Armin hoped to finish digging yesterday, and be able to send back the excavator. Unfortunately, as these things go, there just wasn’t enough time in the day and we had to keep the digger another day. We were able to finish today though, and we can now shift focus on the rebar.
Some key things that happened today:
Trenches Dug to Proper Depths
Armin and Pedro successfully dug down until they met the bottom of the foundation on both sides. As expected, on the south side it was about 30” or so, and on the north side it went all the way down about 8ft.
More Than 11 Feet Bump Out
Armin told me he ended up overshooting how far he dug out the back wall trench. The far wall should extend exactly 11ft out, but it actually ended up 11ft 10” out. We talked about whether we should spend another day to dig more to correct it, or just continue with the increased footprint. According to Armin, the extra materials wasn’t a worry, and I knew it shouldn’t affect the interior layout. My only remaining worry was inspection, but Armin didn’t seem too concerned, and he said worst case scenario we fail and have to dig it back anyway. With that we agreed to take a chance and move forward.
Trenches Cleaned Out
Armin trimmed away all the roots that stuck out of the inner walls of the trench, and dug out the trench more thoroughly.
Electric Line Confirmed Inactive
Yesterday we came across an electric line, but we were pretty sure that Pepco rerouted it already, so we were guessing that what we came across was the old line. Today we severed it and thankfully we were right, since there was no disruption to our power.
