Today we prepped for main pour in 2 phases. The first was to inspect the footings and refine the framing. That took most of the day actually, and only left them about an hour to backfill the dirt. They ran out of time, but they got most of it done. They will be returning early to finish backfilling before the cement truck arrives.
Some key things that happened today:
Framing Looks … Okay
The framing does look much better than yesterday, but honestly, I’m not 100% satisfied with how it turned out. I pointed out to Armin how the backfilled dirt is pushing on the sides of the boards, and they’re bowing in. He assured me that when they pour the cement, the weight of the cement will push back from the inside to correct that, which is actually the main reason why they needed to backfill the dirt. I grilled him on that some more because I’m not very comfortable with the concept, but we’ll see.
Also, just generally, I told Armin I was hoping it would be more straight. He said, after the pour, when it dries and they remove the boards, he plans to frame one last time, the foundation above ground, and apply more cement to perfect it. I asked, what about the rest of the foundation below ground. He said even if it’s not straight, as long as we have 8” all around, we should be good (We framed a little wider @ about 10”). Generally, I’m just not 100% comfortable, so I plan to push for assessing after the fact.
Footings Look Good
Not much to say on this. Just that the footings look to have turned out ok.
Rebar Is Pinching
With the backfilled dirt pushing in on the outside of the boards, it’s also causing the rebar to come together. Especially in the north side. I asked Armin about this. He said it’s fine, and that actually, they only call for 1 grid per 12”, so we don’t even really need the 2 grids that we have. I looked this up and that seems to be correct, so I guess that’s ok.
