Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Footing Day!


We got two out of five in today - and man was it ever a mess. But . . . before I get to that, maybe I should start at the beginning.



Solveig, Meg and Johnny installing the Mosswall, thats our some of our cedar decking that we're installing as well.

Yesterday was a crazy day - some huge thunderstorms came through and slowed us down, but we got the mosswall started, all the pavers and gravel moved, and began installing the new deck around the bulkhead.

Mariana and Steph, grinding the steel before painting.

It cleared up in the afternoon though and so we got the footings craned up. Johnny and I finished laying them out and re-'squared' everything. Tory also got all the permit mess straightened up and showed up at like 1 with the permit!!! Thats right, we've got a permit, and now were rolling. How awesome is that.

Jon, Meg, Solveig and Johnny craning in the footings.



Our footings, laying out and squaring up.

We got everything set and today the guys from Nations Roofing showed up to help us with the footings. They followed right behind us flashing them in as we installed, and they were so nice about it all. We had some delays but they couldn't have been nicer about it all and just hung out all day letting us get things set. Super great.

So yeah, today Johnny, Star and I began installing - the process was supposed to go: Set the footing, drill through to mark the location on the floor, let the Nations guys cut out the insulation and waterproofing, Drill the big holes, fill the holes with epoxy, insert the rods and leveling nuts, level the footing with the laser, fill underneath the footing with non-shrink grout, and then let the roofers re-waterproof around em.

Johnny - poking big holes in somebody's brand new building.



The first holes started great, but pretty quickly we began to run into steel almost every time we drilled. It turns out there was waaaaay more rebar in these planks than we anticipated. When I talked to the engineer from the company that manufactured the concrete roof planks, he told me just where to find the rebar in the main panels, but he never explained what happened at the edges. Looks like there is all sorts of steel that goes in to tie all the planks together (think, big rebar 'staples') and underneath the seams in the bearing walls, there is vertical rebar AND horizontal rebar for some sort of bond beam on the top.

Johnny and Star - epoxying the holes for the threaded rod.


Star - drilling the pilot holes.

Long and short of it is - we hit steel in a bunch of spots and had to redrill a lot of the holes. In addition, the drawings show the plank fully grouted above the bearing walls - but when we began to drill in, there was noting but hollow cavities. So Johnny had to make a speed run to the Hilti on 110th to pick up some different epoxy and these mesh sleeves that you use when your anchoring into hollow masonry. I felt bad that I wasn't prepared for all this, but things just ended up being very different in reality than we had thought on paper. Oh well. Thats remodeling I guess.

Me, Jon and Star: setting the North-west footing.

All this re-working meant that we only ended up getting two out of five in today. Thats what we had assumed in our schedule, but still, I was hoping to be ahead of it, not right on. We'll make up some time tomorrow though and we'll get the last three in. We know the process better now and on the plus side, we have some in, and they are in the right spots and they are dry. All this means we should be settin' steel thursday if all goes well! How exciting is that :) Everybody hope for no rain tomorrow! We need the good vibes.

Star mixing the grout.

The North-west footing, in position and being filled with grout underneath.

The Mosswall going up. South side of the site.

Tory, Meg and Solveig - installing mosswall framing.

Meg, kicking ass.

Solveig installing benches.


Carrie and Jaons got a bunch of the North Garden in today too! It went up in one day - way to go Pre-fab.

Jason and Schulzie installing the north garden.

1 comment:

Oh Baby Baby! said...
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