June 11 - You can see the depth of the back wall of the house. The dirt will come up two or three feet on the wall at the back left corner and taper down to the bottom of the wall at the back right corner.
June 11 - The front of the house is about 4.5 feet below the ground level. This hole is a few inches deeper because it is the depth of the bottom of the slab.
June 12 - This is the view from the front left side of the home. The far right corner still needs to be excavated. This should be finished today.
June 12 - The front left corner of the home (right side of photo) is about 5 feet below the ground level. Footers will be dug today or Monday, weather permitting.
June 16 - The footer forms are being built. The footers will be 16 inches deep and 36 inches wide. That is quite massive. The strings are attached to batter boards. They represent the wall locations and are level. By measuring down from the strings, the workers can get the forms nice and level and in the correct position.
June 16 - Protective fencing is being erected around the trees. Rope fencing is being used to keep people from parking in areas where they should not park.
June 18 - Dirt is being hand excavated for the footers. The footers are moderately large for this area: 36 inches wide and 16 inches deep.
June 18 - Most of the trenches for footers were dug on Wednesday. One wall was not excavated enough, so it has to be hand dug. On Friday, the plumber will install a sleeve in the footer trench to run plumbing to the basement. Steel will be placed this week. The footers should be poured mid next week, weather permitting.
June 24 - The steel reinforcement has come for the footers. The footers require nearly a ton of steel (about 1.1 miles of 5/8 inch rebar). This does not include any steel for the walls.
June 24 - The rebar has been bent and is in the footer. Inspection was planned for today, but rain yesterday eroded the sides of the footers, so it is rescheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday). Summer thunderstorms are a bit of a challenge.
June 27 - The first of the concrete for the footers has arrived! The footers are moderately large: 16 inches deep and 36 inches wide. The footers will weigh about 80 tons (160,000 pounds). That does not include the basement walls or the basement slab.
June 27 - Most of the concrete will be pumped to the footers because it is difficult for a truck to reach it. The next step is to dig the French drains around the footers. Weather permitting, that will be done on Monday.
June 27 - This is what 80 tons of concrete looks like. The footers are poured. Monday, we will begin work on the French drains and then the wall forms (Weather permitting, of course.)
June 30 - The form materials arrived. These are ICFs - foam forms with separators, tracks and other hardware. They will be installed beginning on Wednesday, weather permitting.