Today was the big day. We poured the rest of the foundation. It went pretty well. I made a bad decision to help out and ended up getting cement splattered on me, head to toe, but not a big deal. Unfortunately, we have rain forecasted for tomorrow afternoon though. Hopefully it’s not too bad, but we’re putting some countermeasures in place to hopefully mitigate any harm.
Some key things that happened today:
Finish Backfilling
Armin and his guy came early, as promised, and worked quickly to backfill the remaining gaps. Nothing else to report on that.
Pour Process Was a Little Sketchy
When we poured the cement, it didn’t seem to run all the way down 100% of the time. Sometimes you can tell that it’s getting clogged. It’s chunkier than I anticipated. Evidently, Armin anticipated this, because he brought a tool that I think was specifically for stabbing the cement downward to push the cement down and get rid of potential pockets of air. I actually jumped in to help with that when possible, because I was getting paranoid whether it was done enough or not. You can’t really tell. The only indication is that as you do it sometimes the cement level drops a bit, telling you that you did something.
Did the Weight of the Cement Fix the Inner Bowing?
Armin said that when we fill the trench with cement, the weight of it will push back on the inside of the boards and fix the bowing, and essentially straighten out the shape of the walls. As you can imagine, it was hard to say for sure, but at certain points when the trenches were filled half way, it looked like maybe it was working, but not enough. My hope is that over time, as it sets, it will expand further, but I’m not sure.
Getting Ready for Rain
As of right now, it’s saying it will begin raining tomorrow at 1-2pm, and last for like 6 hours or so. Armin said it should be fine, but he went ahead and put a tarp over most of it, with boards covering the top so that water doesn’t get into the cement, which is the main worry. We also have the downspout routing water to the center of the crawlspace. I think I’ll have to go to Home Depot and get some extensions to route the water away from the area.
UPDATE: Fixed the Downspout … I Hope
I went to Home Depot to purchase a few extensions. I had to do some jerry rigging because when I got it all installed, there were some low points where I think the water would backtrack and come pouring out. I think this should work, as long as the buckets don’t tip over. (Added image)
