Our cribbers finished the job quickly and were already finished by lunch, as they are racing the weather and trying to get another couple jobs done. Our project engineer arrived to site at 8:30 in the morning and had the inspection complete, giving the go ahead for pouring later that afternoon.
We will show a series of photos below describing the final stages of the cribbing project. Note that we were able to get our pour done in above freezing conditions. The sand and water components of the mix are heated at the plant, so the mix arrives able to set up properly in cooler weather. There is a large cost to the winter heat included in the price of the concrete, but it is worth the investment ensure a good pour.
This week activity has been constant on site. We went from basically an empty, surveyed hole in the ground to having the sewer installed, the basement cribbed, inspected and poured, and tomorrow we will have the forms stripped and the walls damp proofed. During the week we also successfully applied for a demolition permit for our next project, set up all the service disconnets so the house can be demolished, arranged an asbestos test for the weekend, reviewed the plans for our three unit townhouse and sent feedback to the design team, and salvaged/sold some appliances from the old house on site. We also arranged a deal to swap out our construction truck for a new model, trained a novice builder friend how to get a demolition permit for his first project, and attended parent teacher interviews for both kids. We spent a significant portion of our construction budget, approximately $40,000 of invoices will be paid based on the work week. We will provide an update on expenditures to date in a future post. That is all for now.
Here the bottom two rows of rebar are shown installed on top of the bottom row of ties, and near the centre of wall. This provides significant strength advantages to the wall
At this point, the cribbing is complete. The walls are braced and the forms approved for concrete placement.
The pump truck is positioned and set up, and the first mixing truck has arrived. The capacity of the pump is enormous and it can fill the forms for these two homes in an hour, provided enough trucks are on site to keep the hopper full.
At this point the concrete is placed and the walls are drying. These are 8 ft forms, generally we use 9 ft forms, but given the height constraints on site we dropped the basement ceiling to 8 ft. Fortunately the weather is above freezing so the walls can properly set up.