25 August 2012

Retaining Wall Delay but other work continuing

We have obtained engineered drawings of the retaining walls and accepted a proposal to build them.  The contractor will be starting right after Labor Day.  The site is ready for them.
Meanwhile, Bill and Keith and Carol have still been working,  on the garage, on the grounds, and some on the house. 

On the garage, the end wall sheathing is finished and Tyvek applied.

They removed dirt from behind the retaining walls, smoothed the joint between the retaining wall and the end wall of the garage, put a waterproofing membrane in place on that seam, inserted insulation in the form of blueboard, and back-filled again.  In the process, Bill (and the skid-steer) unearthed some snake eggs which have since hatched - hog nose snakes.
 Some insulation was inserted between the earth tubes and the garage wall.  

 


Watershield was applied to the top of the parapet to protect the joint between the wood and shotcrete. Here, you can see the watershield, the membrane and the insulation in place.


the earth tube shown from inside the structure
 The earth tubes on the house are set but need some more supporting structure before shotcrete.

Some rebar ties were found to be missing or loose and they are fixed.  And more may be found as one of the next projects is to patch holes in the burlap, and in climbing on the structure, other flaws found will get fixed.