Walls - 1/2 way there; and what's next

Well, our builder visited the Ideal Precast site on Friday and said the walls look great.  About half the panels should be complete with the remaining panels to be finished on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We'll visit the manufacturing facility on Wednesday and see the final set of walls being poured.  There should be a load of panels on the truck ready to travel to the construction site on Thursday morning.  When we visited with the Ideal rep at the site last week he said they would use their two-crane and man-lift procedure.  That will allow them to get two panels into place quickly, bolt/weld them together and then move more quickly to the next sections.  Previously with a single crane they needed to brace the first panel in place before swinging the next panel in. That was due in large part to the space limitations on the site but with our open area for the garage and turn-around, there is ample room for the two cranes and the panel carrying flatbeds.  We'll try to take video of the installation but still pictures will surely be easy to post on the blog.

The surveyor will pin the corners of the site on Tuesday morning and the Ideal Precast crew will do the final leveling and chalk-line marking on Thursday morning.  We should have all the walls set and cross-braced by Friday which means waterproof coating on the below-grade sections next weekend and pouring the slab after leveling the gravel, placing the insulating foam/vapor barrier and rebar down.  After the slab is cured they'll run the main floor joists (TJIs) and set the panels and we'll be able to remove the cross-bracing.  Once that is done the roof will go on, the inner stud-wall will be installed.

We now have power at the site which is good news for construction crews depending on air compressors and power tools!  Once again, very little rock during the trenching for the power - mostly dry powdery dirt that was quick and easy to cut through with the backhoe (Progress Energy doesn't use Ditch Witch due to the high rock content normal in NC).

Digging the trench - surprisingly little rock found once again.

Trench in box connected - just waiting for the temp power pole now

Looking down the trench, back to the house site.

 It's going to be crowded on the site for the next week so we may have to wait until the following week to drill the well.    While it will be nice to have the water on site, it's not imperative since we can truck water in using a water buffalo to keep the slab wet in this summer heat (95 today, supposed to hit 99 on Monday) and ensure it cures before it dries out.

Wall Shop-Drawing Final Review

Friday we did a complete review of the window and door placement and some finer details like the lugs for the deck, porch roof and garage that will be cast into the walls.  We spend an hour and half with the architects making minor adjustments to the plans and then another hour with the engineer for Ideal Precast to make sure we had it right.  With that behind us the walls will be constructed this week and set on 7 and 8 July.  A slight delay in the setting of the walls but we felt it important to get a good final shop drawing review done since once the walls are cast, changing anything is costly and could cause a significant delay.  Our walls will be constructed in Durham and because they are case face-up we have a choice of 1 of 4 finish options which are smooth brush, rough brush, bull-float, and "stucco" which is really a rag-roll like finish on the wall.  Due to the design we feel that one of the brushed finishes will be best suited although we will be covering a large amount of the concrete surface with hardi-panels or a wire-grate/panel system. Ideal Precast has set up a new facility to allow them to case two panel sections side-by-side to better match the finish on the adjoining panels.

 In the past several weeks we've made some minor changes to the design that simplify plumbing and wall construction.  The guest bathroom in the basement has been moved from the East wall to the North wall adjacent to the mechanical room. This allowed the waste-pump to be placed in the mechanical room and reduces complexity of the drains as well as provides a better slope to the drainage system.  The changes to the walls was basically simplifying the design of the South stairwell window to be a straight wall instead of a complex wall - which makes for a cleaner installation as well as reduces the thermal bridging challenges.

  Due to the size of the panels, there well be two cranes and a bucket-hoist used to set the walls.  The two cranes will allow two panels to be set at one time with better stability while the bucket-hoist will prevent the workers from having to work 20' up on a ladder (much safer and more stable).