The House Project: The Foundation Piers

In my last entry about I house I talked about some dirt work, repairs to the existing foundation, and filling in the old septic tank. Below is a picture of some parts of the slab they cut out before re-pouring it, so you can see the contrast with the foundation work about to be done on the addition!

You can see it is not very thick, and there is very little rebar for support. There seems to be a thin wire framework, but it is more of a mesh, and not very strong.

The next step for the workers was to put up forms. Basically, the forms are an outline of where the new slab will be poured. They were rough at first so an inspector could check to make sure we were complying with the city’s setbacks (the distance we have to be from the edge of our lot in front, back, and on each side). It gave me a nice visual of exactly where the additions would be.

Here is the back addition:

And here you can see where the garage would be expanded to: 

Covering the corner of the house is a very large tarp we had that we used to cover the section of the garage that had been removed. It was to keep any rain from getting into the garage and seeping into the house, but it also made for some nice shade for all the workers during the hot Texas summer! Everything I have described so far occurred June 25-27. Demolition was on Monday the 25^th, dirt work on the 26^th, and the foundation repair on the 27^th.

Early on Thursday, June 28^th 2012, it started getting even more fun! The drilling rig showed up to drill the piers! He managed to drill all 24 piers to 17 feet (which was the goal) without hitting water! Since we live about a mile from Lake Lewisville water had been a concern, but we were fortunate not to hit any!

Here is the rig, ready to go:

I enjoyed watching it, but this part stressed Louie out a little:

The rig makes my house look small:

Every dirt pile markes a 17 ft deep hole for a pier. There were 13 for the Master Bedroom addition and 11 in front for the garage. The cement trucks came out later that afternoon to pour the piers. Of course, I asked a million questions which Lowell, the engineer, was happy to answer for me. The cement truck drivers were also very friendly. They were curious about our project, and seemed impressed by our ambitions! They also weren’t used to pouring such small piers. They said most loads of cement they dropped off were for very large piers, such as for bridges, where it takes several trucks for a single pier! Ours took two trucks full for all 24!

Here is some of the action: 

Notice the two long pieces of rebar sticking out of the hole? Those are used to tie the piers in to the slab itself. They are 20 feet long, and the guys start by putting them part way in, as you see in the picture. Then They pour some of the cement in the hole and ram them down into the cement until they hit the bottom. That leaves about 3 feet sticking up, which they later saw off, leaving enough at the top to be surrounded by the cement for the slab. I had noticed the rebar for one slab was sticking out further than 3 feet, so of course I asked about it. Lowell explained to me that the rebar needed to be within four feet of the bottom of the pier, so as long as it was within that distance it was good to go.

It’s funny the little details you learn about with a project like this! It will make a huge difference in my mind living in a house where I am aware of everything that went into building it! When you buy a house, most times it’s anyone’s guess what corners may have been cut or details ignored when it was built, but we get to cross-check every detail and SEE the work ourselves! I’ll know what is behind the walls and underneath me. I can definitely say this will be OUR house and even though it is a remodel, the remodel is extensive enough that it’s almost a complete rebuild.

Here is one of the piers: 

And here is the back with most of them poured: 

It was a very exciting and productive Thursday!  Friday the 29^th was spent moving dirt around again. Not so exciting to watch, but they also did some trenching for beams that would connect the slab to the piers.

Here is what that looked like: 

And the trenches:

The following week the foundation itself was poured, but more on that next time! I will probably have another book review up next with more of the story on our house to follow that. Stay tuned!