Your thoughts on my basement plans

[MossRoad]

Instead of hiring a pumper, I was thinking that I could have two cement trucks there at the same time, but at either corner. I didn't think about having them go slow and doing it in lifts. That makes sense, so I will probably have to pay a little extra to keep them on sight longer then they want to be just to keep them going slowly.

So it goes without saying.... that's why I'm saying it :laughing:, you'll have to move your excavated dirt well away from your hole to allow for the cement trucks to maneuver.

If your walls are 16' x 8' x 10" thick, and there's 4 walls, that's what? about 16 yards of concrete. You'll need two trucks anyway, as they only hold about 10 and are sometimes limited to less because of weight and road restrictions, so its a good idea to find that out well in advance.

 

[jk96]

Eddie,

Have you put the upside and downsides of your plan to paper? Pros vs Cons of your method vs traditional? When I start thinking about your plan the cons far outweigh any pros or benefits. Just something to ponder. Also a couple of other thoughts on your liner. Do you have any trees around the house or plan to have any? I'm just curious about root penetration and whether or not this would be a concern. They will buckle sidewalks and smash drain pipe over time so not sure about the effects on your liner. Also wondering about rodents, moles, etc. Also how about condensation between the liner and concrete that is above grade. I'm just thinking about a hot black liner next to your cool foundation. Not sure there would be enough condensation to worry about but just another thing that comes to mind. You might also think about resale value. I know in my area if I looked at a home for sale with a basement done this way I would run fast. It sounds like you have convinced yourself that your way is better so I hope it all goes as planned now and in the long run. To me it looks like a slow moving disaster, or a fast one if the forms give during the pour. I really hope I am wrong.

 

[Streetcar]

Eddie
How easy will it be to move concrete trucks around your site? To minimize unbalanced loading of forms you will want to bring the concrete up in the walls as equal as possible, pour concrete in circle going around the perimeter.
Is there a good builder supply store in Tyler, they will sell form oil which does not have a strong odor.
My only experience with Tyler is that my daughter played against the women's basketball team from Uof T Tyler, they were a good team.
I would not worry about resale value, if all goes right the buyer would not know the foundation is not traditional unless you tell them. If things go go bad there will be more important things to be concerned about.

Curly Dave
Everything that I have read or been taught in seminars is that the vibrator needs to penetrate the previous layer of concrete to properly consolidate the two layers. Most people when operating concrete vibrator will move it too quickly. Slow is good
I may have read it wrong but one of eddies post talks about 12" thick roof that I assumed was concrete.

You are correct that rebar spacing is critical in developing the strength of the reinforced concrete

 

[CurlyDave]

...Everything that I have read or been taught in seminars is that the vibrator needs to penetrate the previous layer of concrete to properly consolidate the two layers. Most people when operating concrete vibrator will move it too quickly. Slow is good...

I have always taken that advice to mean that it has to enter the top of the previous layer, not that it has to go completely through the previous layer.

The previous layer has already been consolidated, all that has to be accomplished is to get the two layers to properly knit together.

 

[Streetcar]

Curly Dave
Vibration will need to consolidate the two layers into one homogeneous layer. To do that you need to penetrate at least several inches into previous layer

 

[dstig1]

:laughing: Curly Dave had a lot of intricate detailed advice on how this unusual setup MIGHT work out....

Eddie...is it still looking better than doing it the conventional (and, frankly, easy) way? I think your plan is making it far harder and less likely to succeed, but then I guess you know what I think by now. I'll stay out from here unless something really scary comes up that I think is going to hurt someone...

 

[dstig1]

:laughing: Curly Dave had a lot of intricate detailed advice on how this unusual setup MIGHT work out....

Eddie...is it still looking better than doing it the conventional (and, frankly, easy) way? I think your plan is making it far harder and less likely to succeed, but then I guess you know what I think by now. I'll stay out from here unless something really scary comes up that I think is going to hurt someone...

 

[EddieWalker]

I woke up this morning with the realization that I really don't want a basement, and I was overthinking this whole thing, making it a lot more complicated then I needed to. My reasoning for the basement was protection from tornadoes. Since I'm digging a hole in the ground, I might as well make it as big as the room that is going to be above it. There is no reason for a tornado shelter to be 16x16 feet. Once I got to thinking of how big it needed to be, and that while we where in it, we where going to be wide away and not doing anything until the threat had passed, I got to thinking that I could have everything i wanted by just building an above ground shelter in the corner of my garage. This now removes a huge weight off of my shoulders and allows me to move forward with what I really want to do, build my great room!!!

Thank you, I really do appreciate all the great advice and humoring me while trying to figure out how to build something that I now realize, I no longer want. If I would have just listened to my own words when I said that I never plan on going down there once it's built, I would have realized that I really don't have any need or desire to have a basement. As for storing stuff, I am already in the process of creating a canning/processing room that is 12x24 that will hold everything we plan to can or pickle.

 

[Billrog]

:thumbsup:

 

[dragoneggs]

Sounds now like a logical and economical decision based on your usage plan. Now let's start seeing the progress pics! What exciting feature do you have up your sleeve (remembering the gazebo roof!) for your great room?