The Slab is Poured!

After a little re-leveling due to the excessive rains, we were ready for the slab to be poured. The guys from LA foundations did an excellent job and we ended up with a great looking slab. Tomorrow morning they will be back to saw cut the joints in at 8' centers.

Underslab insulation, radiant heat, and rain!

Attached you will find pics of the under slab insulation (3" of extruded polystyrene or xps for an R-15 insulation value), the complete radiant tubing with 5 zones, all leveled and ready to pour concrete--and then the rains came....We should have poured the slab today, however, with all the rain, it won't get poured until Tuesday of next week. From there, we'll cut the slab into 8'X8' squares to control cracking and then start framing by Thursday. The rains we've received (around 3") have filled in most of my case-on holes for the garage and shop so we'll have to re drill those and get them ready for framing next week too.

Underground plumbing

Lamas Heating and Plumbing completed our ug (underground) plumbing and even passed the inspection on the first try. In the following pics you will also see our ug electric--floor box in the great room and a couple of lines for power in the island. We should be setting under slab insulation tomorrow and Saturday and running the radiant tubing early next week and then pouring the slab by the middle of next week. Framers are scheduled to start on Monday, April the 26th...stay tuned.

Perimeter drain, damproofing, and exterior wall insulation

In the past week, we have worked on finishing up running the water line, installing perimeter drain, and damproofing and insulating the exterior foundation walls. Attached are the pics that show these processes. On the docket for this week: Our electric lateral line will be run from the transformer; we'll then set the temp. power pedestal. All of the underground plumbing, electric, insulation for slab, wire mesh, and radiant tubing should be run this week! It'll be a big week for all the trades involved and baring any setbacks, we should be pouring the slab early next week and be framing by the middle of next week--hopefully!

Forming and Pouring Foundation Walls

As my good friends and I were escaping to Wyoming in search of large trout, (we caught a few fish, got stuck in a road closure due to a blizzard and jack-knifed rigs on I-80, and managed to get turned around before the wyo state patrol issued any tickets) my concrete crew was busy forming the walls for our house. Having finished up by mid morning, it was time to pour. The pump was there; the concrete trucks were lined up and ready. But where was the inspector? I received a call that he was running late--by about 2 hours! Well we couldn't wait forever, so we snapped a couple of pictures of the rebar placement in the forms and got er' going. He did show up and said everything looked good (they were half way done with the pouring at this point). He was on his way out when he noticed that I was having my excavator install our water line. He promptly walked over and started to quiz and lecture us on the sizes of water line, pressure of the line, friction build up due to the distance of the line (about 1/2 mile of pipe in the ground) etc. We explained ourselves as best we could and he finally allowed us to finish up and we buried the line leaving the last 20' exposed for further inspection later. Attached are a couple of pics of the walls, the concrete pump, and the water trench and line. All in all, we've had a very productive Spring Break! Perimeter drains, water proofing, backfilling, and underground plumbing here we come...soon...