The Last Floor... POURED!

The last month has been another busy one! I had hoped to get further, but I'm happy to show some major progress! As of the last entry the Amdeck was being set for the kid's floor. We spent the better part of the next week just setting the rebar in the floor! Also, I had all of the mesh delivered that I would need for the rest of the house. It was delivered on a flat bed truck, so we tied the whole pile of mesh to the fence post and the driver pulled forward, dropping the whole delivery in the street.

Then we hand carried each sheet in and leaned it up against the garage. That's a lot of mesh!

Meanwhile, up on the top level, the steel for the structural beams was being assembled. One main beam runs down the middle of the floor, from front to back. Another shorter beam supports the front wall of the kid's bedrooms. Here is where they intersect:

After the rebar in the bottom of the Amdeck was placed and the beams were done, the mesh was pulled up the 33' from the garage. This took two of us on the top pulling two ropes with hooks on the end, while one guy stayed at the bottom to set the hooks and guide each sheet. This was exhausting work, but we finished in one day. Finally, the #3 rebar was set at 24" centers on the mesh and the whole thing was tied together. We spent the next two days getting inspections and fine-tuning the forms, then we were ready to pour!

The day before the pour we had another big delivery of Amdeck. It seemed like a lot, but he actually couldn't fit all the block I'd ordered and would have to make yet another trip!

The pour day was the usual stressful day, with me scrambling around tending to last minute details. I had a list prepared with what everyone was supposed to do when. I soon deviated from the list, but I guess it was better to have something to start from!

We started by filling the back walls around the crawlspace behind the kitchen. Once those walls were full we started with the AmDeck in the back, and worked our way forward.

Evan helped me with the vibrator while the finishers handled the hose. I think he liked being part of the action!

As soon as there was a section that filled the finishers handed the hose over to me and they started leveling and finishing.

I also built the first few feet of the Master Bedroom tower so the kids porch slab could be poured and connected to the curved wall and the floor below.

As we finished the floor up top I had the guys quickly build a form for another step up from the foyer into the livingroom. As the hose was being lowered from the top floor we used what was still in the hose to fill this step.

I estimated 45 cubic yards of concrete for this pour but as we were pumping the 2nd truck, the finishers told me they thought I over ordered, so I put the last truck on hold. It turned out that I needed that last truck, but was able to cut down on the yardage a bit. In the end I used just over 43 yards! I'm getting better at estimated with each pour!

Here is some of the complicated forming for this pour. First, the suspended, curved steps from the master suite level to the kid's bedroom level:

And here is the edge of the stairwell looking down to the hall and foyer beyond. This is a temporary view, once the steps are built coming up from the dining room and the bridge from the kids level to the back door are built, you will not be able to see this!

In the end it was a very successful pour. No blow-outs, nothing wasted, no rain storms, and the finishers did a beautiful job! Here are some panoramic views of the largest slab yet!

From the Master Bedroom Suite door, looking up the curved stairs...

From the Northeast corner (the guest room closet) looking Southwest.

From the kids balcony looking back at the backyard. It's fun to be this close to the grade!

From the Northeast corner of the slab again. I came back Saturday to water and it was a pretty day so I took more pictures!

Here's how it looks currently from the street. Not much sign of progress from this perspective. Next week I hope to be doing things that help finish off the street side!

Getting ready for the Last Floor - Part 2

One of the things I had the laborers take care of when it was too hot was to clear out the garages.  They had been full to the ceiling of  AmDeck pieces,  but it was time to move them up for use on the kid's bedroom level.  

This also opened up space for new material that I was expecting to arrive shortly.  By the middle of the week the garage was almost cleared,  except for a pile of dirt!  

 
Here are some of the Amdeck forms now piled high in the livingroom!  Still a pile of dirt here too!

The rest of the AmDeck was stacked outside on the livingroom porch and garage roof.

Speaking of dirt,  we started backfilling the south side of the house.  Most of the dirt that was piled behind the house and in the kitchen was moved one bucket at a time to the south side and compacted.

Here is Junior doing some compacting as Kyle shovels more dirt:

I forgot to precast one hole in the footing,  so I rented a coring drill and a few hours later I had a nice clean 5" diameter hole through the 12" thick footing.

Here is the core created by the special drill:

One other hole I forgot to form before filling the wall was the 13" diameter hole for the hood vent in the kitchen. This was a big mistake, because it took the better part of a day for one man to chip it out! Lesson learned!

Once the 5" hole was drilled,  the HVAC guys from Precise Air came and installed the cellar bath vent,  and 2 conduits with insulated copper pipes inside that will eventually go to the condensers that will be located on the south side of the house.

Up on top,  the shoring was almost finished.  The "bridge" running from front to back is the form for a huge structural concrete beam that will support the entire floor above.

On Thursday the steel joists were delivered!  I decided to order the rest of the joists for the house, even though they would be tough to store, so I paid the extra fee to have them forklifted up to the top floor!  Here is the steel on the truck,  with the giant forklift being towed behind.

The driver was able to lift the order in two groups.  Each time we blocked the street while he drove up from his truck and right into the driveway ...  

... then lifted the bundle to the master bedroom level.  

The guys were all up there waiting and as soon as he stopped moving they cut the bundles open and unloaded one piece at a time.  

Part of the order was stacked on the newly built shoring.

The steel for the roof over the master suite was put in place on the shoring, and the rest of the roof pieces were stacked right in the tower room floor!

Here is a movie of the steel delivery process:

Now that the garage was emptied and ready for clean storage,  The guys built some temporary "doors". 

I don't think I ever mentioned the ramp!  A few weeks ago we created a ramp so that we could get to the house without climbing the crazy wood ladders!  The inspectors (and my family) are thrilled with it!

Here are the front steps with the forms removed.  There are not perfectly finished,  but they will be covered!  

On Friday we had a busy morning!   The steel posts were delivered for the kitchen level.  We only had time to carry them up and leave them in the livingroom.

  

The  shoring is not finished,  but it's getting close!  One of my workers said that it looked like the underside of an old wooden rollercoaster!

This is the front edge of the slab looking up at the top of the stairs leading to the kid's bedroom level.

At 10:30 Jose the pumper arrived and started setting up for the pour.  The plan was to backfill the kitchen wall and top off the back footing at the same time so that the crawlspace had a decent floor surface.   The crawlspace is accessed through an opening hidden in the kitchen pantry show here.

The pour went well,  and now there is a concrete floor!  This will also be the surface that the back walls will be built on.

Since it was the Friday of a long hard week,  some of the guys wanted to work only a half day,  so the afternoon was a little slow,  only Evan and one laborer, Tom,  stayed with me.    

Tom worked the rest of the afternoon on the front edge of the form, while Evan and I did some trowelling on the new slab.  Evan also cleaned up the rubbish inside the construction fence at the street. Here is the slab form,  looking down the stairwell from the kid's level.

Here is the tower bedroom as viewed from the middle of the kids level slab.

After work, I dropped off Evan,  then came back up to the house to power wash the street.  Once the street was clean I climbed up to the top of the house to reflect.  I realized that I have not taken any time to stand back and look around by myself!  One thing I noticed was how quiet it was,  even at 5:00 in the evening.  As I was walking around I heard a shuffling sound at the street,  and out walked some of our future neighbors!

We both stood still contemplating each other,  then they walked on by and I packed up and went home.

On Saturday,  Evan came and helped me for a few hours.  I really wanted to lay out some of the AmDeck on the kid's level,  and it was fun having Evan there to assist!

I know I've described how easy the AmDeck installation is.  Here is a little sequence Evan took of me dropping one of the blocks in place.   

     

After less than an hour of work, we had laid out most of the floor for Evan's bedroom!

Next week I hope to finish all of the forming for the kid's level floor!  

Getting ready for the Last Floor

In the last few weeks the iron workers at Universal Iron Doors created some of the fun details for the doors.  These rosettes were custom fashioned to my specifications,  based on an existing historical rosette design.   

The transom frame is taking shape too.  soon it will be welded to the door frame.

Back on site,  now that the Kitchen walls were filled,  we started prepping for the last of the floor levels,  the Kid's bedroom level.  This is the largest slab to be poured yet and includes the 2 kid's bedrooms,  the kid's den and bathroom,  a guest bedroom and bath,  and the laundry room.

First,  the rear footing needed to be cleared and prepped for the short walls that support the back section of this slab.

The dirt that was being stored in the diningroom and kitchen floors was moved to the back crawlspace to get ready to backfill.  

Evan worked a hard, hot day shoveling with the laborers!

More to report from my iron door company. Towards the end of the week, Sam called me and said that the transom was finished! When I got there I saw almost complete doors with all of the iron detail!

Laying on sawhorses was the complete frame with the transom attached. The guys all got together to raise it up, but it was too tall for the workshop!

Here is a closer view of the transom. It was so much fun designing iron work, I plan on doing a lot more in the future!