Retaining Walls for the House

 We have some more displaced dirt, and some more holes in the ground.  Materials are on site for future use. And contractors on site. The excavating crew is finished digging. Another talented Mexican crew is twisting wire and placing forms and rebar for the footers today. The weather is great and concrete is scheduled to be poured Thursday, TOMORROW at 8:30.

We have some more displaced dirt, and some more holes in the ground.  Materials are on site for future use. And contractors on site. The excavating crew Another Mexican crew is twisting wire and placing forms and rebar for the footers today. The weather is great and concrete is scheduled to be poured Thursday, TOMORROW at 8:30.

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.

Progress Continues

Last Wednesday, the carpenters finished the work that we needed in order to get the retaining walls started.  They have left, and shall return to do some props before the shotcrete starts.  
It is very quiet on the site with no hammers, saws, pneumatic tools, drills, or Spanish-equivalent of four-letter words.  And they sing too, but not often enough for me.

But progress continues with the rebar. Bill, Keith and I (mostly Bill) are working on this big job.  It is tedious more than difficult.  Bill is concentrating on the work around the parapets.  It includes what he calls the sunrise and the rainbows.  Still to be done is a rebar 'ladder' arch reinforcing the contour change from quonset to parapet.  The North and West parapets have the black ice and water shield whereas the South is bare plywood as it is just a form and will be taken down a few days after the shotcrete.

North Parapet

West parapet

South Parapet

Keith and I are doing the quality control on the mesh and rebar.  This ensures that the 6x6 mesh is tied into the horizontal (first layer) of rebar.  We have completed all that one can reach by standing on the slab, and everything that is above the second floor.  Still to do, are the West Annex and the 18 x 40 cathedral ceiling and the South patio. The tunnel is totally done with all rebar and only needs the earth tube to be put in place.

Keith and Bill are putting on the third layer of rebar, and that is to be completed soon on the main 40 x 66 structure.   Tomorrow, the fourth layer starts.  The West Annex (except for final QC) and the Tunnel have been done (they only need three layers being smaller structures).

One of the problems the carpenters and Bill worked out has to do with the South parapet.  The steel arches are bowed such that the center is plumb, but the sides bow inward.  Some forms have been incorporated in the parapet that will 'hide' this flaw with shotcrete. 

The SE wall has a gap where blocks have been placed

The gap is covered by form to hold shotcrete

 

The SW side showing blocks in gap

SW side showing form over gap

 

At the TOP

Hopefully, the retaining walls will be started any day now.

More Carpentry Pictures

Manuel at the helm

Bruce between the South Wall and the South Parapet Support Structure

The Support for the Parapet on the South End of the Structure is going up

South Wall

View from the kitchen looking South

View from the kitchen looking South

Balcony view looking South

Another Balcony View looking South

Second Floor looking South

Second Floor looking North

The above picture is unique in that we haven't taken a picture from the East looking SouthWest (other than close-ups of the rebar/brickwork).  One can barely see the tunnel just above the grass near the base of the black walnut tree. One day, all of that will be covered with dirt and some kind of green-ness as yet to be determined.

End Walls Nearly Ready

Some pictures of the End Walls.  We are also working on finishing the rebar.

 The West Wall is the farthest along (above pictures).  The North Wall needs insulation (blue stuff) and sheathing and then the Tyvek HouseWrap.  And the South Wall is awaiting some screws which should come tomorrow...but the crew put the sheathing on where they could so they can still get to those areas that they will need to.  No insulation is needed at this time on the South Wall as it can be insulated when we work on the interior.  The South Parapet has not been started as yet as the South Wall needs to be completed first.

 

Pictures of End Walls

Lots of windows fit into our South wall.  The smaller holes are for insulation.  And lots of LVL (linear veneer lumber , ie engineered lumber) to hold our wall in place through most any storm.  It's a long span, 20 ft high in the middle, with no second floor supports, so we are thankful to Tom and John, the engineers that designed this a very sturdy wall.  And thanks to the carpenters for enthusiastically building it to specifications. It is made to withstand winds so that it won't blow in or out in hurricane-force winds.

Our Second Floor from the perspective of an upper window on the South Wall

The West Wall

The Carpenters are Here! THE CARPENTERS ARE HERE!!!

All of Vincent's crew (Bruce, Manuel, Eric and Felix, plus Vincent's son, Sam), showed up on Monday, and have not had rain days, so progress is going full bore.  All of the materials were not here, but they were able to work on the West Wall on Monday.  Materials arrived on Tuesday for the South Wall. Ooops...we are missing some fasteners and screws...to be delivered Wednesday, hopefully....still to be delivered...

A problem encountered with The South Wall and Parapet - it is out of plumb by 3 inches.  Some of the arches are twisted.  Thought processes are working on this problem....and this is resolved.  Stretching and straightening.

We had to make a new home for our tadpoles and mosquito larvae.  We created a little pool nearby, and bailed out the pool area.  We also moved 3 frogs and a toad.  

An electrical occurrence momentarily stopped work Monday.  The carpenters use a lot of electricity for their tools and air compressor, and we were supplying it.  However, when they  plugged in the microwave at lunchtime, and turned it on, that fried our electrical box.  Bill got the generator out and the carpenters had lunch and went back to work.  The electrician was called and put us back online by lunchtime Tuesday (with no microwave problems).  The power outage effected our living quarters with only a glitch in the power and 45 minutes without power while the electrician fixed the problem.  

It did rain Monday night which caused a somewhat muddy condition Tuesday. And the pool area has some water in it again, but not much.  We continue to add water to their (tadpoles') swimming pool.


Pictures to come.....