South Central Oklahoma Farmhouse

[Pat]

Real progress, not just stirred dirt happened yesterday. Rebar was delivered to the site followed by the concrete sub and his backhoe sub. Basement was trenched for footings, grade staked, rebar installed, and cement poured. 24"x24" footings with 4 each 5/8 rebar near corners. It took 4 cement trucks (12 yard trucks). Different company than I had ever used and boy were they way better than the ouitfit I used.

Due to cool temps and slow cure (a good thing) the crew will not return to setup for the floor until Fri or Sat. The floor is poured over the footings and is dowled to it by rebar set in the footing. After the floor cures, the walls will be formed and poured. A "water stop" rubber like gasket is installed, half in the floor and half sticking up where the wall will be. Whe the walls are poured yo have a gasket bridging the cold joint. Never saw this before but sounds real good.

Pix to follow tonight or...

Patrick (still wondering when winter will happen)

[egon]

Pat:
(still wondering when winter will happen)

Come north young man, come north. You will be indoctrinated.

We just finished a truck and camper trip from Alberta to Nova Scotia. The first night was only -25C, The next -40C and the following nights -35C. We did arrive home to a very welcome -2C and a driveway piled high with snow.

Egon

[Chillimau]

Hey Pat,

Looks like your making some good progress. What do you mean, when is winter coming, we've had our annual snow this year. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]. 24"x24" footer is a big footer isn't it? Where did your concrete come from, Ada, Shawnee? I know up here in OKC, Superior Ready Mix has really been hustling. My neighbor had a project for a Saturday morning and Dolese wanted $700 just to open up for a Saturday morning. Just part of the normal operation for Superior. I image he is a little more hungry than Dolese.

Gary

[Pat]

Egon, thanks for the offer, misguided as it may be, but no thanks. I did three winters (years) in Minot, North Dakota and was outside in temps in excess of -40 every winter. My personal low is -47F (temp only, not considering wind chill). I walked to breakfast, then walked to work where I was the only one who showed up. The phone was ringing when I arrived and I answered to find out that I was not supposed to work due to the conditions and I should go back.

Truck camping? LIke with a slide in pickup camper or travel trailer? Luxury, man! We have hiked up above 10,000 feet and pitched our tent in over 6ft of snow for a Christmas holiday ouiting. We carried bright tinsel covered chocolate ornaments to hang in a small tree.

Patrick

[Pat]

Gary, I don't recall the name on the door of the 'crete trucks but the concrete sub told me they were from Ada. I do know it wasn't Dolese. All 4 trucks were all white 12 yard units. I call Dolese last when considering any materials.

My soils engineering consultant recommended a minimum of 18 inch footers. My builder told the sub we want 24x24. I like to err on the side of a bit extra strength.

Ahh, OKC, the frozen north! Brag, brag, brag! So you had some snow, properly timed for a white Christmas. We got a llight dusting on the morning of the 24th but it was gone quickly.

Later,

Patrick

[Pat]

Here is the foundation for the basement. For scale purposes be advised that the virile young male model is 6'2" barefoot so with boots probably 6'3".

[Pat]

Here is 18 wheeler gravel truck (belly dump) driven by "Buddy" with load 2 of 5 from a quary near Davis, Oklahoma. Prev gravel delivery was 5 loads of 10 wheel dump truck size. Lots of 1 1/2 inch washed gravel (limestone). This is the stuff often used in leach fields for septic systems. I use it to surround perforated drain pipes.

These loads are destined to go under the basement slab and as first few feet of backfill around walls. This will give support to the slab while allowing any water to flow easily to the under floor drain pipes.

Patrick

[Pat]

Using Terex "extendahoe" to pile gravel load 2 on gravel load 1 to make space for loads 3 & 4.

This morning we moved about 12 dump truck loads of clay from a pile on the lower level to replace the topsoil scraped off as first step in extending the driveway to a place near where the garage will be. I drove about 7-8 loads.

Next we will get some 3 inch crusher run (contains everything from 3 inch chunks on down to dust to spread on the compacted clay. I intend to put up a few "T" posts temporarily to string some cord with orange tape dangling down to "herd" (direct?) heavy truck traffic down the newly graveled drive. Shouldn't take long to get the gravel packed down into the clay. We'll reserve some gravel and clay to fill ruts. Ought to have a good driveway pretty quick.

No appreciable precip for over 3 months. Hope this holds for a while longer as the whole site could become a muddy nightmare if we get much rain. At least it is downhill from the baement to the lower pond so it won't flood.

Patrick

[Clint]

Pat,

Now that we've seen your hole in the ground, how about some info about what's going in it. Maybe post some drawings of the future place if you've got 'em. If I every need a giant hole dug I know who to call.

I agree with you 100% on the overbuild concept.

Clint.

[Pat]

Clint, what goes in the hole isn't very photogenic for a while. The next step is plumbing then gravel to cover the plumbing then waterproofing membrane then concrete slab. Three sides will be foot thick steel reinforced concrete. The 4th side (south) is windows and french doors except for the guest bedroom which will have only one window (sized to meet egress requirements and have steel shutters on the inside). The guest room will have cement ceiling as well. I am having a conflict on the computer and can't get a copy of the floor plan while writing this. Later I will try by other means to post the basement floorplan.

If you need a big hole in the ground, call Bill Combs. He can often be reached at "Slim's Ole Place" a small roadside eatery west of Wanette on hwy 39. It is in the Wanette phone book. His wife runs it. Last year the track hoe with 4 ft bucket was $80/hr with operator. This year it is $85. Typical rate around here is $100. He also has 18 wheeler belly dumps, 10 wheel dumps, dozer, extend a hoe, compressors on trailer, jack hammers and on and on. I have been extremely pleased wth the operators that he furnishes. Typicaly have over 25 years experience on this sort of equipment in the oil fields and such. I became very trusting of their judgement since they were so experienced. I ended up with far better pond repairs, restructuring, and new pond than I would have if I told them what to do in detail. There isn't a single guy he supplied that I wouldn't be happy to have back if I needed more of that machine's time. I will be having some more help from him after the basement walls are in and curred. They will back fill and then finish the pads to either side of the basement which are for the master suite and garage/shop. Again their experience was valuable. In my ignorance I was pushing to get the pads all done and ready for construction. Of course, the cement deliveries around the periphery of the basement would have really messed up the pads to either side so their advice to finish those after the basement walls were in was yet another godd idea driven by their experience.

I'll try to get some floorplans and narative descriptive guides to explain them posted soon.

Well, the heavy snowfall has ended and I hope this stuff melts, runs off , and dries up soon. Of course every farmer in this end of OK is praying for rain as this little dab of snow is the first measureable precipo in over 4 months.

Pat