was that when a block was cut out of the river, a person had to be careful not to fall into the river as the current would pull him downstream under the ice drowning him. Cheerful thought.

KEH

 

[Bib Overalls]

2. Modern steel reinforced concrete structures last only about 100 years. The steel rebar rusts inside the concrete, swells, and cracks the concrete. Galvanized steel adds only about 20 years. KEH

Salting concrete roadways for snow removal accelerates the rusting and crumbling. Today, virtually all of the steel rebar used in highway construction is epoxy coated. It should hold up better than galvanizing.

 

[GOLF for LIFE]

wow. found this awesome site and perv'd a bit. found this. needed to register, just so i could sub this.

i love this. this is kind of how i visualize my dream property (recent graduate, about to start earning money). except, i do dream of a boat-house (or garage). one can dream right?

on another note. it is my birthday, just turned 25. i am german so when our soccer team just lost to italy, i was in pieces. your updates picked me up and made for a truly happy end to my birthday. so thanks for that LL.

i just saw the suggestion to make up cam's for some timelapse. i absolutely second that. automated is cool and all, but you could simply start by fixing a camera mount somewhere high (or 2-3, for more perspective? ) and just take the camera and shoot 1 picture for each mount each day. should not take much time and would be a great start. it would be awesome though if you could manage something automatic that will take a picture each hour or in a similar frequency.

anyhow, awesome stuff. awesome project. i love architecture, but have always been hesitant to concrete. very curious to see how this pans out.

and once again, thanks. dont know for what, but just thanks

Faxij WELCOME to GJ. And happy birthday (as of yesterday). My birthday is today the big 65 . Sorry for the loss to Italy but there is always next time.

 

[Red Leader]

This project continues to impress. The size and scope are mind boggling. Love it.


Are you going to build in any secret passageways?

 

[faxij]

Being a German American married to a Portuguese Citizen I was doubly bummed over the last few days. I was hoping to see Germany against Portugal.

Oh well, there is always GJ to keep my spitits up.

Jim

I second that! GJ is amazing. I hope this is not just a fling, but a longer-lasting adventure

Faxij WELCOME to GJ. And happy birthday (as of yesterday). My birthday is today the big 65 . Sorry for the loss to Italy but there is always next time.

Thanks, happy birthday to you too then! There is always a next time, true. I cant help but think tho I wont care about this sport at all by 2014, as soon my own life should take enough time on its own

This project continues to impress. The size and scope are mind boggling. Love it.


Are you going to build in any secret passageways?

OH YES PLEASE PLEASE!!! secret passageways!!! *puppyeyes*

 

[Lurking in Maine]

Looks like you are making some progress, lookin' good!

I have to agree with the previous poster though....very confusing to follow.

Judging by the amount of forms you have, it is gonna be a killer building for sure!

 

[Mr onetwo]

I've been thinking about how I could get more of a birds eye view - I'll keep working on it

WHAT!#@&*# You mean you don't have a company helicopter for jobsite monitoring and general site seeing?I am disappointed!

 

[Justanoldguy]

Get Google Earth to do an update...

 

[red]

This project continues to impress. The size and scope are mind boggling. Love it.


Are you going to build in any secret passageways?

Of course, he is! Just can't post it on the internet, otherwise they wouldn't be secret . . . .

 

[faxij]

Of course, he is! Just can't post it on the internet, otherwise they wouldn't be secret . . . .

thats a hard-as-nails dilemma right there

may i suggest 2 secret passageways? one for "fun", that LL can show off to our pleasure and one serious, to remain mysterious?

 

[HOTFR8]

thats a hard-as-nails dilemma right there

may i suggest 2 secret passageways? one for "fun", that LL can show off to our pleasure and one serious, to remain mysterious?

My guess is we may see one but there will be many more than just that one..

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Where did you go Doug? I spent the last week while I had down time between bid reviews reading through your entire build and now I'm chomping at the bit for more updates!!! I had seen your thread pop up a couple of times but never got to into it until last week. Great stuff!!! I grew up in the residential home building business and now I work in the heavy-highway business, and I can definitely respect the work you and your guys are doing. The nice thing about your build is if someone looks over my shoulder at work, I can tell them I am researching forming methods for an upcoming bid! They probably wouldn't suspect that it is really a residential home build when they see all the concrete!!!

 

[ConCretin]

I haven't posted for a few days because quite frankly, there wasn't much interesting going on. You can only look at so many photos of forms and concrete.

A couple of you mentioned that it was hard to follow along so I tried to get a few wider angle pics to give you a frame of reference. I'm still working on a method to post actual plans. The pink insulation on the wall in front is the terrace wall. The next wall in the the face of the actual house.

As you can see we are tieing in the connector to the garage and the end of the house to the right of the model. The terrace wraps around and becomes a covered porch

Not sure if that helps or not.

This section of foundation supports the concrete chimney

We got started on the last of MDO for the architectural concrete. As the grade rises, there is less concrete exposed so we can use less.

These concrete columns will eventually support the wings of a U shaped concrete wall on the interior of the house.

This will make more sense when we set this stuff next week.

Yup. We have structural steel. These beams will frame the floor of the basement and the cantilever. As with the rest of this build, the details are complicated.

Meanwhile I got my carpenters back and recommenced work on the rainscreen siding on the upper garage.

We've finished two sides and have moved to the front. You can see my ridiculously over engineered hangar door below.

We've also started trimming out the fascia. We are using Azek and will probably paint it a dark bronze color.

That about brings you up to speed. I think things will start to get a bit more interesting again as we finally move past foundation work and move on up into the structure.

Have a GREAT 4th of July everyone.

 

[ConCretin]

You mentioned earlier that you were trying to keep rocks and native soils away from the foundation and using sand for backfill. Is this for better drainage?

I had my excavator bring in big rocks in to hold back the hillside, give it a natural look. He got some of them pretty close to the concrete foundation, Should I be worried? what don't I know about rocks being close to the foundation?

The sand will drain better than the native clay and I'm trying to avoid rocks damaging the waterproofing if they are used as backfill. I don't think you'll have any problems in your case.

Just a suggestion to help ease the photo/ location confusion.. You could post snap shots of the foundation plan with the completed areas highlighted in yellow so everyone has a point of reference.

I'm going to try to post more plans and details as we go - just need to figure out the best way.

on another note. it is my birthday, just turned 25. i am german so when our soccer team just lost to italy, i was in pieces. your updates picked me up and made for a truly happy end to my birthday. so thanks for that LL.

Happy Birthday and sorry about the soccer loss. I'm glad you're enjoying the build. Thanks for the camera ideas - I've gotta get something figured out for that.

That project is beyond neat! Maybe you could do some business in the Western states along the lines of fireproof structures.

Suggest the book, "Concrete Planet", sorry, don't remember author. He covers discovery and improvement of concrete over many centuries. Two items of interest:
1. The Roman temple, the Pantheon, has a large dome, is something like 1000 years old, and is made of concrete.
2. Modern steel reinforced concrete structures last only about 100 years. The steel rebar rusts inside the concrete, swells, and cracks the concrete. Galvanized steel adds only about 20 years.

Based on the early returns, it might be cheaper to just let the place burn down and rebuild it rather than build out of concrete

100 years will be long enough for me though I expect this place will outperform that estimate

Are you going to build in any secret passageways?

The duct crawl spaces are pretty close - we'll be working on them next week.

Looks like you are making some progress, lookin' good!

I have to agree with the previous poster though....very confusing to follow.

I'm gonna work on it but it might get worse before it gets better. I can hardly figure it out myself

WHAT!#@&*# You mean you don't have a company helicopter for jobsite monitoring and general site seeing?I am disappointed!

No company helicoptor, though I'm working on an idea involving a kite, which is closer to meeting the budget

Get Google Earth to do an update...

I'm hoping they don't. Except for you guys, I'm trying to keep a low profile with regard to local governing authorities.

Where did you go Doug? I spent the last week while I had down time between bid reviews reading through your entire build and now I'm chomping at the bit for more updates!!! QUOTE]

Thanks - means a lot coming from guys in the business. Hope you got some of those bids - they are hard to come by in these parts.

 

[Buzz Lightyear]

The wide angle shots really help. It all makes a lot more sense now even for a limey

 

[HOTFR8]

No company helicoptor, though I'm working on an idea involving a kite, which is closer to meeting the budget

Could you not hire one of those mini camera versions ?

 

[Homebody]

Sporty's Pilot Shop now has a remote control helicopter....with a camera.
Just sayin.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I see the camper is rightoff the side of the construction site. Any worries about equipment running into it ?

 

[Re-Volv]

What a great build!

I'm not sure if I missed it earlier, but what are the panels on the garage made of? It looks excellent!

 

[CreekWV]

Mount A go-pro or similar camera on the end of the 100' telescoping boom, then lift it up as high as it will go and see what you can get.

Or, if you need an excuse to buy a toy, this quadcopter is controlled by your iphone and has a 720p camera:

Or just forget about it.

I'll still read every single post either way!

 

[ConCretin]

I see the camper is rightoff the side of the construction site. Any worries about equipment running into it ?

Yea, a little. It's more removed from the action that it might appear and the boys know to be careful around it. Still, it's definitely a concern

I'm not sure if I missed it earlier, but what are the panels on the garage made of? It looks excellent!

It's basically an integrally colored concrete panel. I got it from these folks.

http://www.fibercementproducts.com/products_eter_color.html



BTW, Thanks to all for all the interesting aeriel photography ideas.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Yea, a little. It's more removed from the action that it might appear and the boys know to be careful around it. Still, it's definately a concern

Ever think about a couple concrete K-rails or jersey barriers to protect it?

 

[ConCretin]

We're still at it. Haven't updated as regularly due to lack of internet access at the site. Hopefully we'll get connected soon.

On Friday we placed the last of the main foundations.

Part of the reason the foundations have taken so long is all the detail. Lots and lots of detail.

We're working on getting the basement slab placed. Started with some floor drains. My geothermal guy strongly recommended them.

Unfortunately, this recommendation came a bit late necessitating this operation.

The smaller hole is for the floor drains. The larger hole is for a 6" pipe that will connect to newly added roof drains. The pitfalls of an ongoing design and a concrete house.

We tied the floor drains into the foundation under drain we had installed previously.

After a little backfilling we stubbed out the roof drain outlet. 6" is probably overkill but no one has done any calculations yet and I don't want to repeat this process.

We also got started on the basement floor sub grade. We leveled and compacted the base material and then added 2" of sand using the conveyor. Saved a lot of wheel barrow work

If it appears Kathy is the only one working, it's probably because she was. I was helping but kept stepping back to take photos.

Next will come vapor barrier, 2" of rigid on the wall and horizontally followed by radiant tubing and rebar.

There are two steel columns supported on footings under the basement slab. They bear on 1/4" leveling plates on 3/4" of non shrink grout. Pretty standard for commercial construction but kind of unusual in a house.

I plan on backfilling around the columns with stone and then place the slab around them with some expansion material.

I'm expecting a good week. We're erecting steel this afternoon or tomorrow morning and hope to place the basement slab Friday or possibly Monday. Lot's going on.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Tamping the sand for the basement floor, that is a sign of progress easily to be seen.

 

[Thedoc14]

Excellent progress soon you will be throwing in the steel work..