Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Grout

It was another early morning of pouring concrete. We got to the site at 4:30 am and set up lights. We were pouring by 5 am.


When we poured the footings, the concrete was poured directly from the truck to the form. In this situation, the concrete is poured into a pump, which you can see on the left. The pump pushes the concrete through a tube and then into the block wall. Every cell needs to be vibrated to make sure there are no air pockets. The rebar leaning against the wall gets stabbed into the freshly poured grout every four feet.


Here we are installing the hangers for the beams which hold the floor joists.


Kristi stabbing in the rebar.


There it is, freshly grouted stemwall. We poured about 39 yards of concrete that morning. The grey conduit with the yellow tape on it is for our electrical outlets, these were put in the night before. There was a lot of cleanup to get the grout off the side of the walls and level. All of this had to be done before the concrete got too hard. Overall things went very well. Just a fun fact, at this point, I estimate our house to weigh close to 450,000 lbs!

Stem Wall pt.2

OK, the Stem Wall was such a big job it gets two entries...

Kristi is cutting rebar with a mini grinder. All the rebar needs to be just below the top of the stem wall. I am using a skillsaw to cut an opening for a doorway.


Here we are both cutting rebar in the footings.


These are completed and ready for the wood forms to be set on top.