January 26,2016
The excavation was finished as planned last night.
Large gravel and Lime powder was delivered to the site.
Today four people started on the foundation work. Come Monday, we will have a team of eight.
Oscar estimates that it would take three weeks to do the foundation.
PROBLEM #1
The stump of the huge tree that once lived in the middle of the double lot and which is close to our lot line has part of the root inside our foundation trench. We need to cut the root, treat it immediately with Roundup (glyphosate), drill some deep holes and inject that stuff. After the soil comes off of the top of the stump, we need to make a FRESH cut and drill holes and treat the edge of the tree, the layer under the bark with that stuff.
We also need to get the dead tree on the sidewalk removed.
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| Stump root in the way… |
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| Future Kitchen |
January 27, 2016
We lost a full day almost, because of the tree root. Enormous, very hard wood but luckily DEAD and dry, so it will not pose growing problems.
They started the Cal (the white stuff) on the bottom of the foundation trench, large gravel and “hand positioned and cemented in” rock foundation wall. This is the right way of doing it. Some other people just throw the large rocks in the hole and pour a slurry of cement over it. The rocks will settle when the weight of the masonry goes on top and the walls crack.
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| Cal at the bottom, will expand with moisture and act as a water barrier. |
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| The large root, half cut off. |
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| The START of the foundation wall |
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| Detail of the darned root |
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| Picture taken from the Trenches…
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January 28, 2016
Oscar set the levels for the house. There will be a step up from the sidewalk into the property at the pedestrian gate but the sidewalk itself, in front of the house will be about 4″ higher than the adjacent sidewalks. The lot has a natural small slope from back to the front of the lot favoring drainage towards the street. We may need drainage holes or pipes toward the street.
The East side neighbor’s trees, at the sidewalk, may have to be trimmed as they interfere with the electrical lines on the street and may make difficult our connection to CFE.
The fun thing today occurred when Jim downloaded the photos he took today. The mason building the foundation WALL at the front fence of the house was wearing a Baseball cap with Pink Floyd “The Wall” on it.
Part of the root stump is still there, they gave up for now to make progress on the foundation wall.
There is “cave” under the stump root. It is dead, for sure, but still giving us a lot of work to do.
We are making nice progress. It is amazing how much manual labor is involved in setting stone by stone into mortar for the foundation wall, including under the fence wall…
January 29, 2016
The work is progressing nicely. The stump root is all out, the front fence wall foundation is done. The stone wall is up to the sidewalk level and the front yard level.
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| The gap in the foundation wall is for a reinforced concrete post called Castillo.
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Every 9 feet or so they have a Castillo, which is a little concrete column imbedded in the masonry wall, from the foundation, through the concrete slab. Horizontally, on each floor you have two Dalas, which are reinforced concrete beams tying together the Castillos and providing structural stability to the masonry construction. Amazingly strong construction…
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| I am sure having a good time… I missed it…. |
Week of February 8, 2016
One more week and the foundation wall is finished. They are on schedule and making good progress.
They still have to do the Kitchen and Dining Room.
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| This is the East wall separating our house from the adjacent lot. |
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| The pile of dirt on the left is our Master Bedroom. |
The little openings in the foundation wall are for the castillos (reinforced concrete little columns) which will strengthen the masonry walls. The foundation walls are at least twice as thick as the masonry walls on top of them will be.
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| Standing in the future Bathroom, the walk in closet is behind me and on my left the Bedroom. |
We need to cut down soon the dead tree on the sidewalk in the front of the house so we can build the masonry fence wall so we would be able to enclose the yard to store materials.
Week of February 15, 2016
Foundation work is done. One can finally see the house layout. The foundation walls are about three times thicker than the brick walls to be built. There will be an 8″ “dala” (reinforced concrete bean) on top of the foundation wall and the brick walls will go on top of that. All those interruptions in the foundation walls will receive a reinforced concrete column (the castillos).
With this, we move on to SMALLER posts/topics. The foundation work took exactly 3 weeks, to the day, as scheduled. Good job guys and Oscar.
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| The first of the R-bars on February 16. |
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