Back to Work! Starting on the Engineered Footers

Back to Work! Starting on the Engineered Footers

It is March and they are finally working on our house again! Woo Hoo!

The last time they were out there was on January 17th. We got the Engineer’s Excavation Report on January 22nd and gave them an additional check to keep going. We pulled money out of the retirement account to cover any additional expenses. But since then it has rained and rained and rained.

New Very Large Back Hoe
New Very Large Back Hoe and Look! Blue sky!

We got a call Friday that the forecast looks good and they are getting to work. We drove out there and they already had new equipment and the first few loads of gravel delivered.

Cliff standing on our gravel mountains
Cliff standing on our gravel mountains

They already told us everything they are going to do: Excavation Report – Engineered Footings >

Sad footers all caved in and full of water.
Sad footers all caved in and full of water.

The footers are caved in and full of water, but now we are finally going to move forward!

The new back hoe is much bigger, so it can straddle the footers to re-dig them.
The new back hoe is much bigger, so it can straddle the footers to re-dig them.

They brought a very large back hoe. They leveled the area around the footers and filled in part of the footers so that they could drive the back hoe out to start digging the footers all over again.

A pump sucking and the back hoe scooping to get the water out of the footers.
A pump sucking and the back hoe scooping to get the water out of the footers.
Pumping water out of the footers
Pumping water out of the footers

They scooped with the loader and used a pump to get the water out of the footers. It is cold and we are having 30 to 50 mph winds.

The fabric liner to create the engineered footers
The fabric liner to create the engineered footers

This is the liner that they will wrap the gravel in to create our whole house French drains.

More gravel, 144 tons of gravel in all.
More gravel, 144 tons of gravel in all.

They have delivered a lot more gravel. We will have 144 tons of gravel in the footers.

They plan to work through the weekend to try to get this done during the break in the weather. The sky is still blue!

Next: Progress on Re-Digging the Footers >