Pictures of West Retaining Walls and the Beginning of the Shotcrete Process

The dirt in front of the West Annex will one day disappear so that the doors will actually look out at level ground.

Danny, our excavator, was here Monday and did some backfilling on the garage.

This is the endwall of tunnel before shotcrete. The white pole is 1" PVC that was used to initially mark where Danny should dig out for the house.

 Here is the AFTER picture with Jeremy, the nozzleman, shooting shotcrete on the East side of the house.  

As you can see, he is on a lift.  Our friend, Greg, is looking on and later helped out when the lift wasn't moving as it should - the hoses for the shotcrete were hooked around a stake in the ground.  Thanks for seeing that, Greg!  At the top of the shotcrete on the tunnel, our problem looms.  The Burlap has not held up over the months it has taken us to get this far. Actually, over a year! They had 3 trucks that were ordered that needed to be used before the idea to use shotcrete without the stone in it - just mortar.  And that coat, just to lightly hold the burlap together for the later shoot that would layer-it-up to the amount of concrete needed, it still broke thru the mesh. No waterproofing is in that layer of mix. 

 The carpenters came Monday and Tuesday and made props and put them in place to hold the 6x6 mesh up so it didn't sag with the load of shotcrete.

   Bill, Carol, and I got to take rides in the lift before the shoot started.  I got some BEFORE pictures and will show them when I get the AFTER pictures.  But here is one of the spectacular views. 'Twas the season for it!