Pour in, Floor in!

We have a basement floor!

I guess the rest of the pour happened on Tuesday as scheduled, and the wife and I had some time to take a look at it today.  We caught the framing crew setting up the temporary supports for the LiteDeck above.

 Last time I saw the elevator shaft, I was concerned because it was set up for concrete to be poured into it.  There was foam, plastic, and rebar grid in the shaft, so I was wondering if we were going to need a pitless elevator.  I texted Matt the framer and he knew this area wasn't supposed to be poured since there's already a slab/footing in there.  Here's the result.  From the slab/footing to the slab/floor is 8-10 inches, which is perfect for a residential elevator pit.  Awesome.

 The crew installed the second post for the stair support before the pour.  If you look closely, you can see faint markings on the floor used to measure out the curve of the stairwell.  It's just a hair under 4' wide, which I guess is a good width for two people on the stairs.  Standing on it, you wouldn't guess that's a good width because it feels a little cramped.  I guess it's just one of those things that will need to be stood on to get the feel of.

Here's the joint between the first and second pour.  Looks okay and there will be a wall on top anyways.  All the floor is finished to a very smooth surface.  No troweling marks are present anywhere.  Professional job as far as I can tell.

Even thought they're only temporary supports, it really feels like a house is being built.  I can start to imagine the stud walls for the real interior walls.  We're finally out of the dirt!

 They had a good system of measuring and calling out the cut lengths.  All 2x6s and Matt said they would be used later for the final walls.  I'm not sure what he meant by that unless they're planning on ripping them to 2x4 size.

 Here's the edge of the slab at the side walk out.  A 2x4 is used as a form and the slab sits on top of the ICF foundation.  Some day a sliding door will be here.

Here's the rear walk out.  Again, the slab sits on the ICF foundation.  It's great having the basement poured because we can actually get a feel of how much headroom we have.  It's more than enough to get a good hanging pull up in.

Controlled cracking joints are already cut so as far as the basement is concerned, it's done.  The builder will finish the exterior walls with drywall on completion, but that's it.

After the temporary supports are finished, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing will be called in for first floor pass throughs in preparation for the pour.  I'll have to make sure to be there so I can get data line holes.

We're hunting for an interior designer and have met with 2 of 3 candidates.  It's tough to choose one so far because we really don't know what they'll design for us until we hire them.  The landscape designers provided a design concept we could use to make a decision on, but I guess interior designers only provide an expected time schedule and some rough ideas.  If anything needs to be moved on the first floor for plumbing, it will have to be decided pretty quickly.

When it rains, it doesn't pour

After a month of delay to fulfill the new topo requirement to the township, we finally got the inspection and could proceed to pour the basement.

Wouldn't you know it that this summer is getting  rain almost every other day?  A pour was scheduled on Wednesday, but was canceled the night before by the concrete company due to supply limitations.  They did manage to get some concrete to us on Thursday, but only a portion of the basement and the stair footing.  The concrete providers said they would come back next Tuesday to finish the rest of the pour.

 Here's the space between the elevator shaft and the workout room.  They poured the future theater and storage room.  A few observations.

• First, he spikes used to hold the temporary form board pierces the plastic, foam, and drives pretty deep into the substrate.  How annoying would it be if, in the future, I see water weeping up from these channels?
• Second, how does this joint affect the finish and quality of the slab considering this isn't going to be a single pour?  Granted, there will be a wall over this joint, but are they going to create an expansion cut here?
• Third, with the board in place, the rebar grid couldn't be pulled up into the slab so it's basically sitting at the bottom of the concrete.  I've read conflicting information on the efficacy and purpose of the light gauge grid.  Some people say it's just to help mitigate crumbling and hold the concrete together under cracked situations.  Others say that it will absorb some of the stressing energies, but only if it's elevated in the concrete.

Another shot of the storage/theater.  This is where the back wall of the theater will be.  I think the pipe on the left is the drain stack for above and the other is for the theater wetbar.

Here's the storage side.  I noticed some slight pooling of water around the pipe (that you can't see) that will be used for a sink rough in.  I hope they didn't think it was a drain and sloped to it.  The basement should slope towards the pipe you can see, which is the actual drain.

Here's the pour for the stair footing.  The pit was about 12-14" deep.  This footing will be used to support the weight all the way up to the second floor.

Another shot of the footing, looking at the workout room.

Here's the power wagon they used to distribute the concrete.  I didn't get to attend the pour, but my wife said the concrete truck drove down to the side walk out and aimed the chute into the power wagon.  They placed 4x8 boards down to drive over and dumped.  One or two other guys distributed and floated the floor.  That took place two days ago.  The concrete was hard enough for me to walk on, so that bodes well for future build time.

Papers please. Pour please?

Well, Alpine Engineering finished the foundation and topographic survey earlier this week and my builder, Ken, rushed them over to the township offices yesterday.  They were reviewed and accepted and an inspector was scheduled to do what he does today.  My framer has a target date of Monday the 13th for the basement pour.  From start (completed basement prep on June 7th) to finish (expected pour date) this new township requirement set us back a month.  Some times I feel like this house will never get done.  Here's an image of the survey.

It provides some interesting information.  First, the first floor of the house is about level with the street, but there's a dip in the middle of the property by almost 10 feet.  Combined with the fact that the basement walkout is at about that same elevation, this confirms that we'll need a grinder pump for sewage, unless the sewer hookup is greater than 20ft below the street, which I'm guessing it's not.  The survey also marks the approximate wetlands location, which appears to be much farther out than I initially expected.  It's about 2 feet lower than the basement foundation, so that's not too bad for drainage.  This shows that we're 543 feet from the street and marks the length of all our borders.  It's truncated to fit on the page so it looks like we don't go as far out into the water as we really do.

Hopefully next time I post, I'll have some more to post about.