Welcome spring

With all the mud around the basement walls the team has been working diligently around the walls and attaching all the foam insulation.  They have also begun the acrylic stucco (flexyl) coating, next steps would be the dimple mat and drain tile.  The target for back-fill will be on Wednesday with plumbing work to begin Friday.  For the slab to be poured, the 6" of foam need to go down into the basement first.  RJ Stegora was kind to provide some great pics from under the tarp.  I have a few here and the remainder in the gallery.  Note the tight fit to get in and out of the area.

Spring is ALMOST here

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With this odd weather we have had, the basement needed to be temporarily tented.  We were excited to see a large chunk of insulation make its way from the front of our house to the basement walls where they got glued.  The tally stands at 4" exterior insulation + 2 1/2" EPS + 6" concrete core + 2 1/2" EPS = 15" for the basement wall assembly.  Next is the dimple mat and back-fill.  Most of the work was done out of sight today, but we did capture the tent setup to protect from the weather.

Warp Speed Ahead..

Five days ago it was just, well, a big hole in the ground and now there is a basement.  I pulled the records up and put together a warp speed video of all the activities to share.  Lots of insulation work next week before the slab.  Huge news.. the window order has been placed so we hope to get the shipment within 12 to 16 weeks!!

First floor

Today more preparation went into the basement walls.  As you can see we also have the floor joists added.  Tomorrow we have our first inspection before the cement walls are poured into the wall cavities.  Seems like the weather is cooperating with us, but getting a little colder this weekend just in time to allow the cement to set.

Basement taking shape

More prep work was done today after the foam block was completely built up.  We now have planks around the basement walls for the cement pour planned for Friday.  Next week we will have more finishing work around the outside, plumbing for the drain tile, external insulation around basement walls and under the future slab.

Found this article interesting tonight regarding economics of green building (LINK).  Our thought has always been that the elimination of operational cost of heating and cooling in the long run pays for itself and provides such a comfortable living environment year round.

Due to camera mount failure no video today but check out the picture below.

What's all the commotion out there??

One day it is a hole and the next we officially have a basement.  The cement truck was here early this morning and the crew from RJ Stegora got busy pouring the footings, followed by the blocks for the basement walls, and last but not least, the framing of basement windows.  To see this finally happen brings joy to our eyes; after a couple years of planning and design, the time has come and we get to see the dream come true.

Footing molds completed...

Starting to look like a pool outside our window with all the melting snow, so we were glad to see the molds for footings completed today.  This means we are nearing cement pouring time.  Why talk so much about the basement and the details behind it all??  When you’re building an energy efficient house, the insulation levels must be in harmony with each other.  It doesn’t make sense to equip in heavy insulation for the above ground walls and the roofing if you aren’t going to insulate the floor to the basement walls and under the slab. The performance of critical workings—thermal insulation, windows, and doors should work as a group, not independently.  The next few weeks we will spend lots of time in the core of the house as we move our way up to the first level.

Amazing work

Note the backhoe is on the ledge of the hole and we can't wait to see how its going to make its way out!

Note the backhoe is on the ledge of the hole and we can't wait to see how its going to make its way out!

As the sun set today the RJ Stegora crew rushed to complete the massive job of digging out the remainder of the basement.  A 10 foot deep hole is now ready for footings and the Lego like task of assembling the insulated concrete BuildBlock foam.  There was also a huge task during the morning hours of removing the fence between our back yard and the new house to make room for additional amount of dirt that will later be used to back-fill the basement hole.  We can safely say there is no longer room to store anything in addition to what we have now (check out the gallery for some of that work).  With melting snow temperatures the coming next week some effort will be directed towards the diversion of water from our neighbors downspouts away from the work space.

Sun came out and so did the ICF forms

With all the insulation stored around our house it is starting to feel warmer, or maybe it's our old friend the sun.  With a huge shipment of ICF forms delivered today and all the work being done using poly-foam to form footings, it is starting to take shape in the big hole.  Rising temperatures this week will help as it needs to stay above 5 degrees to pour concrete.

Lots of action today..

As you can see from the time-lapse video the basement got just a little bigger today.  :)  It is much deeper than a usual basement hole, since we need to make room for 575 cubic feet of foam going under and around the footings/slab/basement walls.  The 53' semi trailer (2/3 full) came in this morning and the kids got a kick of the "new snow pile" in our back yard.  All this provides a thermal resistance value of R-26 for the basement floor, compared to R-0 in standard code construction.  The below grade walls will have a thermal resistance value of R-39 versus R-10 with code construction.

Another day in the life of RJ Stegora via time-lapse photography (looks easy doesn't it?)