Grading around the perimeter

Yesterday I was able to finishing plastering the surface bonding cement on the blocks around the house. So, this morning I began grading the dirt around the house. My objectives were to push at least some of the dirt up to the walls and to level off the top of the hill in front of the house.

Last spring when I dug the cellar, I piled the extra dirt from the excavation in front of the house in order to extend the level of the ground outwards. Eventually, I will have the hill extended further out so that it will slope more gradually toward the garden. For now, I needed to level it off a bit in preparation for building the porch.

Using a grader blade with my tractor, I was able to pull dirt from the middle of the pile in front of the house toward either end and up to the block wall. I pushed the piles of dirt from excavating for the footers on the east side of the house toward the wall and toward the front of the house. In the back, I moved dirt toward the wall and around to the east side of the house. There’s still a bit that needs moved with a shovel, but it’s mostly graded. I wasn’t able to get the tractor and blade on the west side of the house. So, I’ll be moving the dirt on that side with a shovel later.

With the dirt graded around the house, I’ll measure and set some stakes and string for framing the porch. I have to pour footers that go under the porch posts, and I need them to be correctly placed.

  

Perimeter wall footer forms started

I set out this morning to get the concrete forms for the footer that will support the perimeter block wall completed today. The first task was to get the bottom of the trench leveled off at the right depth. Because the house is on a slope, I’m not putting all of the footers on the same level. In fact, there will be four different levels. The front of the house is about 2 feet higher above the ground than the back of the house.

Using a shovel, a grub hoe, and a grape hoe (the latter two are wonderful tools I bought from easydigging.com), I removed some dirt from the bottom of the trench where needed and added some in other places where needed. I had my boys tamp the loose dirt firmly into place. By lunch time I had made it all the way around the house.

After lunch, I started putting wooden forms in place. I drove stakes I cut into the bottom of the trench, measuring from the string I had previously strung to get the tops of them to the proper level. Then, I screwed some 2x3s onto the stakes, making sure they were level and the proper distance below the string. The string gives me the final height for the block wall.

I was able to get the forms in the back of the house and along one side mostly completed. Along the side, I had to step down almost 8 inches in two places because of the slope. Malchiah joined me after I had started working, and I put him to work tamping dirt on the outside of the forms.

Across the front of the house, there will be six courses of blocks. There are footer levels for five courses and four courses on the side while there will be only three courses on the back. I’m trying to make all of the different levels match up so that blocks could be laid continuously around the house. However, I may treat each level separately, laying blocks for each one independent of the others. They will all be surface bonded later and won’t be visible. As far as structural integrity, there should be no problem considering their purpose.

We’ll continue work tomorrow and Friday. It’ll be next week before we have the concrete delivered for the footers.  

Perimeter block wall footer excavation

Last evening I moved some of the top soil piled near the end of the house (it’s been piled there for six years already). I didn’t move it far – just a few feet. This was so that I would have enough room to maneuver the backhoe to the rear corner of the house and start excavating the trenches for the footer upon which I’ll build a short block wall to enclose the crawlspace. The wall will also help support the porch floor and straw bale wall.

I continued the excavation from the other corners this morning, trying to dig the bottom of the trench level. That’s easier said that done. However, it came out within a few inches over any given length.

After finishing what I could with the backhoe, I threw some dirt out of the trench with a shovel and knocked down a few high spots. After that, I stretched and leveled a string from one corner of the root cellar walls all the way around the house to another corner of the root cellar. This allowed me to get an accurate measure of my depth in order to figure how much more excavation or filling in is needed.

I plan on working on constructing forms for the footer tomorrow. It will be 14 inches wide and 8 inches in depth. After the forms are in place, I will raise or lower the bottom of the trench to ensure the thickness of the footer will be as intended. If I get this done tomorrow, I hope to have the concrete delivered Friday (I’ve got to bale hay on Thursday).

The blocks around the perimeter of the house will be dry stacked like the cellar walls. I may only surface bond the outside because there won’t be any real lateral forces on this wall. I’ll decide for sure later.

Here are some photos taken this evening of the work that’s been accomplished so far:

 

   

Backfilling around the root cellar

I worked on the interior walls earlier in the week, getting three of them coated with the surface bonding cement – all but the long wall on the house side. So, yesterday, I began the process of backfilling against the walls of the cellar. It was nice to have the backhoe to use; it would’ve been overwhelming to do this job with a shovel.

I situated the backhoe behind the house near the corner of the root cellar and began moving dirt from the pile on the hill. This went fairly well. I could reach about 16 or so across the back edge. There was one problem: a few jerks with the hoe caused the bucket to slide over against one house post. I didn’t like that, of course. Initially, it wasn’t clear to me how to get it away from the house. I couldn’t back up because one rear tire was on the edge of the hole. I was able to move it without causing any damage to the house.

I was able to position the backhoe at a few different locations on either end of the cellar and put fill dirt in around almost all of the walls. I took it easy, knowing I didn’t want to knock into and mess up the walls.

On the house side of the cellar, there was about 14 feet of wall which the backhoe couldn’t reach because of the house frame. I had to use a shovel. Thankfully, the area to be filled here wasn’t to wide and didn’t need to be filled to the top of the blocks.

Here are a few photos taken after I finished today (the pvc on either end is for air vents):

Root cellar: concrete forms in place

Although it was overcast this morning, it didn’t rain today. The sun finally came out from behind the clouds around noon. I worked in the hole all day. This morning the damp clay in and around the work area stuck to my shoes all the time. With the sun out this afternoon, I didn’t have any stick. Either the sunshine dried things just enough or this clay is allergic to sunshine.

I didn’t use the backhoe today. I moved a fair bit of dirt with a shovel and a grape hoe, though, in order to get make sure the bottom of the hole was level. It was close, thankfully. There was some dirt along the edges that needed moved so I could set the forms.

For the forms, I used some boards Danny salvaged from an old mobile home he helped demolish. They are fat 2x4s, measuring about 1-3/4” x 4-1/4”. I had to pull some old staples out of them, and then I was ready to set them in place. I also cut some stakes from some scrap boards I had near the house.

I started in one corner and leveled the forms from there. By lunch time I had one end and over half of both of the long sides done. Since it’s important to put the outside corner of the root cellar walls in the right place, I had to take some measurements from the west side of the house. Determining the precise location of this corner is somewhat difficult. However, using a ladder strapped to the floor joists in the house, I was able to measure eleven feet out from that side of the house and set a stake at the inside corner of the root cellar.

To figure the outside corner, I measured from the stakes I had set previously. It soon became apparent that I didn’t have things laid out square. It was time for lunch at that point, so I left it till this afternoon. Armed with an exact measure of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with two eleven foot sides and a framing square, I adjusted one of the corners on the forms I had already set. Once I did that, the diagonal measurements came out correct – things were square.

It didn’t take long this afternoon to finish the forms. I built a small box to go around the floor drain. I’m not sure exactly what the usual way is for pouring a floor with a drain. I figure that I can pour everything around and up to the form around the drain with enough slope for water that ends up on the floor to head for the drain. Later, I’ll cut the drain pipe at the right level, mix and pour some concrete, and fill the last section of the floor around it.

The next step is to dig a couple inches deeper near the forms for the footer and lay out some rebar in the footers and floor. I don’t think that will take too long. Once that’s done, we can have the ready mix truck come out. The only thing that may interrupt the timing of things is rain. If we get too much rain, I’ll have to wait for things to dry out before the concrete truck can get close enough to the hole. I hope the weather cooperates so we can pour the concrete next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Root cellar: second excavation

On Monday I had a neighbor haul a friend’s backhoe to our place. This is the same backhoe I used a year ago to excavate the root cellar. Since I didn’t get the floor poured and walls built last summer, the winter rains washed a lot of dirt and debris into the hole. I started shoveling it out by hand, but found the task daunting. The backhoe has saved a lot of time.

I was able to move clay-dirt from one pile near the hole on Monday, but then it began to rain. I didn’t work with the backhoe on Tuesday, but yesterday I was able to get at it. It was a little muddy on top still, but I wanted to get the job done.

Today, I plan on finishing with a shovel, moving the dirt left in the hole out of the way. Then, I will begin building the forms for the concrete. If the weather cooperates, we’ll pour and finish the floor next week.

Plaster samples

Two weeks ago, my dad and I worked on some gardening tasks. We had nice weather and the ground dried enough for it to be worked. Gardening tasks are important, and it’s that time of year. My dad has agreed to do a lot of the gardening work in order to free my time for working on the house.

Right now getting the root cellar floor poured and the blocks laid for the walls is what’s standing in the way of significant visual progress on the house. As I’ve been down in the root cellar hole shoveling out dirt that’s washed back in with the rain, I’ve wished greatly that I would’ve been able to have done the concrete and block work last summer. It would’ve saved time right now. I cleaned out about half the washed in dirt a few weeks ago, but you wouldn’t know it now. It actually seems like it’s worse than it was before. I shoveled out a bit last week, but it was frustrating because it was wet and kept sticking to my shovel.

However, as it stuck to my shovel and I complained to no one in particular, it occurred to me that this might actually be a good thing. Why is this dirt sticking so badly? That is one of the properties of clay – it’s sticky. As I continued to grow in height while working in the hole (I had a couple inches of the mucky goo stuck to the bottom of my boots), I became more excited about the possibility that I might be mucking around in the plaster for my straw bale walls.

With this in mind, I collected two samples: one from the bottom of the root cellar hole and another from a pile near the cellar that was excavated from it last spring. I put these samples in jars, added water (and a little salt), shook them vigorously, and left the contents to settle. With this process the larger aggregates and sand settle first, then the silt, and finally the clay (adding salt can help speed up the settling of the clay which can take a long time). Once everything settles, you can determine the relative percentages of the different materials in the soil.

It seems like there is a lot of clay in my samples, so much, in fact, that I cannot clearly determine the lines of demarcation between the different strata. When working with the dirt in my hands, there are clearly some small rocks (aggregate) mixed in, but nothing too bad.

The next thing to do was to try making some sample batches of plaster with this dirt. I brought some up the hill along with a hay bale from the barn. I cut the bale in half with my chainsaw so that I would have twice the surface area to try out my samples of plaster on. Then, I mixed two batches of plaster using dirt from the pile near the cellar.

For the first batch, I mixed on part dirt, one part washed masonry sand, and one part chopped straw (not pressed into the measure, just loose). I plastered a section of the side of the first half bale with this mix. Then, I mixed the second sample using on part dirt, two parts sand, and one part chopped straw. My younguns helped me put this plaster on another part of the same surface as the first plaster.

The plaster actually felt good, and we enjoyed putting it on the bale. The second batch felt a bit sandier, of course. Both went on nicely. They’re not dry yet, though. So, I haven’t determined for sure their suitability for the walls in the house.

The weather’s a bit cool, so it’ll take a little while for them to dry completely. At that point, I’ll see how well the samples adhered to the bales and check them for other desirable qualities. In the following photos, you can see the texture of the samples and the chopped straw in the plaster. The one on the left is the first batch (one-to-one mix) and the one on the right is the second batch (one-to-two dirt/clay ratio).

It will be really neat if we are able to plaster our walls with dirt harvested from our building site. Previously, I figured that I would buy bags of pottery clay for the walls. This new possible method will save some money and will just be better in many other ways. Even so, in order to get the desired wall color inside our home, the final coat on the walls will probably use kaolin clay bought from the pottery supply store.

 

Digging out the cellar a second time

I should have completed the work on the root cellar last spring or summer, but other things interrupted my plans to do so – things like growing food and making hay. All was well until a couple of months ago after we received a couple of inches of rain in a short while. The amount of rain accelerated the erosion process around the perimeter of the excavation. I expected some of this to happen, but it was more than I wanted to see. Much of the back wall sloughed off into the cellar hole.

Today was a nice 70 degree winter day with pleasant sunshine and a gentle breeze (actually, not much like winter, but we get this days sometimes). So, I spent a couple hours working in the cellar, beginning the process of excavating the extra dirt. I’ll probably have a few sore muscles tomorrow, but even so I plan to continue with the process. I’d like to get it done so that I can proceed to the other tasks associated with completing the cellar. The first one of those after excavating will be forming and pouring a footer for the block wall.

I began today’s work by driving some boards into the sloughed off dirt, hoping they will help hold it and keep more from falling into the hole. I drove them down to the original bottom of excavation and am placing boards horizontally behind them. Then, I began shoveling dirt out, working from one corner across the back. The vertical edge of dirt I’m leaving ought to work as the back side of the form I’ll build for the footer. I’ll have to arrange something to keep more dirt from falling into the area I’ve excavated.

I’ve thought a lot about how to complete the cellar. My plan right now is to dig out the extra, unwanted dirt. Then, I’ll build a form for a footer under the block wall I’ll lay. I’ll mix concrete by hand for the footer. Once it’s set, I’ll lay the block wall. My idea is that once the wall is up, I’ll have the local ready mix company bring out enough concrete to pour the floor (leveled off from the edges of the footer) and to fill several of the voids in the block wall along the back of the cellar. This will will experience most of the stress of all the walls, and I would like it to be reinforced.

Once it is warm enough and the ground is dry enough to allow a concrete truck down the hill and next to the house, I hope to have everything done so that the cellar can be finished.

The digging continues . . .

Yesterday was a beautiful day with temperatures in the mid-70s. So, I had some more shovel work to do.

Before I began on digging for the block wall footer, I had six fruit trees to put in the ground. We ordered several fruit trees from Adams County Nursery along with four other families, because, if you order 25 or more trees, the price per tree is basically cut in half. As it ended up, the price for each tree averaged right at $12. And, these are nice trees, too. We ordered several from them two years ago and will order some more this fall for next spring.

I used the post hole digger to help dig the holes for the fruit trees. While I had the tractor running, I went ahead and dug a series of holes along the east side of the house to help with digging for the footer on that side, as it was to be the next side to be completed. After getting the trees all set, I started digging. In the photo you can see my older son helping out. He and his younger brother have helped with the digging and moving dirt from the trench. The concept of digging is one that they seem to love, but when it comes to it being a form of work, they have a much more difficult time. I had already dug out the trench around the corner at the time I took the picture.

I had several sore muscles from my digging the day before, but I figured the soreness would work itself out as I continued with what needed to be done. So, I dug for several hours. It's a slow process when you have to move tons of dirt a shovel-full at a time, but it does get the job done. By the end of the day, I had completed the east side and along the front of the house. I still have sore muscles today, but that just goes along with such work.

About ten feet from the front of the house, I stepped the depth of trench down eight inches. The house is on a slightly sloping site, and I dug the trench along the back as deep as I reasonably could (about 30 inches or so). I want to keep the footer deep enough along the sides and front, and that requires that I make them at least one block deeper there.

As I've been digging, I've decided against a rubble trench with a drain. The ground here drains very well -- there was no moisture below the first few inches, and we've had enough rain recently that if there was a problem with drainage it should've been apparent. So, I'll just pour a footer along the bottom of the trench to lay the concrete blocks on.

As I contemplate digging the root cellar and terracing the hill behind the house, I'm wishing for a backhoe. I may see about hiring some of this work done. Although it will cost money, it will also save some time and a lot of work.

Using a "misery spoon"

I finished the trim on the front of the cupola this morning. That didn't take long. So, I started on the next part of the project: digging a trench around the frame.

It was afternoon before I started digging. I drove to my friend Gill's house this morning to borrow his pto-powered post hole digger. I used it when digging for the pier footings two years ago. With the 12" auger, it helps to loosen the soil, making the digging easier. So, I borrowed it to use it for this part of the foundation.

I started on the back of the house. This will be the deepest trench because there is a slope toward the front. The only problem was that I couldn't get the tractor behind the house to use the auger except on the ends. The hill that rises just behind the house was too steep for me to comfortably maneuver the tractor and auger into position. I had to accept being able to drill three holes on each end.

I worked for about 3 hours with the shovel, a tool that someone once called a "misery spoon" for good reason. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow. I expect I'll work out some of the soreness while digging. The trench for the footer that will be under the concrete block wall I'm putting there must go all the way around the house.

The foundation for this will will employ a rubble trench. I'm going to put rock and a perforated pipe for a drain in the bottom of the trench, and then more rock. On top of the rock I will pour a rebar reinforced concrete bond beam six or eight inches thick. Upon this I will lay concrete blocks to the desired height. This concrete wall will help support the straw bale walls and the inner side of the wrap around porch.

In addition to the trench, I'm going to dig for a root cellar. This will be located under the pantry and mudroom. Then, I need to terrace the hill behind the house before I can frame the porch because the hill is in the way. Originally, there wasn't going to be a porch on the back, but there is now, and I've got to move some of that hill. It can be done with a shovel, one scoop at a time.

More digging to do tomorrow, and the next nice day, and the next, and . . .