14 x 24 Builders Cottage in Nebraska

Beavers · March 25, 2009, 04:47:22 PM

Quote from: glenn kangiser on March 24, 2009, 11:55:43 PM
hmm Looks like a Northwest Dragline. Beavers, looks like you are really getting into that excavating.

They are fun to play with!

Can't wait until I get to rent it again to dig the storm cellar.

Beavers · March 28, 2009, 05:35:31 PM

Got the waterline ran in from the street to the house today.
My father in law then came over with the tractor and backfilled the trench. I left it open near the meter pit until I make sure my connections don't leak.

Next step is to get a bobcat and move the big piles of dirt. I can't get batter boards set or even see between my stakes now, with the dirt in the way.

March 30, 2009, 11:13:21 AM

Quote from: Beavers on March 23, 2009, 07:11:15 PM
And...of course what happens after you dig a big hole?

Why it rains! It rained yesterday...last night...today...and is supposed to rain the rest of the week too!

Maybe in Nebraska. In upstate NY, the rain begins 7 hours into a weekend-long rental you saved up for all summer. Several inches that weekend, followed by a week of showers. The saga of getting the BIG excavator out of that kind of mud on a 30% grade without flipping it over is not a pretty story...

Waaaahhhh....

Beavers · March 31, 2009, 05:51:28 PM

Yikes!

Slip slidding a big excavator around on a slope like that has to make you pucker up a little!

Would of been an intersting call to the rental place telling them that their excavator is upside down in the mud.

Even the mini I rented was kinda tippy, especially when swinging a full bucket of dirt around.

WoodSprite · March 31, 2009, 08:51:59 PM

Quote from: Beavers on March 31, 2009, 05:51:28 PM
Yikes! Slip slidding a big excavator around on a slope like that has to make you pucker up a little! Would of been an intersting call to the rental place telling them that their excavator is upside down in the mud.

Even the mini I rented was kinda tippy, especially when swinging a full bucket of dirt around.

Yep, thank goodness we didn't have to make that call.

We sent one back when it wasn't what we'd asked for and it started leaving the ground at unexpected moments - while he was working on the relatively level land across the road, where we're renting. I'm very grateful that my wonderful hubby knows what he's doing, what the machine is and isn't capable of, and most of all, knows when to quit.

We are SO anxious to get back to it now that we can occasionally see the ground, but after that horrible weekend it's going to be pretty hard to figure out how many dry days to wait for until it's safe. If we weren't sitting on a big pile of rocks that the glaciers brought with them, and right on the edge of too old to be doing this anyway we'd be at it every day with picks and prybars. Argh.

May 03, 2009, 06:50:05 PM

Well my ~~pond~~ hole finally dried up enough that I could start working on my footings.

I've been very happy with my laser level! Makes life much easier especially when working alone.

The footings are 2'x2'x10" I know that ideally the vertical rebar would be L shaped to tie into the footing better. I gave up trying to make it work though, it was just too hard to try to get it all lined up right, so I just drove it into the ground a couple of feet.

I didn't think that I would be able to get all my footings formed and rebar set without it raining an flooding my hole. I decided to mix my own concrete for the footings. That way I can get one or two formed and pour the same day.

I got 12 yrds. of gravel and 12 yrds. of sand delivered. That's way more than I'll need for the footings, but the delivery charges were almost half the cost of the sand and gravel...may as well get a full load, I'll be able to use for a driveway later.

Mixing your own concrete sucks, I can't imagine trying to do any larger pours than what I'm doing. I got the mixer off Craigslist for cheap, I'm very thankful to have it!

I ended up getting four footings done, only six more to go.

NM_Shooter · May 04, 2009, 08:51:05 AM

Mtn Don, is it just me, or are you lusting after that black soil that he is so casually removing and trying to discard?

Midwesterners seem to take that black gold for granted!

-f-

MountainDon · May 04, 2009, 06:34:38 PM

I never knew dirt could be any other color than jet black until I began to travel. Do miss it. We have some in the mountains though

Beavers · May 11, 2009, 06:26:48 PM

Got one row of my footings done, and wired in my pier rebar to the stub outs.

I feel alot better now with the rebar cages in. The footings were a lot of work, and when I was done they didn't really look like much. At least the cages look bigger and look like more progress.

I also got started on building the bracing for the sonotube forms. I want to make sure I get them well braced. I REALLY don't want them to fall over in the middle of the pour!

I decided to build two walls to run along each side of the sonotubes, tying them all together. I'm planning on securing the walls to the footing forms and then bracing the hell out of it. I figure it will be easier to get the walls lined up and plumb as one unit, instead of trying to plumb and line up each pier individually. After the walls are set I can then just drop the sonotubes in place the night before I pour...or at least that's how I picture it working out if it all goes perfect.

Anyone see any problems with my bracing plan, or have any suggestions?

May 23, 2009, 06:15:31 PM

I love when things go just like I had hoped them to.

I got all my bracing done for the piers, and it actually turned out better than I thought it would.

The piers are 8 feet tall, and the bracing is extremely solid. Sturdy enough to walk on even, I've got planks on the top enabling me to walk along the top of the forms when I pour. Should make life easier.

Like I said... Those tubes aren't going anywhere.

I don't have the sonotubes screwed to the forms yet. They slide right in and out now. I'm going to drop the tubes back in right before I pour, so they don't get any water damage.

I also got the brackets built that will hold the J-bolts in the right position to line up with my beam brackets.

Beavers · May 31, 2009, 04:15:13 PM

I got one row of piers and the rest of my footings poured yesterday. The concrete truck showed up right on time. The driver was a little worried at first if he would be able to reach out to the piers, thankfully though he had enough reach to get it.

I ordered a single Bigfoot Footing to use as a funnel. The closest place to get one was St. Louis, and the shipping was as much as the footing.

Having a concrete truck sitting there kinda brings on a sense of urgency to the work, but for this being my first big pour things went very well.

I mixed all my own concrete on the first row of footings. It took an hour per footing for me to mix the concrete with my mixer. I decided to gamble on not having any rain, and went ahead and formed up the rest of the footings so I could pour them with the piers. It worked out, and we didn't get any rain. I was able to pour the rest of the footings in about 15 minutes, instead of the five hours it would of took mixing my own concrete. (and it didn't require a wheel barrow

)

I started to panic after we were done pouring. The sonotubes were soaking through at the bottoms, and bulging in places! I've got way more bracing on these things than the manufacturer requires, so what gives with the bulging tubes? They ended up holding together, but I'm left with piers that have bulges in them.
Anyone else had this problem before? Any ways to prevent it?

(It looked much worse before it dried, looked like the tubes were about to explode)

This week I'll get started on stripping the forms and moving the bracing over to the next row of piers.
Do I need to put some kind of temporary bracing on the piers until I get them backfilled?

considerations · May 31, 2009, 05:33:03 PM

I think rain is good for the concrete. Anyway, when you dig up dirt it sort of decompresses, making the pile bigger than the hole. Now that it's rained, you'll be looking for extra to fill things back in unless there is a basement in your future.

Life's an adventure.

Alasdair · May 31, 2009, 08:23:07 PM

Nice work Beavers!
Thats quite the bracing you rigged up there! It'll start going fast now you're out of the ground. Looking forward to your next pics.
Al

Bishopknight · May 31, 2009, 09:04:04 PM

Great job! I like the pictures. You'll definitely have some sturdy footers there!

May 31, 2009, 09:16:07 PM

I wouldn't get in too much of a hurry to backfill. You will have to remove the supports to fill and the collumns are still green. I would hate to have them pushed out of plumb. Even then so I would fill gradually say about 2' a day if you allow about 2-3 days of curing. I would say after about 3 days you can finish filling around them. Generally sono tubes are set in the ground with a minimun above ground and they have support. But in your application there is no support once you remove your 2X bracing. Talk about a headache if you would break one loose and have to dig out and repour. Can you reach to back fill with machinery from both sides by just allowing it to dump over from the top?

Beavers · May 31, 2009, 09:47:02 PM

Thanks for the kind words!

If I really kick it in the butt I should be able to backfill in 3 weeks. I've got to pull the bracing from this row of piers and move it over to use for the scond row of piers. Then get the sonotubes plumbed up and ready to pour.

I'm planning on renting a Bobcat skidloader, and compactor to use for backfilling. I should be able to dump from either side of the hole, don't really want to take the chance of bumping a pier with the bobcat.

Seems like some kind of temporary bracing to hold the piers plumb in the meantime would be a good idea?

Redoverfarm · May 31, 2009, 09:50:53 PM

If they are out of the way I would be concerned with any bracing. You have rebar in the center and unless you think there is a chance of bumping them I wouldn't bother. In fact they will probably cure better without the backfill right now.

Don_P · June 01, 2009, 07:01:28 AM

You could run a row of 2x's across the tops attached to the J bolts and then a few kickers back to grade where they are out of the way. I have seen this setup tip before. Install the permanent bracing ASAP

Beavers · June 01, 2009, 07:17:09 PM

Well...I'm pretty sure I screwed up with the J-bolt locations.

With the brackets I have I need 9" spacing on the bolts. Mounting them in a 12" diameter pier doesn't leave much concrete cover around the bolts. Of course my piers were not exactly in a straight line so I had to adjust the bolts a little to get them all lined up. This left even less cover on some of them. Of course none of these issues crossed my mind until I started stripping forms today.

I'm going to come up with a different bracket design for the second row of piers.

Any thoughts on how big of a problem the lack of cover around these j-bolts is? (bolts are 12" long)
Any thing I can do to fix the problem, other than getting out the jackhammer?

This is my bracket set up, except all the j-bolts are pointing in towards the center of the pier instead of out as the drawing shows, and a bolt instead of a lag screw.

poppy · June 01, 2009, 08:43:15 PM

I don't know that you have a major problem, but there is a good potential that the concrete will spawl.

My only suggestion would be to get some 12" pipe clamps to reinforce the area outside the bolts.

June 04, 2009, 09:27:20 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Poppy. I'm still working on a couple of ideas for getting a better beam connection on the first beam.

I built my new and improved beam brackets for the second row of piers. They are very beefy...made them out of 3" wide 1/4" thick steel.

I'm kicking myself in the butt for not using these on the first row of piers, they have got be at least 10 times as strong as those brackets.

The brackets are 12" tall, 6" of the bracket will be buried into the concrete, with two stainless bolts into the beam.
I've just got to clean them up with the grinder a little, and then they are getting galvanized.