Starting work on the subfloor

I decided to take the 4th of July week off from work to get back to work on the house and make up some time. With only three days vacation for nine days off, it seemed like a good stretch to accomplish something. But it was going to be hot. But that's what we get for working in June and July. 

I removed the old a/c disconnect box and pulled the wiring into the crawl space. I also had to re-route the dryer vent to exit into the front of the house, in the area between the new addition and new front porch. This is a convenient location and also a much shorter run than the old one. Hopefully this will result in less lint buildup.

The lumber package for the additions subfloor and the porch framing arrived about two weeks ago from 84 Lumber. We ordered everything except for the double 2x10 band beam that is used to go against the house and hold the joists running across the foundation. I wanted to select these myself to make sure I got nice straight lumber. Off to Lowe's we went and selected four 12' 2x10's and two 10' 2x10's to make up the double beam. 

The 23/32" Advantech plywood I'm using for the subfloor actually measured around 3/4". I had removed enough of the existing house siding and tar paper underlayment where I could see the existing plywood subfloor. The subfloor on the existing house is 1/2" plywood. We made marks 3/4" below the top of this subfloor and snapped a chalk line to mark the top of the 2x10 band beam. 

We nailed up the first layer of the beam along the string line. We used just enough nails from the new Paslode framing nailer to hold it in place. Then, I cut the next row of the beam to stagger the joints mid way between the first row and nailed those in place. 

Our plans called for using 5/8" through bolts, every 12" along the length of the beam, staggered top and bottom of the beam. But before drilling the holes, we laid out the joist hangers, so the bolts wouldn't interfere. The joist hangers were installed from the back of the addition to the front, so that the water line and electric for the pier coming out of the house were between joists. Going the other way would have resulted in a joist landing right where they came out. 

Each of these joist hangers had eight 10D nails to install. Since my framing nailer wouldn't work, I got a good workout nailing 27 joist hangers!

Now for the bolts. I got out my old 1/2" hi-torque drill to drill these 5/8" holes. We'd be going through 4-1/2" of material so needed a good drill to do the job. And when I say old drill, I mean it! This drill belonged to my Dad, and it belonged to his Dad. I'm sure used on countless projects, I get to use my grandfathers drill to bolt my house together. The last time I used it, I was drilling holes through pier pilings to make a walkway and nearly broke my wrist. As i was drilling, the bit got hung up, but the drill kept going. The cord wrapped around my wrist and I couldn't let go of the trigger. Thankfully before doing any real damage to myself, the cord pulled out of the handle, shutting the drill down. So, today I wired up a new cord inside the handle and with the knowledge of potential bodily harm, off we went. Or should I say, off Amy went. She ended up drilling nearly every hole in the beam. And got a good workout doing so. And did I say this drill has no reverse? You have to be careful not to drive the auger bit in too far, as it can get nearly impossible to pull out and clear the wood chips. 

Amy stayed outside while I climbed into the crawl space with a wrench to install the through bolts. She installed them from the outside, I added a washer and nut and held it from turning while she tightened it down. The whole house may fall down, but this beam will never separate from the house!

Now to get to the quick and easy part, installing the joists. I had to trim every joist by a couple of inches, so I brought out my Hitachi 12" sliding compound miter saw, set up a stop to index the 14' joists and cut each one the same. To install the joist hanger end, no nails are necessary. We just moved them into position, pressed them tight against the beam, and hammered them downward. They snapped into place and that was that. 

For the other end, I had previously made marks every 16" and a nail was toe-nailed from each side into the sill plate. Using the framing nailer made quick work of this. 

Once we came to the crawl space, things were a little different. I had to install a header over the crawl space opening to carry the load across it. Similarly I also had to install a header over one of the crawl space vents as the load from a front wall girder truss will be directly above this. I didn't realize this at the time, but once we had the truss layout design, I realized my vent was in the wrong location. 

The headers were made from 1-3/4" LVL's. That with the 1-1/8" rim board make up the header. Joist hangers were used where the joists ran over the openings. Otherwise, it was business as usual installing the remainder of the joists. 

Finally, we installed the 1-1/8" rimboard on the ends of the joists. The 37' long wall had a rim board from back to front, and then there was the 3' short wall on the existing house side that needed a rim board. This was toenailed in place. A nail in the top and bottom of each I-joist (staggered) was also needed. 

At that was a day's work! It was getting late and a perfect spot to stop. Tomorrow we'll get running on installing the Advantech subfloor. It should go pretty quickly. Other than taking plenty of breaks due to the heat!

Sill Plates Installed

So this weekend we tackled a pretty quick and easy, but labor intensive project; installing the sill plates. Labor intensive because you have to mix up so many bags of concrete just to feel like you've made some progress. In all of the days of laying the foundation block work, I think the most bags I ever mixed in a day was four. Today we were mixing ten bags to cover all of the sill plate anchor bolts in the block cells where we would need them.

For the most part, Maryland follows the International Residential Code. For us, this means anchor bolts every six feet, and within a foot of the edge of a board. I had to take into account where our future joists would lie and then space the anchor bolts in between, maintaining the proper spacing. 

I got Amy to help me go at this and help take turns mixing up the concrete. And instead of placing the bolts, then later coming back and drilling holes through the sill plates, I decided to drill the holes, install the anchor bolts into the sill plates and then set the whole assembly down onto the foundation, with the anchor bolts going into wet concrete. This ended up working out really well. There was one board that was warped just too much for my liking so we set the anchor bolts at the ends and let them harden over night. The next day we removed that nuts and pulled off the sill plate. The concrete had filled in nicely around the bolts and was nice and level with the surface. We added the center anchor bolts, filled with concrete and re-installed. I used some wood clamps and pull the board into submission. 

So next up is to get some work done on the boat to get it back in the water for the season and off my plate. Then back to the house. I'll need to remove the old air conditioning fuse box from the side of the house, and I'll have to get into the crawl space and re-route the dryer vent as it to is in right in the way of the new floor. Once that's done I can install the new band beam that runs the length of the house. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Foundation Backfilled

So this weekend the weather held out and so we were finally able to get the excavator that dug the footings back out to backfill around the new addition foundation. He and his crew were able to knock it all out in a single day. 

They showed up with a big dump truck load of fill dirt. They used the bobcat to dump dirt around the inside of the foundation (crawlspace), filling in the footing trench. The rest of the fill was used to fill in the footing trench on the outside. Originally he figured he'd use two loads of fill, but only ended up needing one load. A load of pea gravel came next. They used the excavator to scoop it from the dumptruck and pour it into the interior crawlspace area. They raked it out nice and thick and even. The small pebbles should be easy on the knees. Anything will be better than the uneven dirt foundation under the original house! 

Finally, a load of topsoil was spread around the whole area. This covered all around the new foundation and also covered all of the ruts and torn up yard from the previous four months of construction. And then they were gone. I bought 100lbs of grass seed and nine bales of straw to spread around the new area. It's the perfect time of year to plant grass seed, so it should come up quickly. And hopefully I can keep it nice, and avoid any mud for the remainder of the project!

Done with the Foundation!

 This was the weekend I was determined to finish the foundation. I had less than 60 blocks to complete it. But...weather again. Saturday looked like my only day to get out there. But first I had to wait for it to warm up. Once it did I was out and going at it. And once again, I laid 47 blocks. That seems to be my average as I think I've reported that several times before. 

I was able to finish the back wall, and nearly all of the long side wall though. But by the time I cleaned up for the night, it was well past dark. Sunday was blustery cold with no chance to finish. Back to work on Monday, but only for a day. The kids Spring Break was this week and I would be staying home Tuesday and Wednesday with them. That gave me two more days, and as long as I had just one hour (weather be damned!) over those two days, I'd be done. I figured out I had 13 blocks left. And get this...of the 23 bags of concrete I had delivered I was done to...ONE. I had been averaging around 13-15, so I was hoping it would be enough. If it wasn't, I would make an immediate trip out for one bag. Yes I would. 

So on Tuesday I got out there, mixed up my last bag of concrete, set up the laser level again and went at it. It went smoothly while finishing the long wall, until I realized I had forgot to leave a space for the vent! No big deal, I'm just glad I realized it before it had set up and hardened. Wrapped around to the front wall and was done in no time. 

It turned out great. Everything came together great, perfectly level and absolutely square. I ran the laser level around the entire perimeter after I was done (just for fun) and got solid tones everywhere I put it. That's what a auto-leveling rotating laser level, a 4' level, a 2' level and a torpedo level will get you...if used correctly! And, the foundation is at the exact right height so that once the sill plate, joists and subfloor go down, it will be exactly even with the existing floor. This was critical as there will be a hallway and bedroom entrances from the old to new living spaces. The floor and ceiling (and roof too) must to be perfectly even with each other.

I must say, I'm glad it's over but I will actually miss it a bit. I fell into a groove and while still working very slow compared to professionals, I could keep a steady pace and work consistently. That is, until another batch of concrete had to be mixed up. And that I will not miss!

60 blocks this weekend, 297 total, 0 to go...

That felt good to write. Now, on to setting the anchor bolts and sill plates. So more concrete mixing is still in my immediate future, great! But, off for a little Spring Break vacation to Corolla, NC. And also time to spend a couple of weekends and get the boat ready for the season. 

One other little note to mention. In this picture of a mason line block I used on parts of the foundation, shows an old wooden one. This I got from my Dad. I don't know for sure, but I'd bet he used these to build his own garage, back in like 1980 or so. Now how cool is that? 

So Close...

So now that the corners are done, all I had to do was fill in between them. One obstacle was trying to figure out where to place the crawl space entry. I knew which wall it was going on; didn't want it on the front facing wall obviously, and the back wall will eventually be covered by a deck. But where to place it on the side? In the center, or towards one end? After much deliberation, we decided to put it a bit closer to the front from center. This way, there would be room for an air conditioner or heat pump past it, further towards the back of the house and away from normal view. See how what seem like simple decisions become complex? Not really complex, but they need to be thought through carefully. No turning back now. 



The other crawl space issue was the height and width of the opening. I purchased a concrete steel-reinforced lintel block to go over the opening. But I began to wonder if I really needed it. All of the crawl space openings I had seen recently did not have one; the sill plate went right overhead. But of course their foundation or floor setup was different than mine, so no obvious answer. I asked online and received some really good information. Forget the lintel block, but add another 2x to rim board to act like a header. Like any other header over a window or door in a wood-framed house. Simple enough! Then the joists would hang by joist hangers. 

Just to confirm we called the local building inspector. Explaining our solution and he quickly agreed. Maybe this was the norm....but not being contractors we don't know. The result of this is that I will have 8" more headroom that with the lintel block. And when the opening will be 24" tall to begin with, 32" is a huge difference. The width will be 32" which with the 32" height, seems plenty big. I set up a string line over top the blocks to act like a sill plate and crawled through...no problem!


So anyway, I had a three day weekend but the weather didn't cooperate on day 1. But Saturday and Sunday were just over 50F which is minimum to mix concrete as I have found through trial and error. 

I had to wait awhile for it to warm up in the morning and could finally start around noon. On Saturday I laid 44 blocks. On Sunday I had to wait longer and then had other plans later in the evening. 21 more blocks down. 

I just need ONE more good day to finish this up! But wait, next decision is where to place the vents!

65 blocks today, 237 total, 60 to go...

Corners Finished!

Once again I saw the weather forecast wasn't going to be ideal for the weekend. Saturday looked like a wash with rain and cold, while Sunday looked better. And of course, Monday even better yet. So I decided to take off a day of work in order to make some progress on this foundation. 

I got started Sunday afternoon once the weather warmed up enough. I worked most of the day and made good progress, getting up to the fifth course on all four corners. Once I set that top block on the corner and get it perfect, I don't want to touch it. I know if I go ahead and add another block next to it, I'll knock it out of position. So it's been my method to prioritize getting a new single course block on all of the corners, and then with what time remains in the day, filling in between. 

I also need to mention that I had some great help Sunday, for the first time. Both of my kids came out and helped me out. Chelsea was able to carry the concrete blocks around and lay them around the perimeter, just where I needed them. She made sure to point out to me that she moved 32 blocks! And she did indeed. Olivia had a hard time picking up the blocks so instead she helped me keep the mortar stirred up, adding a little water as needed to keep it just right. I sure was able to keep right at the task at hand with the help I had. 

29 blocks today, 122 total, 175 to go...

Monday was a really nice day; it was a good decision to stay home and work. After taking the kids to school (hey, we get to sleep in another half hour!) and doing other odds and ends while waiting for the temperature to climb, I started off on putting down the 6th and final course of blocks. For the 4th, 5th and 6th course corners, I've been getting out the laser level and using it to make sure they all are perfectly at the right height. And by doing so I've noticed that even though my string lines are about as tight as I can pull them, there is still some droop to them. Can't be trusted! They are still very useful to finding my corner marks and parallel lines, but I'm using the laser level for the height on the last couple of courses. 

I got the 6th course blocks and then keep on moving. I finished up the corners in the front of the house and then stayed right there and started filling in. Before dark arrived I was able to have 5 courses complete of an entire wall section. I getting the hang of this. And with the help yesterday, I had most of the blocks right where I needed them. This is starting to look like something! Though I need to brush off all that dried mud on the blocks... Actually, I'm thinking about painting the interior of the crawl space walls with white paint. I think that will lighten it up a bit whenever I need to crawl in there in the future. It would be easy to do now, as there's no way I would do it once the floor is in place.

Still have a long ways to go, but today I laid the most I had ever done, 50 blocks. I can really start cruising along now that the corners are complete. 

50 blocks today, 172 total, 125 to go...

Too Cold

I've been inside for a few hours now hanging out by the fireplace. I'm actually finally starting to feel warm. I think the weather hit the high of 43F here today for all of five minutes. I really wanted to make some more progress, so decided to go for it and do a little more work. 

But it was just too cold, and I worried about the concrete setting up. But I was able to add another course to all of the corners. Up 4 now, 2 to go. And I'm dead set on the mark at 16" below the finished height. I put down another 13 block using one bag of concrete (which is what QuikRete, the maker of the mortar I'm using actually estimates you'll use per bag). Then I gave up.

We're supposed to get below freezing tonight, so I covered all of my recent work in a couple layers of old blankets. That should keep things warm enough to set up overnight. 

With an average temperature here of 51F now, I'm done with this. If it's not going to be warm on the weekends, I guess I'll have to take another day off of work on a nice day if I want to make some progress. And I'll really like to get this done this month so I can get it backfilled, cleaned up and seeded for spring.

I was able to seed and straw the front area where the porch will go. Instead of using tarps to keep the four foundation holes clean where the porch columns will go (which wasn't doing a very good job anyway), I bought a sheet of plywood and cut it up to make four 2'x2' boxes. I cleaned the mud and dirt out of the holes and laid the box inside. That should keep the dirt out now and I won't have to worry about them any longer. And since this area is all at the finished grade, I can go ahead and get some grass planted, and at least make this side of the house look decent. Plus once we do to work on the porch, it won't be a muddy mess. 

13 blocks today, 93 total, 204 to go...

Slow Progress, Cold Weather

So now that I have that first course down, I don't really need to worry about rain too much. It doesn't matter if water gets into the excavated trench, caves parts of it in, and turns it all into a layer of mud. So I figured my progress would speed up. Nope. It seems that ever since we broke ground, I can't catch a break when it comes to the weather. Now it's the temperature. 

In order to mix concrete and have it set up well, I'd really like it to be 50 degrees during the day and above-freezing through the night. But other than that first day I started, we haven't hit that mark on the weekend, not even close. Sure there were a few days during the week, but...my real job gets in the way. So everything has been quiet for the last couple of weeks.

Today the weather was marginal, with a high of 48. I was tired of just staring at the place so went for it. I used hot water from the house to add to my concrete mix. I concentrated on adding another course of block in the corners, as that's the next "hard part" of the job. Once all six courses of all corners are set and at the right level, all I'll have to do is fill in between and then the job will begin to move along. I promise. 

After three courses, all of my corners are not right on with where they need to be...24" from the top. There are still a couple of high spots within the span, but those should wash out as I progress higher. 

I've been using my story pole and the string lines to set the block to this point. I think for the 4th, 5th and 6th courses I'll get out the laser level I use it to verify that everything is coming up where they should. It only takes a minute to setup and is good insurance against potential sagging string lines that could cause the foundation to be just a bit off. And we don't want that!

Ok, so today I set 26 blocks, 80 total, 217 to go...

First Course Complete!

Wow, it's amazing what can get done when everything aligns. I was off for the day. I had nothing else on my schedule. And the weather...the weather cooperated! We had a high of 58 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. It made for an enjoyable day outside. And as you'll see in my photos, I had good company (and yes, I had to change out our well pressure tank last weekend). My plan today was to get the entire first course of blocks finished. I really don't want to worry about drying the footing and scrapping away mud and dirt again. If I can get the first course complete, then I won't have to worry about it. Any water that gets under the tarp won't bother me much after that point, except for wet shoes. 

Since all the corner blocks were in place and set up nicely from the day before,  I used some mason line and pair of mason line blocks to stretch a line from corner to corner. The line was set at the top corner block of each end. This gave me a guide to set the remainder of the blocks. I could lay a block and tap it into position so it was just off the line, and then set the height so that the top of the block was level with the line. I still used a level to make sure the block was level in its width, but otherwise I moved pretty quickly. Quick being relative as I've only been doing this for a few hours now. 

The one frustrating thing, and I'm sure all masons have to deal with it, is the uneven footing. I just didn't think with that fancy laser level it would be quite the issue. As I go along the line I'll have to pile up a good bit of mortar, or really thin it out when the footing gets high. But I've now taken care of all the low spots. My first course blocks are either spot on where they need to be, or they are still high by about 1/2"-5/8" or so. As I mentioned in the previous post, there's only so much ground you can recover from being high. So while my wall won't be perfectly level as of yet (a fact that really bothers me), it will be soon.

I got the entire first course completed. Before daylight ran out, I was able to set a block in all four corners for the second course. Once these setup, I'll be able to use my mason line blocks and string to stretch between them to fill in. It's supposed to start raining tonight and then turn cold, so it looks like they'll have a week (at least) to setup before I can get back to it. And now I can concentrate on building up the corners to the full 6 course height, like a pyramid. 

So, that's 39 blocks today, 54 total, 243 to go! Being an engineer, I think I'll need to put these in a table and work up some graphs for a future post...

First Blocks are Set

I had a four day weekend coming up. What better time to get started on laying the concrete block foundation? If only the weather would hold up I could get quite a bit done. And of course, it did not. That's what I get for trying to build in February. But better now than in July. 

After checking out the upcoming weather forecast, it looked like there were going to be two straight days, Thursday and Friday that were good for mixing up some concrete and laying block. The rest of my long weekend Saturday, Sunday and Monday, not so good. So I took a day off of work to get a jump start. 

It had rained the day before, so after getting the kids to school I pumped off the water on the tarp. I was frustrated to see water had gotten beneath the tarp and coated half my footing trench with mud. I was thinking I might as well go to back to work, but fortunately the other half of the trench was clean.   I have a nice blower fan unit that I grabbed from the barn and put in the trench to try to dry the water, while I spread it around with a broom to thin it out. 

As the blower was doing it's thing, I decided to get started on the other side. By now it was already nearly 2 o'clock. Better late than never. I had quite a bit of a nervous adrenaline rush getting ready to break open the first 80 lb. bag of concrete. No turning back now. It had been 14 years since I last laid block on my previous house garage and I had just that nervous anticipation of the unknown. 

Six quarts of water was perfect for the mix (as the instructions called for) and I thought I had it just right. Using a concrete pan and a ordinary garden hoe (the same from '99!), it wasn't even as hard to mix as I thought. My nerves quickly subsided as everything clicked and I felt like I had just done all this yesterday. I started in the corner where the footing was the lowest point of the whole perimeter. A good 1" low or so. I built a thick and full bed of mortar to lay the first block. And down it went. I used a story pole I had made to check my height against the string line above and carefully tapped it down into position. At the right height, level in both the length and width directions. No don't bump it! 

I set four more blocks around the first corner block and then moved to the next corner. Although I had a chalk line snapped to guide me along, it's not the easiest to stay perfectly straight. So I wanted to set another corner block so that I could then use a string line pulled taut from corner to corner

to more easily guide the way, and set the height. 

I set the first block of this corner (not really a corner, but an end) to be exactly 10 blocks away from where I started. This was because I didn't want to start right at the end against the existing house foundation, otherwise I'd have a small cut block in the middle somewhere. This way, I keep the cut block against the house, and underground.

By now I had the other side of the footing pretty dry. In between laying the previous block I had moved the fan around, spread the water around and swept the dried mud away with a stiff straw broom. The corner nearest the house is actually a high point of about 3/4" high. The opposite corner is about the desired height. 

With the contractor using that rotating laser level to set the pins for the footing depth, I have no idea how this footing was so un-level. From 3/4" high to 1" low. The low points aren't so bad, they can be built up quickly. But there is only so much space to made up when you are high. Normal mortar joints should be 3/8" thick. And obviously you have to have some mortar between each layer to hold everything together. I have 6 courses to work with, and I think it will take most of them to remove these high points. I'd rather get it taken care of below grade where it won't be seen, but I don't think I'm going to have that option here. 

Anyway, the remainder of the blocks went smoothly, although my back started to feel the effects of carrying 80 lb. bags of concrete, mixing them, and then working in the bottom of a hole all day. Hopefully I'll get conditioned to this. I have a long way to go...

If you want to keep track, that's 15 blocks today, 282 to go!

Level (With a Laser) and Square

Today we braved the cold and set out to set up our batter boards and lay out our string lines for the foundation. I had already cut the stakes and boards and gathered all the other equipment we'd need including string, water level, screws, etc. 

Water level? I had used one of those in the past to layout a garage foundation years ago, and while they work great they sure are a hassle to use. You always have to be mindful of where the ends of the water hose are before uncapping them or else you'll surely get wet, and then have to refill the hose. So...in you recall in a previous post I told you to to remember the excavators use of a self-leveling rotating laser level? Well, that thing was pretty slick. So after much deliberation, I splurged and bought a Johnson Level & Tool Co. Model 40-6515 laser level kit. Complete package including the level, detector, grade stick, tripod and a nice case to contain everything. 

And what do I have to say after using it so set the batter boards? Money well spent! It was a piece of cake and made quick work of setting all the boards perfectly level with one another and at the exact height to match the existing foundation. I'll be using the laser level again when we start work on the porch foundation, and I'll always have other uses around the house for it. It's one of those things you wonder how you ever did without it. Now if only I had it last year when I made that retaining wall all around the barn...

To backtrack a bit, we started by pounding in the posts where we needed them. They were located out away from the footing so they wouldn't get in our way later. I pounded them in using one of those steel fence post drivers. Worked great. Then I set the laser level up on the tripod and clamped the detector to the grade stick. That's all there is to it. Turn it on and it self levels and begins spinning around. You can't see the laser in the daylight, but the detector can and will let you know with with a series of beeps and LED's when you get close and then hit the mark.

I had marked on the existing foundation the spot that I wanted the new foundation to come up to. This will be 3/4" below the current foundation as we are using 9-1/2" I-joists (existing house has 9" lumber) and 3/4" subfloor (existing house uses 1/2" plywood) which accounts for the difference. So I set the bottom of the grade stick on the mark and adjusted the detector to signal it had detected the laser. 

After that it was simply a matter of walking around to each stake in the ground, moving the stick until the detector beeped and marking the bottom of the stick with a pencil. 1x6 boards were screwed across the stakes at the level line all around the perimeter. That's it. 

The hard part was running the string lines. I couldn't think of a new way to make this easier. So out came the tape measures. I also printed out a foundation layout plan from my Sketchup plan that contained all of the diagonal measurements for the addition. Our oldest daughter came out of the nice warm house to help us. One person to hold one end of the tape measure, one to read the measurement, and one to move the line. So with three people working the lines, it wasn't too terribly bad. It was straightforward, but took a lot of walking around back and forth to get everything spot-on. 

And spot-on we did. When all was complete, my diagonal measurements were right on the mark from corner to corner, a nearly 40' distance. And I'm talking on-the-mark! Did you expect anything less? (Hint, my wife would tell you No). 

Next up is actually putting down some cement and laying some block. If only the weather would warm up...

First Delivery

Today we received our very first construction related delivery: Three pallets worth of concrete masonry units (CMU's), otherwise referred to as concrete blocks. 297 of them to be exact. That's how many my 3D SketchUp plans told me I'd need so that's how many we ordered. Don't think I'll screw one up? We'll see. But actually I'd rather be a little too short and have to throw a few in the back of the truck, then have too many lying around. Something about having to load up and return heavy blocks doesn't sound very appealing. And what else would I use them for? They're not really known for their curb appeal or artistic landscape features.

So those, and another pallet containing 23 bags of 80lb. Quikrete Type S Mortar, a pair of lintel blocks for the crawl space opening and a bunch of 10" anchor bolts to secure the subfloor and we're in business. Now all I need is for this rainy and cold weather to break and I can start the laying some block. Did I mention we just received our first snowfall of the year a few days ago? Four inches of the fluffy (and wet) stuff. Nice.

Dig a Hole in the Ground and Rain will Come

Ever since the electrician left his beautiful work behind, we've been trying to get the footings dug for the new additions on the house. And of course, as soon as you start seriously discussing plans to dig great big holes in the ground, Mother Nature hears you and turns what has been a very dry season into an instant monsoon. I've had a weather station at my house for over a year now that records weather data to the PC, and it has already told me that January 2013 is a record month since it has been in operation. Awesome. And don't anyone tell me we "need the rain" in January. For what!? Everything's dormant. There. Oh and here comes the arctic cold. Ok, ok, back to the house.


After reading that, you'd think that nothing's happened. Well, the footings are complete! Fooled you. But the weather is no lie. After the 5+ inches of rain the week before, we had a couple of days of sun and warmer weather to dry things out. Our excavator found a window to fit us in and delivered all of the equipment a couple of days in advance: A very large excavator, a smaller excavator and a Bobcat. The plan was for him to arrive Monday, Martin Luther King Day and do all of the excavating and stump removal. On Tuesday the building inspector would arrive and check off the permit followed by the concrete truck a few hours later.

Well it turns out that extreme cold temperatures for this area were inbound on Monday night into Tuesday. Our excavator talked to the building inspector and got an advance "OK" to go ahead and pour the concrete in the footings in the same day due to the weather that night. They both thought it too risky to pour on Tuesday in below-freezing temperatures when on Monday it was 45F.

It all happened very quickly. They crew showed up at 7:30am and got to work tearing out the old porch foundation using the smaller excavator. It took quite a bit of pounding, scrapping and prying to begin to break it apart. Eventually it came out and was loaded into a dump truck and hauled away.

Then attention turned to using the large excavator to dig out a large 38" diameter stump that just barely in the way of the new addition. This tulip poplar tree stood near the house and was struck by lightning back in 2009. In 2011 we had it cut down as a large piece of the canopy hanging over the house had died. Standing over 135ft. it was a beautiful tree. And now there is nothing but dirt where it used to be.

Back to the smaller excavator and the footings. He used an auto-leveling rotary laser level (remember this) to level out the area of the new addition crawl space. Then laid out the measurements I had given him for the addition dimensions. After checking for square, he dug them out. It looks like I'll need to lay 6 courses of block work to meet up with the existing foundation subfloor.

Before digging the footings for the porch addition out front, we had to find where the oil line passed through between the house and the buried oil tank. I had been in the crawl space a few weeks before and found and marked where the pair of oil lines dove into the dirt and heading outside the wall. One guy in the crew had the job of hand digging to find and trace this oil line. Whoever dug this trench 45+ years ago must have been drinking. Sure enough, while the path wandered back and forth toward the tank, it ended up crossing exactly in the path of one of the foundation holes for a porch post. Not a big deal, at least now he knew where it was and not to hit it. After laying out the dimensions for the porch, he dug four very square 2'x2' holes for the porch columns. I was impressed with how square a hole he dug with a bucket on an excavator.

There was now only about an hour before the concrete truck was to arrive. They set pins in the trench to the height of the footing, and laid two lines of rebar down in the trench the entire length, side by side. One guy took off to get some bales of straw and some plastic. The idea here was to cover up the concrete in the footings with plastic and then fill the trench with straw. This would help keep it insulated against the cold weather showing up that night.

The concrete truck arrived and put nice big ruts in the yard. Because the new (temporary) electric lines hung so low, the truck couldn't get close enough to the trench to use the chute directly. Here I was thinking he'd be cussing me out under his breath pushes wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of heavy concrete mix back and forth. No big deal he said, and proceeded to use the bucket on the big excavator to fill and transport the concrete. Pretty slick. And that bucket can hold a lot of concrete. In no time the concrete truck had cleaned up and left.


And that was that. We now have a trench full of straw. The kids think the square porch foundation holes make excellent trap doors. Tomorrow they'll be back early to dig out three other stumps elsewhere on the property (all due to past hurricanes and tropical storms, Ernesto and Irene).

This brings an end to hired help. Now that this is done, we're on our own. Next job: Concrete block foundation. Time to take the "DIY" and kick it into high gear.

I Said it was Only Temporary, But...

Now that the porch was gone, the next thing in line was to get our existing overhead electric service moved out of the way. It comes to the house on the same side where the addition is going to go. There are three insulated individual solid copper lines coming from the nearest utility pole up to the peak of the house. 

A very old and rough looking service entrance cable then goes down the peak, disappears under the eave and runs to the front of the house, right next to the entrance on this side of the house. Not a very nice place to have a meter. 

So, we hired an electrician to temporarily move the service out of the way. He in turn coordinated with the local utility power company to do their part. Within a couple of hours, the service was moved. Not exactly how I pictured, but the job was done. I assumed they'd put up a utility pole right next to the front of the house and run the line to there and down. What the electrician ended up doing was place a couple of ordinary 12' 4x4's into the ground about two feet and stringing it up from there. Well, I guess it is just temporary...


The utility company ended up replacing the wiring coming from the transformer all the way to the house. This was old pure bare copper coming from the transformer to the next pole. 


From there it turned into the insulated wire I that goes to the house. All of this was changed to the modern and standard triplex wire, all wrapped into one insulated bundle. They left this cable extra-long so that it can be moved to it's final location once the new addition is complete. 

The plan is to eventually move the service to that same end of the house, the exterior wall of the addition. At that time the electric meter will also be moved to that side of the house, out of view. The service entrance cable will quickly disappear under the crawl space and run to to a brand new main panel to be installed in place of the old Wadsworth panel we have now. It's old and we're just about out of space in there now. 



It may not look pretty but we have power to the house. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that it's all just temporary. 










Now that everything is out of the way, ground breaking is next!