Literally in the Trenches

Yesterday, Thursday June 20th, we finished the last little bit of digging (~18ft on the west side) the trenches.  It was just Matt and Al, leveling the bottom of the trenches and beginning installation of the concrete forms.  The trenches are approximately 1ft wide x3ft deep, but the total footer without slab is supposed to be 42in, hence an additional 2x6 above the trench.

Our design for the forms was to have a tall post in the trench every 4 feet that holds the outer 2x6 at the correct height. The 2x6 is then braced by a stake towards the inside of the house, to give the correct outside dimensions and level of the house. Off of the brace we then hang another 2x6 to form out the top of the footer.

The insulating foam board (that we wrapped like presents) is then  installed behind the long posts, under the outside 2x6.  Later on we will add an additional 1ft piece of foam outside the forms for a total of 3ft x 2in of foam below grade.

We used a string held taught at the 4 corners to gauge our height and width.  The corner marks were based off of our first level sighting using the water level.  Having done many second checks we found the strings to be right on the money.

We knew, despite the water in the bottom of the trench, that we were on firm ground because when we went to drive in the first few posts that hold up the forms they only went in about 2in.  Given that the post only has to hold up the form we figured this was good enough.  Once we put in the first full 16ft length we seemed to get in a rhythm and got about halfway around the house before the day was getting long. 

Northwest Corner, halfway there...

Matt's satisfied with the progress

Looks nice and straight too!!!

Today (Friday, June 21st), feeling a little worse for wear on Matt's and Al's side of things, we got to work finishing what we had started the day before. This time Bethy was down too so we knew we could finish the whole thing.  We all got hard to work and the work passed swiftly.

A little after 3, as the end was in sight we decided to call the building inspector to have him come down and take a look at our progress and give the go ahead to pour the footers.  We finished up, did a little cleanup (including getting out more water) and waited for him to come around. 

Bailing water out of the trenches.

We got him down there and his first words were 'It's too clean looking', always good to start off on the right foot.  Again he wasn't too concerned about the amount of water we had. He took a walk around, asked a couple questions about the dimensions and then signed a paper saying that we could proceed to the next step. 

All done!

Unfortunately we were slightly unprepared for the finished state of the forms because we had not yet called in for concrete.  Oops.  We quickly learned that everyone was already booked for the weekend and the next soonest would be Tuesday.  (We also learned you may as well book concrete and then cancel the morning of, rather than ever wait again).  So great progress but not so good foresight.

Updated budget:
+ $523.79 for 12, 2x4x8 Dow Scoreboard footer foam
+ $59.99 for a 100' roll of 12' wide black plastic (used to wrap the foam)
+ $27.82 for 2, 5lb boxes drywall screws
+ $124.00 for 50, 8' 2x2 stakes
+ $373.76 for 32, 16' 2x6 boards
TOTAL SPENT SO FAR (plus applicable taxes): $41,941.47