Building the Foundations

Today the concrete foundations were poured. The first step was to construct the wooden forms that will hold the concrete in place while it sets. Here's the view along the back wall:

And from the front...

Looking along the uphill (West) side of the house, the box-like projection in shown below is where the fireplace will be.

The overall structure of the foundations is pretty big, particularly when you recall the rear foundation wall is sitting on three pillars that go down another eleven feet. It will not look so big once the rocks and soil are filled back in, but it looks like we will have a significantly sized craw space! View from the NW corner:

Below the picture is looking down in between the wooden forms that will hold the concrete while it sets, and show the steel rebar which reinforces the concrete throughout. The steel rebar will be buried inside the concrete foundation walls along with also-visible upright black steel bolts. These bolts will be used in conjunction with other types of bolts (e.g. J bolts) to anchor the house onto the foundation.

This view between the wooden forms shows the ventilation boxes that will provide ventilation from the outside, through the concrete foundations into the crawl space area.

The same crane and cement mixer combination that was used for the concrete pillars will be used to pour the foundation:

Alejandro is guiding the nozzle from the crane and pouring the concrete directly between the wooden forms:

The position of the crane arm that carries the pipe and nozzle is operated by remote control by the person in orange. He manages the flow and location by watching where Alejandro needs the nozzle to be. Apparently the little remote control box costs $7,000 dollars. I guess it's the ultimate in remote control construction toys!

At the base of the foundation, there is a gap that allows concrete to flow out wider than the width of the wall until it hits a second small retaining board. This is to create a wider footing that helps distribute the weight on the foundations across a larger surface area. At the rear of the house there is no extra footing to the wall because it sits on the previously prepared pillars. This means there is quite a lot of concrete going into these foundations - about 35 yards of it.

After the concrete is poured, it is shaped and smoothed by hand and checked to make sure it fills all the right spaces and fully encapsulates the steel rebar.