Garage Backfill & Slab

Between the garage and the driveway we brought in about 450 tons of structural fill.  This is roadbase that compacts well for a substantial base that won't settle.

Nick riding the Jumping-Jack compactor.  Both Nick and Ian spent the entire day compacting the garage fill.

The garage slab is poured and one of Tony's gues is floating the surface.  After this it gets trowled for a finished look.

We used a tremendous amount of structural fill for the garage floor, compacting as we went so there'e be no settling.  Then a 4inch slab of reinforced concrete was poured for the finished garage floor.

Trees

Our backyard as seen from the deck of the rental house.  The ttee moving machine is placing a tree.  The building in the backgtround is the golf course clubhouse.



The tree moving machine placing one of our Ponderosa Pines.

Voilla! Instant forest.

Steve at the controls of the Bobcatg front loader.  We rented this for a day to backfill the North side foundations and column bases.  It took all day and required 7 truckloads of fill.

Another homebuilder, a few miles away had some trees that were right where he wanted to build.  He moved some of these trees to better locations and allowed us to take some for our lot (which has no trees).  We hired a tree moving company and they transferred 13 8-14ft Ponderosa Pines to our backyard (between our house and the golf course).

Soon we hope to plant grass in the backyard which will largly complete the landscaping there.  The front yard is another story, much needs to be done there.

Basement Framing

The knee walls have to be framed up to full (8ft) wall height, then 3 interior loadbearing walls had to be framed.  Because of the heavy log construction, all basement framing was made with 2 x 8 lumber.  Pressure treated lumber was used wherever framing was in contact with the concrete.

Ian fits OSB sheathing .

Interior partition wall.

Exterior view.

Exterior view - it's starting to look like a house.

After framing, sheathing was applied to exterior walls and interior partitions (to provide extra shear and tensile strength).

Pouring the Slab

Finally, we're pouring the slab. Starting at 7:00am to ensure that the floor would be cured before any afternoon rainstormes (none came).  With this done we're out of the dirt and we'll have a flat, solid floor to work on.

Screeding the concrete for a level floor.

Placinig concrete (careful of my tubes).

More screeding, this goes pretty fast.

Trowling off a nice smooth finish - the guys did a great job.

Tony and his crew were careful not to damage the in-floor heating tubes as the concrete was placed.

Wood at Last

Pressure treated sill plates sit atop the foundation walls.

The first wood (everything up 'till now has been concrete) is the beginning of the sills that are in contact with the concrete walls.  It was wonderful to cut these 2 x 8 pressure treated boards to fit and drill holes for the anchor bolts.

Column Bases

Ian (Helper 1) builds a column base.

Nick (Helper 2) builds another base.  After grading, the base tops will be just above ground level.  All the ugly block will be buried.

Column bases are built with concrete blocks.  They will support the flared column bases (see the elevations in the "Drawings" post.

In-Floor Heating

PEX tubing attachedd to 6 x 6 wire mesh with cable ties.  Note the manifold in the upper center.  Each of 6 circuits run to the manifold, each circuit should be no more than 300ft long.  The manifold (and all the tubing) will be pressurized for the concrete slab pour.

More tubing.  Concrete blocks hold everytinng down on windy days.

PEX tubing for in-floor heating is installed over the polystyrene.  This will be cast into the conrete slab to provide radient heat for the lower level.