wroughtn_harv
Super Member
I think it's a TBN thing, marrying above ourselves. I know I did. Eddie too. Same with Mikim and Bird, Texas Don also. And we can't forget Hakim, now there's a TBN'r that married way above himself.
At Home In The Woods
- Thread starter Obed
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I think it's a TBN thing, marrying above ourselves. I know I did. Eddie too. Same with Mikim and Bird, Texas Don also. And we can't forget Hakim, now there's a TBN'r that married way above himself.
OP
Obed
Elite Member
This picture deserves special comment. You are seeing the form for the wall between the main floor garage and the basement. The wall is 12 feet high. Because one end of the garage concrete slab will be located above this void, this entire void must be filled with gravel. If we filled it with dirt, it would settle and would not support the garage slab above it. We backfilled with gravel the entire height of the basement wall for the areas that sit under the garage slab and under the front porch slab. I asked for the excavator to make the excavated void around the basement walls 2 feet from the wall to the dirt. The excavator said he would make it between 2 feet and 3 feet thick. I wanted to minimize gravel backfill costs. The void you are seeing is12' high by 25' wide for the portion under the garage slab. Instead of 2 feet thick, we ended up with between a 4 and 5 foot thick void. So we had to buy twice as much gravel for this 12' X 25' area than we really should have needed. For the voids that were not under the concrete slabs, we backfilled 4 ft' high with gravel and filled with dirt the rest of the way. Backfilling the walls, retaining walls, basement floor, and garage floor required 15 loads of #57 gravel. At $350/load the gravel bill was $5250. About $2000 of this bill was completely a waste because the construction manager and excavator were way to sloppy with the excavation. Ouch!
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dcyrilc
Elite Member
Bet it feels good having that out of the way.
OP
Obed
Elite Member
Here I am spreading some gravel with the FEL. I am much better at grading with the box blade. However, it takes so long to remove or attach the backhoe that I often will make do with the FEL for short jobs. In addition, with the backhoe sticking so far behind the tractor, I lose alot of maneuverability when the backhoe is attached.
You can see a chute that the contruction manager built above the wall. This chute shortened the distance required to get the gravel from the gravel pile to the basement. At this time, the basement walls had not been backfilled so the tractor could not drive all the way up to the wall. Without the chute, we'd have had to carry gravel all the way around the house to get the gravel to the basement.
You can see a chute that the contruction manager built above the wall. This chute shortened the distance required to get the gravel from the gravel pile to the basement. At this time, the basement walls had not been backfilled so the tractor could not drive all the way up to the wall. Without the chute, we'd have had to carry gravel all the way around the house to get the gravel to the basement.
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OP
Obed
Elite Member
Yes it does! Now if we can just get the slabs poured correctly, I might be able to relax a bit.
Obed
dcyrilc
Elite Member
What are you doing to compact the rock under the slabs?
dcyrilc
Elite Member
The only thing I could add to this is that here in western Washington, with all the rain we get, there is a black tar like product thay spray on the outside of the concrete walls to waterproof them. It's applied below grade and before they backfill.
OP
Obed
Elite Member
Basement Plumbing. Oh me, oh my!
We have two sets of plumbing drain piping that will go underneath the basement slab. One set connects all the basement fixtures (2 toilets, bath sink and shower, basement garage utility sink) to the septic system. There is another set of piping for 3 basement floor drains (laundry room, water heaters, and basement dehumidifier) that will run to a French drain..
After the piping was laid:
Needless to say, we have asked for some work to be re-done.
We have two sets of plumbing drain piping that will go underneath the basement slab. One set connects all the basement fixtures (2 toilets, bath sink and shower, basement garage utility sink) to the septic system. There is another set of piping for 3 basement floor drains (laundry room, water heaters, and basement dehumidifier) that will run to a French drain..
After the piping was laid:
- A sink drain line was not inside where the wall is supposed to go.
- One toilet drain was 2 1/2 inches farther from the wall than the other toilet.
- The utility room floor drain was located underneath the washing machine foot.
- The water heater floor drain was 2 feet away from where it is on the house plan.
- The clearance between one of the toilets and the wall is too narrow to meet code.
- The dehumidifier drain goes uphill 1/2 inch/foot for 3 feet.
Needless to say, we have asked for some work to be re-done.
