A Solid Foundation

A lot has been happening over the last two weeks here at the homestead.  After digging a massive hole, the footer was poured which is basically the support that the foundation walls rest on.

adding the key

building the form

pouring the concrete

The cement was left to cure for a day then the form was taken off.  The groove in the footer is called the 'key'.  This gives the foundation walls something to lock into and keeps them from slipping from the footer.

the foundation wall forms

Next they built the forms for the walls.  There will be two windows in the basement and you can see one of the window frames on the right side before the finished the form.  Sadly I was away when they poured the cement so I don't have any photos of the big pour in progress.

poured cement

Note the plastic in the photo above.  That is the part of the wall I mentioned in a previous post that was a source of concern.  Apparently this part of our current foundation did not extend as far down as the rest of the basement.  As a result they will have to build a retaining wall.  It will only delay us by a day or so but costs an unplanned $3800.  We had to have the architect and a structural engineer come out to resolve the problem.  

Here are the finished walls after they pulled the forms off.  So pretty.  Now they have to cure for several days before they can begin to back fill the dirt.  Once that happens, they will pour the floor, cut through to the old basement (yikes!) and start framing out the whole shebang! 

finished walls