July 1 - French drains have been installed. A French drain is a trench filled with gravel and a large pipe. It is used to drain any moisture that may get to it either from ground water or from rain.
July 1 - The French drain goes all around the foundation footer.
July 1 - Here you can see the pipe that is buried in the French drain. Water will be drained out into the yard.
July 7 - The foundation sub started nailing down the tracks to hold the ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms). He has the first row of the outside form started. The blue separators are on the ground. You can see the outside and inside track near the lower center of the photo. Notice the 10' vertical rebar are attached to the footer rebar.
July 7 - The French drain is completed. It will run down the hill so any water that gets down to the footers will flow out the 4 inch pipe and away from the house. The rebar were bent to get equipment inside the perimeter. They will be straightened before the ICFs are erected in this area.
July 8 - The first two rows of forms are going up. You can see the blue separators that hold the forms the proper spacing. Also you can see the rebar sticking up and laying on the blue separators. Vertical rebar is every 24 inches and horizontal is every 24 inches. The first couple of courses are a little slower because it takes prep work to get started.
July 9 - The Insulated Concrete Forms are going up. There is a 5/8in steel rebar horizontally in the walls every 24in. Right now, most walls are at the 4ft level. Most of the walls (except the back wall) will be 10ft tall when they are finished. The ICF rep was out today and said the walls looked excellent.
July 18 - This is the front right corner of the house. The forms are 6ft 4in high at this time. They need to go up another 4ft for a total of 10ft 4in. This will give us room for a 4in thick slab and 10ft walls in the basement.
July 18 - The back walls are 3ft high. This is the full height for them. They will be framed with wood on top of the concrete.
July 18 - This is looking towards the front right corner of the house. The vertical bars are bracing. The diagonal bars have built in turn buckles so they can be adjusted to get the walls vertical. The bracing goes about every 6ft around the wall.
July 18, pm - The basement walls will be two feet higher when the forms are completed. The cut out place on the right is for the basement landing.
July 18, pm - The walls are now about 8ft tall. Two more rows of forms need to be installed. Weather permitting, the forming will be finished on Monday.
July 22 - The back wall is three feet high. The other walls are ten feet high. Vertical braces are used to plumb the walls. The foam blocks are all in place and final touches are being put on the forms.
July 22 - Willis is watching the foundation subs as they true and cap the wall forms. The foam forms get topped with a steel track. This should be completed on Wednesday. Steel inspection should be Thursday and the walls should be poured Friday, weather permitting. The gap on the far side is where the stair landing will rest.
July 23 - The forms are ready for inspection. You can see the metal track along the top. The basement wall is about 6ft above the ground level at the front of the house. The first floor will be about 15in above the basement wall.
July 31 - We attempted to pour the walls on Thursday. Tragically, the Quad Lock forms failed in many places. Maybe we did not have enough spacers. We followed the salesman's advise, but apparently, it was bad guidance. After half a dozen or so breakouts, we aborted the pour.