Sunday, May 26, 2013

May 25 - doorway cut from the old basement to the new one. Backfill complete.

To go from the original house basement into the new basement, we had to cut a door. 
Here, the doorway is just started.

Dan, mugging for the camera!

Dave in the upstairs doorway to the new addition, Dan looking on..

Thank goodness, the trench is filled!
 
Now, it's Sunday night, May 26.  Dan and the guys worked for 12 hours yesterday!  The cement guy came, built forms around the big 3 foot wide step that is necessary between the old basement floor (7 foot ceiling) and the new basement (8 foot ceiling).  Tuesday, the cement floor will be poured!
Wednesday, the floor system for the addition will be delivered.  Construction begins on Thursday!!

May 24 - fun times! Shooting gravel and sand!

Now that the bricks have been removed, it's time to place the drains and sump pump and otherwise prepare for the cement floor to be poured.
Dave, our machine operator wasn't available today, so Dan got in that cab and worked on out!

From that smile, you'd think he had done this before - but, he had never been in the cab of one of these machines before!  He did really well!

Here are Horace, Roy, and Dan getting the drain pipes in place and leveled.


Now, the coolest machine arrives - watch what it does!!

The guys are making the last minute corrections to the basement drains.
 

This drain is ready!

Ok, guys - get out of the way!!

AMAZING!!  This operator was able to put those stone chips pretty evenly all over the basement floor.  Really fun to watch.  Imagine the backbreaking labor and time this eliminated!





All done - just some leveling with a rake and a tamper to make it level and as solid as possible.

The machine of the week!



This is one of the pads holding a column.

Now, the chuter truck is back, now shooting sand (total of 80 cubic yards) for backfilling the basement walls.  Dan is holding a piece of plywood for the sand to hit at that far wall - kept the sand from going into the neighbor's yard and made it go down into the trench.

See how the sand is filling that trench!


Horace is coming out of the basement via the opening for the Bilco doors.

May 20 - taking the brick off the back wall of the original house..

We decided that the brick needed to come of the back wall.  Some areas of that wall were not looking good, and the guys decided that the framers of the addition would have an easier job if that brick wasn't there.  Turned out to be a real chore....
Here's Dave just starting with the top row, using a rubber mallet and then a hammer to start taking the brick off, one by one.

Now, you can appreciate what Dave was doing - about 25-30 feet above the floor of the basement!

Here, you can see that most of the brick is off.  Many of the bricks fell into the basement.  We hired some young men to remove those bricks.  Wow, what a job!

This is the huge steel beam that was placed by a huge crane.  I missed it - no pictures of them maneuvering the beam in place!

I thought maybe the planks were for punishment for evildoers...Nope, they are just to keep the beam from flipping on to its side.

May 17 - Insulate the basement walls

OK, another zoo picture - cute baby geese!

Roy and David work on the insulation....

Insulating the outside of the walls, since the inside brick-look is nice!

Dan working hard...

See, don't these 'bricks' look nice??

May 16 - walls get waterproofed, and the dead tree goes away!

Forms are off, waterproofing is done.

 Big mess in the back yard!



2X4's prop up the walls while they cure...

Now, you see the big dead tree.

Now, it's gone!

Dave, with the excavator, toppled it, then put it into the dumpster in pieces.
 



Back yard has been tidied...






Dave makes short work of the cement driveway...

Much cleaner look now!  The rest of the bushes' time is limited....

OK, this is at the zoo, but a pretty neat giant blue heron!

May 15 - forms come off the basement walls

Ready for the forms to come off.

The inside of the walls looks like brick - we like it!


The opening at the end of the basement is for the 'Bilco' doors that will be the egress from the basement...

It's also the only way to get out of the basement for the guys!!