January 21 - The batter boards for the main house are up. The batter boards are the height of the slab. They hold strings that locate the outline of the building, so they are outside the building perimeter.
January 26 - We are digging trenches to place water lines and electrical conduits to interconnect the wells, garage, main house and guest house. There is about a quarter mile of water pipes in the ground. The HVAC units are water sourced, so each unit has a supply and discharge line which adds to the number of pipes.
January 26 - Here is one of the termination point for the pipes and conduits. If you look closely, you will see strings on the batter boards which mark the outline of the foundation walls.
January 28 - Batter boards are up for the guest and lines are pulled to indicate the exterior wall locations. There are a number of lines because one is needed each time a wall steps in or out. These lines will be used to insure the foundation walls are properly located.
January 28 - The main house footers are being dug. Once the footers are poured, they will have block walls built on them up to the height of the batter boards.
January 28 - Digging is going relatively quickly in the sandy soil. There are a number of footers for the house (not just the perimeter) to make sure it is solid. The footers, block walls (poured solid with concrete) and slab of the main house will weigh in the neighborhood of 100 tons. That does not include the weight of the house itself.
January 29 - The footer trenches on the guest house were dug today. The mini excavator removes the bulk of the dirt, but does not leave the trenches uniform.
January 29 - Here is what the trenches look like once the mini excavator digs them. The roots need to be removed and the trenches need to be cleaned and packed.
January 29 - Workers are working on cleaning the footer trenches on the main house while excavation was being done to the guest house footer trenches.
January 29 - Here is how the footer trenches look after they are cleaned. Compare this with the photo of the 'raw' trench. The footers will have to be packed and checked for soil compaction. Then steel rebar will be placed in the footer trenches. After it is inspected, we will pour the footers.