Cellar Steel

A lot of steel was set this week! The cellar level footings were completed, and the footings under the middle of the living-room floor were poured so that I could start building up the support walls.


First, the cellar. This level is mostly underground, so almost every wall is a retaining wall. This means that the footing for this level is another hefty one! I will also be using a different technology for some of the walls to save space. More on this in later entries.


I've started all of the walls supporting the front of the living-room and the living-room deck. Also visible here is the concrete pour behind the garage that includes the living-room intermediate footing and the bases for the posts.


The wall at the upper left of this photo is the front edge of the living-room deck. About 6 feet to the right where the ICF block steps down is the front of the living-room, which extends from there to the cliff on the right of the picture.


The 4 steel cages for the support columns are visible in the picture below. I poured the base for the columns so that I could take away the supports and set the sonotube forms in place. The lower columns go up to the foyer floor level, the tall one at the bottom of the picture goes up to the dining-room floor level.


Next week will be a short one, but I hope to install the forms and shoring for the living-room floor and set all of the steel for the living-room footings. If all goes well I should be able to pour the livingroom and cellar floors right after Thanksgiving Break!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Cellar Footings, continued...

This week we ALMOST finished the Cellar footing excavation!


For most of the week I rented a jackhammer to cut the "key" of the footing. this is the deepest narrow trench at the bottom that locks the footing into the rock. The jackhammer broke out the rock and laborers shoveled it out. In addition to the keys, we also cut the bases for concree columns that will support the central tower all the way to the roof. The columns are 18" in diameter, with a large square base set in the rock.


After the bulk of the rock was removed, there was a lot of "fine-tuning" to do. All measurements were double checked, and details were cut by the smaller impact hammer, actially a roto-hammer that can have the "roto" part turned off. Because of the limited access, this footing and all future footings for this project are being done by hand-held equipment, and the dirt is carried out by wheelbarrow and bucket to the front of the garage to be removed. This week Mike came back and took yet another 4 truck loads away!

After weeks of renting a jack hammer, I finally broke down and bought my own!


It's is GREAT! I don't know why I waited! I found a website (TYLERTOOL.com) that sold me a factory reconditioned Makita for almost half the price, and it cost me about the same as renting for 9 days! By the end of next week I will have broken even! Not only will it save money, but it is really perfect for the job. The rentals were either too large (90 lb. or not large enough (25 lb.) My Makita is 35 lb. and so far has done the job admirably!

Also this week, the steel was delivered for the cellar and livingroom floors. I had the column steel pre-fabricated, and they are very well done!



Next week, we finish the cuts and lay the steel!