Stripping & Waterproofing I

Early the next morning they began stripping the forms and hauling them out. Even though it got down to the upper 30’s overnight the concrete was still quite warm to touch.

 

They boxed in areas for stone ledges. Once the boxes are removed a ledge to rest stone on will remain.

 

Garage entry and footings for posts in front of the garage. We’ll have a bit of a stub roof coming out from over the garage door supported by 3 posts. This will help to soften the appearance of the garage doors which always look kind of bland and provide some protection from rain and snow when the doors are open.

Lots of thin steel ties that held the forms properly. 

 

Neighbors coming to check out the project. Last year we had 2 bucks and 15 does hanging around. We had a resident red fox for several years but haven’t seen him the past couple. We also see coyote, black bear, and about every 10 or 15 years a moose is reported in the neighborhood though we’ve not seen one. Bobcat aren’t uncommon and every couple of years a cougar will make an appearance. The cougars are believed to be migrating to the east coast in the spring. We also see a lot of turkeys and I won’t even make any comments about the state capital.

 

Next up is waterproofing. Walls that are above the lower level floor are sprayed with black ‘goop’ on their exterior and then have insulation boards applied. Besides providing insulation the foam also protects the waterproofing from getting dinged by rocks when they backfill. The wall on the left is the mechanical room below the breezeway. The un-sprayed wall is the garage.

The 3 columns are footings for the porch on the south side of the garage that will provide firewood storage and cover for the door to bicycle parking. We ride our bicycles for much of our local transportation to cafés, grocery, pharmacy and other places, even in rain and snow so this roof will be very welcoming. The nearest column is 10.5’ tall. Frost (frozen dirt) can be three to four feet deep during winter and the freezing/thawing cycles cause a lot of movement so all footings need to be at least four feet below finished grade for stability.

 

Foam is also installed on the inside face of many of the walls that are below the lower level floor. He’s standing in the SW corner below the lower level rec room. To his right is the walkout to the lake. According to our most excellent site supervisor Bob, this protects this area from frost (remember, it gets cold in MN) so floors will stay warmer and dryer, and will be less likely to crack. They are also knocking out excess concrete from below the steps from the east side of the conservatory so that water in to this area will percolate in to the soil as much as possible. It’s for details like these that we chose our very long suffering (post on the multi-year design process coming up) builder Rick Hendel and Hendel Homes. 

 

Drain tile (sock covered pipe) in ‘The Space Below The Front Porch’. Bob insured that there were connecting bits of drain tile in the base of the footings everywhere necessary for the drain tile folks to use. To the right leads to the drain tile underneath the front steps, to the left to the drain tile around the inside perimeter of the lower level.