Week two of construction on the porch
that is being built on the back of our house.
For those of you who are not interested in construction details, which can be tedious at times, you can keep up if you know that after demolition was completed last week, the project moved onto starting the foundation.
Now a few more details.
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| They started digging the holes for the footers. I was very impressed with the deep holes the mason's crew dug in the rocky soil with only hand tools - a digging bar, shovel and post hole digger. As you may remember, it took me forever to dig 6" deep holes to plant some tulip bulbs. |
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| The porch will be supported by 6 piers. Here are the locations of half of them. The holes are approximately 32" x 32". Those next to the house are 6' deep reaching down to the original footers of the house foundation while the others go down to the frost depth 36". We weren't there to see the workers complete the holes, but it must have taken some special skill to excavate that 6' deep one. |
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| There were various wires and pipes they encountered while digging. Some of these things they had an idea of where they might be, but others were not known. How they were able to dig and not do any damage is another amazing thing to me. But all of our drains, water, and electricity still work, so all is good. |
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| A few days later, the inspector came and passed the foundation holes. We have a sticker on the back of our building permit that says we passed the first inspection and work can proceed. |
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| The mason's crew came back the next day to put the concrete into the holes. |
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| Now we wait for the concrete to cure, so the next part can begin. |
Until next time...
Wow that makes me not want to build anything. It looks like a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get down to the details, it is an incredible amount of work. I guess that is why it costs so much.
DeleteThis is so exciting! Reminds me of the time I had the family room addition put in!
ReplyDeleteSo you have had this experience, too. Did you have an major problems with you construction?
DeleteWell, I had originally planned to add a family room, a bathroom, a laundry area, and remodel the kitchen. Then, I found out that I needed to rewire the whole house and the plumbing needed to be changed, as well! So, it grew to be a bit more than originally planned, but, the contractors were able to get it all done. :)
DeleteWhen we have had work done inside, it's never as simple as it seems. One thing always leads to another.
DeleteIt's amazing the amount of knowledge and work that goes into building. Thanks for letting us share the journey!
ReplyDeleteI was incredibly impressed with the mason and his crew. Not only did it take physical skills to dig those holes, it took some complicated math to figure everything out. I have always respected the trades, but I have a whole new appreciation for them now. BTW, you should have seen the guy dropping off and picking up the dumpster. His precision was amazing.
DeleteWow, that is a lot of deep holes. Maybe they dug them by hand to avoid breaking anything like pipes they ran into. I'm always hearing of construction crews breaking a gas or water line. They hit an electrical line and a water line when repaving and adding sidewalks on a major street a few blocks from me. Can't wait for next addition.
ReplyDeleteI have been impressed with all of the workman so far. I'm not sure how they just don't stick their shovel into the dirt and slice through an electric line, but they didn't here. I going to ask about that sometime.
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