The BIG Pour! July 2014

The day to pour the concrete walls had arrived!  We decided to do an "alpine" start, and arrived onsite before 6:00 AM to finish up all the preparation for the pour.  We still had a lot to prepare, but we finished just before the trucks pulled into the driveway at 12:30!  We completed all the bracing for the doors, windows, and seams.  And we did one last check to ensure the walls were straight, level and plumb.

View of interior with bracing and scaffolding.

View of garage interior with bracing and scaffolding.

This was the biggest pour of the project; we had ordered 65 yards of concrete, which came in 6 concrete trucks.

Concrete Trucks in the driveway.

Concrete truck filling the pump truck.

We also needed a concrete pump truck so that we could easily fill the walls with concrete. This was the second time we used the pump truck, and this was the same truck that came for the basement walls... with a 140 foot reach!  

Pouring with the 140 foot pump truck boom!

Pump truck boom over the garage.

View from the back of the garage.

Pump operator controlling the pump while being able to see the pour from inside the house.

It is only recommended to pour up to 4' of concrete at one time, and since the house walls are 9' tall and the garage walls are 13' tall, it took three rounds to completely fill the walls.  As the concrete was filling the walls, the walls were vibrated to help move the concrete down.

Close-up of pouring concrete into the walls.

To make sure that concrete filled below the windows, a vibrator was used to pull the concrete under the windows through holes in the window bucks. 

Pulling the concrete under the windows with the vibrator.

Once the walls and windows were filled with concrete, the concrete needed to be screened to create a level surface.  This was done on the windows and the tops of all the walls.

Screeding the concrete off the window bucks.

Removing the excess concrete from the top of the walls.

Before the concrete was set, anchor bolts needed to be placed.  We had the anchor bolts pre set in pieces of wood so that they could be placed quickly.

View of the top of the walls with the anchor bolts placed after the concrete was poured.  

A very long day, but we were excited that this step of the house building process was finished!

ICF Walls - July 2014

We started building the house walls mid July, and they went up quickly!  The ICF blocks were great to work with, and it was exciting to see the walls going up!  The ICF blocks come in pallets as pictured below, and are either straight blocks, or corners.  The pallets of blocks filled the house! 

 

Below is a photo of the walls of the house partially built, and you can see the pallets of ICF blocks inside the house.

 

The blocks were relatively easy to work with.  They fit together like legos and just need to be cut to length around the windows and doors. 

Steve working on a corner.

 

Cutting a block to length.

 

Placing a block on the wall.

Queen of the ICF!

As the ICF walls were built, horizontal rebar needed to be added every four feet in the interior of the blocks.  The rebar was bent at ninety degrees to go around the corners, and cut to length as needed.  Vertical rebar was also added before the walls were filled with concrete.

Bending the rebar to fit a corner.

The windows needed to be cut to the rough opening size and then window bucks needed to be added around the windows.

Cutting out a window opening.

Fitting the window bucks to the window openings.

As the walls were being finished, bracing was added to keep the walls straight and level.  The bracing also provided support for a scaffold, which made working on the top row of blocks much easier.  However, the scaffold's main job was to provide a place to stand when it was time to pour the walls with concrete.  

Walls with bracing and scaffold.

Measuring for the top row of blocks.

Once all the ICF walls were built and the window and door bucks were installed, bracing needed to be added to secure any of the ICF joints.  We used plywood to brace the seams as well as the window and door bucks.  Both the interior and the exterior needed to be braced, which took two people, three days to complete!  LOTS of bracing was added!  We did not want any blow outs during the concrete pour!



 

Installing the plywood bracing above a door.



Bracing on the exterior of the house.

The last beam in the house that needed to be added was above the windows in the living room.  This was lifted in place by hand! 

Beam over the living room windows.

The garage was prepped in the same fashion as the house with bracing on the walls, and around the windows and doors.  All openings also needed to be supported before the concrete pour as shown in the photo below. 

Garage door opening with supports installed before the concrete pour.

Bracing and scaffolding set up in the garage. 

 

View of house from walk-out level; garage is on the right side.

Excavation, Footings, Frost Wall, Round Two! - End of June 2014

Round two of excavation, footings, frost wall, stone and concrete floor for the garage has begun!  Although we had to return to excavation, the second time with this process was much more efficient, and in a week, the excavation was done, the footings were dug, built and poured, and the frost wall was built and poured!  It was a busy week!!

Garage excavation completed.

Garage footings before the concrete pour.

Footings after the concrete pour.

Frost wall and first wall of blocks for the garage.

Concrete pour for the frost wall.

View of the garage, standing on the first floor of the house.

Tiller checking out the progress!

The following week, we prepped the garage for the concrete slab, which included back filling the frost wall, digging a haunched slab footing, pipe for the power to the basement, pipe for electrical outlets in the floor of the workshop, and a stone base.  Once that was completed, 6 mil poly was placed on top of the stones as a vapor barrier.

Stone base for garage slab.

Ready for concrete!

The pour for the garage slab was delayed due to rainy weather, so we started building the walls on the house this same week, as you can see in the photos above!  We are planning to pour the garage slab this coming week, so more photos will be added when that is completed.

About a week later, we poured the garage slab with a small crew of helpers!  We needed three concrete trucks and 26 yards of concrete for this pour!  Below are some photos as the floor was being poured, leveled and finished.

Leveling the concrete.

 In the photo above, you can see the metal keyed joints which serve as contraction joints for the concrete, and were used as starting and stopping points for pouring the concrete.

The left section of concrete is being leveled, and the right side is being finished.  

The remainder of the concrete for the floor being poured.

Floor is poured, but not quite finished or dry yet in this photo.