Stairs and supports

Lots of progress to report this week.  The framer is busy prepping the first floor for the concrete pour and there's lots of work to be done.  The basement is full of temporary supports made of 2x6, there steel 2x6 studs are in place for the basement stairs and the stairwell is cut from the first floor lite deck.

 Here's the view of the stairwell from the first floor.  There's a screw in the litedeck that marks the center of the rotunda.  They used this to mark the curve of the stairs.  The stairs will be just a hair under 4' wide.  You can see they cut out the foam without cutting out the 2x6 joist.  The whole first floor deck is walkable now if you stay on top of the wood joist locations.  They're easily marked by the retaining screws.  It's nice to finally be able to walk on the first floor.

Here's a shot of how the 5/8" rebar is suspended in the beam channel.  You can see in the foreground how one of them extends into the wall.  This ties the floor supports into the wall structure. You can see in the background how the level of the floor is different.  More about this in the next picture.

Litedeck sells a "tophat" that sits on the decking with the sole purpose of making a deeper beam pocket.  From the manufacture, they're more expensive than cutting your own, so we're cutting our own with 3" foam, as seen on the right.  This increases the height of the beam.  On top of this will also be a 3" slab, so it's a pretty thick floor.  Our floor pour will be in two parts.  All the beam pockets will be poured with concrete containing helix steel fibers.  These fibers are short twisted steel that is added to the mix, and adds to the tensile strength of the beam.  Since we don't want them sticking up in the slab, and since they add some cost to the pour, we'll pour the slab with standard concrete after the beams have been poured.  I think this will be done on the same day.  I think this should be done on the same day.  I'll have to ask.

 Here's the side basement walkout with a nice shot of all the temporary structure for the lite-deck pour, French bulldog for scale.  The metal stud you see is the high part of the stairs coming down.  The slab is nice and smooth and expansion cracks have been cut.

 Here's the inside radius of the stairwell coming down.  There's another center point in the basement used to mark the radii of the stairs.  I asked about the post construction and was reassured that we won't have to have a post that transfers up to the second floor.  That would really ruin the rotunda stairs, having a post in the middle of the open railing.  I'll be interested in seeing how they pull off this engineering feat.

 Looking from the basement storage towards the stairs.  The elevator is on the right of the frame.  They've blocked and sealed the gaps around the beams so the concrete will fill down into the beam pocket, but not ooze out.  Great way of doing it.  In our current house, the beam pocket was formed in the concrete, the beam was placed, then the space around the beam was filled and mortared with cinder block.

 Front to back of the house.  You can barely see the rear walkout through all the structure.  The 2x6's are placed about 14" apart and are not secured to the floor, but are nailed four times, two on each side, to the footer and header.  It needs to be strong to support all the concrete on the first floor.

 Closer shot of the stairwell cutout.  You can see the chalk lines that mark the opening.  In the background, you'll notice what I'm calling a "halo" of exterior ICF.  When the floor is poured, it will become one with the wall.  On this wall section, there are metal plates that pierce the ICF from the outside with an angled blade that has a hole in it.  I think this is to tie the ICF that runs parallel to the direction of the beams.  Otherwise it could just peel away.

Looking down into the stairwell.  You can see how the floor will be integrated into the walls below.  The next course of ICF will just sit on the slab, tied together with the rebar spikes in the walls.

We have one more meeting with an interior designer and we'll be able to make a decision who to pick.  I've been in contact with A/V installers for data, security, central lighting and audio.  Still trying to figure out numbers for that one.