5 Minute Epoxy

Getting the footings in the fill, termite spray, and laying out the mesh/rebar has taken a lot of coordination. The foundation crew was a no-show on Thursday, presumably because of the heavy rains on Wednesday. They showed up Friday and dug the footings, but left before the site was ready for the termite sprayer. Miscommunication was the order of the day, and they had to redo part of the forms to add the spacers we requested. The spacers are 2x4's along the back wall and 1x4's along the front and north walls to allow for the next set of walls to be squared correctly and to buy back some of the 2" that were lost in the back sunroom due to the wall being placed incorrectly. Once the language barriers were worked out, the crew did a good job of setting the forms, even setting shims in places where the chain wall jogged. They finished up Saturday morning but could not continue until the dirt was sprayed for termites. It was late afternoon before they could come back, but they came back Sunday afternoon and finished what they could.

Sunday evening, David and I realized that the engineered foundation drawings call for two rebar on either side of each opening. Only one rebar was placed during the chain wall pour. The contractor's fix was to drill 4" holes into the chain wall concrete and use 5-minute epoxy (unmixed) to add the missing rebar. (And we didn't have enough rebar so David made yet another unscheduled trip to the lumber yard.) We weren't too keen on this fix, so had them add angled rebar between the epoxied rebar and the rebar in the slab. The engineer never called us back, but we think that this is an adequate fix.

We were supposed to get the inspection this afternoon, but the county offices were shut down for the Confederate Memorial Day. (That's not a federal holiday, is it?!) So David will call first thing in the morning and hopefully it will be inspected early in the afternoon. Right now, the concrete pour is scheduled for 3 pm. It's been a long week!

Friday's Post

Sorry - I meant to post last Friday but got busy, had a sick child, etc... Excuses, excuses.

Anyways, all 530 yards of fill are in and compacted. The compaction test was done on Thursday and it passed!
And David's plumbing also passed. This is the trench for the sewer pipe at the deepest part. David rented a wacker-packer and filled in the trench and compacted it as he went. And so the saga continues... Stay tuned for the next update where we will cover today's events with our non-english speaking crew!

'Got Dirt?

Dirt work started today. It was a slow start while the contract between our contractor and the dirt subcontractor got worked out. There was some confusion as to who would pay for the dirt work outside the chain wall. We thought that the contractor should have paid for it since a ramp is needed to get the dirt inside. The contractor thought that we should pay for it since they only bid for the dirt inside the chain wall. Ultimately we agreed to pay for it - we are paying for the dirt either way, so it was really just the compaction that was an issue. And since we agree that the contractor didn't bid for it, it is fair that we pay for the compaction. (And it's not that much money, in the whole scheme of things.)

I stayed home from work today, finishing our 2005 taxes. (Now we need to file an extension for the '06 taxes.) What a pain it was. Hopefully we won't get audited! Anyways, it was nice because I was home when the dirt guy showed up. (I wonder what percentage of "dirt guys" around here have the last name "Ladner" - I'm guessing 75%!) We asked how long he thought it would take, and how thick the lifts would be. He said it will probably take 5-6 days, and that they would place the layers 4"-8" thick. Less thick if there's more clay, more thick if there's more sand, since sand compacts easier than clay (although clay holds the compaction better than sand). We're happy because it appears that Mr. Ladner knows what he's doing, and is going to take the time to do it right. He is also going to place some dirt to direct water shed away from the foundations.

Now I've got to install TaxCut and get working on the extension... Next update will probably be Friday.

Concrete Poured

Concrete was poured on Wednesday. A pump truck is used to pour the concrete into the foam blocks.
Here you can see the concrete truck pouring concrete into the pump truck, which pumps the concrete through a large boom, which is being directed into the foam blocks. David took a video of the concrete going into the blocks, so I am going to try to link it here. It also shows them vibrating the concrete after it is poured, which is important so that there are no voids in the concrete.



There was one "blow out", where one of the ICF blocks broke and concrete (about a yard) came pouring out. They patched the hole and repoured the area. They think that the ICF may have been cracked during all the attempts to get the walls square.

After all the assurances that the walls would be leveled after the concrete was poured, we now have walls that bow out in places. Not a big deal at this stage, but we will be on top of it during the next pours.

The contractor's dirt sub-contractor recently lost all of his equipment in a fire, so they have been calling around to find someone new. We get to be the guinea pigs! The new sub came out yesterday, and David was happy with his knowledge. They will probably do the dirt work on Tuesday. I calculate 430 cubic yards needed to fill the walls in, plus another 50-100 for the driveway ramp.

Glue Once, Measure 600 Times

David and I checked the foundation dimensions Sunday evening - the back wall was 2" in from where it is on the plans, and the whole house was out-of-square. One wall wasn't vertical, and the front wall and back wall differed by 1.5" in length. So most of the day today was spent fixing the wall lengths, making them vertical, placing rebar for the parking slab, and measuring. And measuring. And then measuring some more.

Now I realize that a 44'x53' structure is not going to be perfect, so I went on-line and found a standards for wood framed houses that said that for our size house, the diagonals (measurements from corner to corner) were not to differ from each other by more than 2". Ours are off by 3". Finally Pat (the owner) came by and after still more measurements, ordered the walls to be knocked loose (they were glued and braced). Now the problem is that the rebar from the footings are often touching the plastic pieces in the Nudura blocks, and this is limiting how much the walls can be moved.

There are ways that some of this might be corrected in the next level of blocks (above the slab). If we were sure that it could be corrected, we might agree to this, but at this point we are not convinced. Also, David thinks that Pat is tired of telling his crews to measure the diagonals so might be eating the cost in order to teach them why it is so important.

The Nudura rep is coming out tomorrow with a fancy laser level that does 90° rays. Did I mention that the block is pretty pricey? Guess that's why he gets the cool toys! Hopefully they'll figure it out tomorrow. I think that by this evening, everyone (us included) was tired of trying to figure it out. Needless to say, no concrete tomorrow.

ICF 101

ICF stands for Insulated Concrete Forms. There are many companies that make the blocks - the one we are using is Nudura. These blocks are 18" tall and come folded in packages of 3. Each of the straight blocks is 8' long:


Here is a corner block - it's smaller than the straight blocks, presumably so that it ships smaller. This block has not been pulled apart yet - the center pieces fold for shipping, so that the two sides of the block are stacked. Some of the other blocks do not, which makes shipping more difficult.


The blocks have plastic studs, spaced 8" apart. These are what the siding and sheet rock will be attached to, using screws. The plastic pieces that hold the two sides together (the same ones that fold) are shaped so that the horizontal rebar locks right in. Some of the other blocks use ties to hold the rebar, which makes the installation more costly (at least in theory - seems like they all charge the same!). There is also some steel mesh that runs along the length of the block, stiffening it in that direction.


Here's a view looking down the blocks at a corner. There is vertical rebar every 24" coming out of the footings, and horizontal rebar every block high (18"). Our contractor uses 5/8" rebar, although 1/2" could be used. The rebar are overlapped by 24" at the ends. The strength of the ICF walls can be increased by using wider blocks, more rebar, and larger rebar. The literature says they can be designed to withstand up to 300 mph winds. I believe ours will be rated for 150 mph. The blocks they are using for the foundation will have 8" of concrete (width), and the main part of the house will be 6" wide. The overall width of the walls include the 2 5/8" of foam that makes up each side of the block, for a total wall width of 13.25" for the foundation and 11.25" for the house.


Ideally, the rebar is supposed to be a embedded in the concrete, so is installed a couple of inches from the sides of the foam. The rebar from the footings on one of our walls touches the foam, but this wall will have dirt compacted on either side, so is not a big deal.


They have placed a couple of pieces of rebar for where the center footings will be dug into the fill dirt. Notice that there is a vertical seam to the left of the rebar. Most of the blocks are staggered, like bricks in a wall, but there are two vertical joints in our wall. I think this is unavoidable unless the size of the house is made to conform exactly to the available lengths of the blocks.


The installers used a gun to inject foam at the base of the blocks. It's not a complete seal, but will be sufficient to hold the concrete in.


After the concrete is poured (they have to use a pump truck to get it in the walls), and while it is still wet, they will place rebar that will tie into the parking slab.

Next update Tuesday night after the concrete pour, if I have time...

Happy Easter!

We have walls!

Well, chain walls at least. They set the ICF blocks and bracing for the chain walls on Thursday and Friday. There was only one minor hiccup: The contractor got our house confused with another one and only sent enough blocks for them to be one high. Luckily the blocks are light and fit in the back of a pick-up truck, and they are only 10 miles away.

The building inspector do the inspection Monday morning, and the crew will finish up the bracing and will add some pvc penetrations for water/sewer/electrical, and they will pour the concrete on Tuesday. Here are some pictures of the walls, I'll post a picture showing the "insides" later today: