New Concrete Slab Is Poured

Yesterday the the concrete slab was poured while I was at work. I didn't get to see to floor getting poured (unfortunately) nor (even more interestingly) see the guys that were brought in to float the floor (i.e. get that super smooth and very level surface to the concrete floor). I was told it took about 6 hours in all. Today it was safe to walk on my new floor but it will take about 30 days in all to cure properly. My new foundation is now essentially done! Next step will be to work on the framing.

Installing The Radiant Heating

The workers finished laying the pex tubing for the radiant heating today. There was a fair bit of prep work which took most of last week to complete: first they put down a bed of gravel across the whole floor; they then installed a high tech insulation product (the white layer in the picture) that ensures that the heat is reflected into the room; after that a metal grid was tied together not only serving as a structure to attach the pex but also to reinforce the concrete slab that will be poured on Monday. The heating system driving the radiant floor will be an on-demand hot water system that not only provides the house with hot water but also the floor.

Restoring The Siding

The carpenters also started to repair the siding to the rear of the house and over the concrete foundation this week. The rear of the house needed the most attention as most of the siding was severely damaged when the rear deck was taken down. This stuff is expensive at more than $4/linear foot. The large opening at the rear of the house is for the new French doors that will be installed later.

The Strong Wall

The two vertical metal sheets on either side of the bay windows form the strong wall for the bay window. These vertical reinforced metal sheets are corrugated for strength and have been bolted to the concrete foundation. They were custom designed by my structural engineer to add additional strength to the bay window as part of the seismic upgrade. Apparently bay windows (and garages) are among the weakest structural elements and risk collapse during severe earthquakes. This was a relatively cheap fix at about $3,000 since the walls were already open.

Restoring The Facade

The carpenters needed to remove the facade above the ground floor windows to allow for the metal i-beams through to support the floor joists below the second floor when the house was lifted (refer to my earlier post on lifting the house for pictures). Today the carpenters put back the architectural details that they carefully removed. A few pieces were damaged during the removal which they will have to fabricate by hand.

The Plumbing

Now that the foundation is in place the plumbers went to work this week putting in the cast iron sewage drains that needed to be installed before work on the concrete slab started (and the radiant heat floor for that matter). What you see in the picture is the drainage for the new bathroom on the ground floor. The pipe on the left is for the shower, the one in the middle for the sink and the one on the right is for the toilet. The pipes have been wrapped in polystyrene to protect the pipes during the concrete pour.

Broken Porch

I wish I could say that the lifting of the house went completely without a hitch... but I can't. When the house was lowered the porch almost broke clean away from the rest of the house. The problem was that sometime over the life of the house, the infrastructure supporting the porch had been hacked away and in the end there really wasn't much holding it up. As you can see in the picture, the posts (particularly the one on the left) have come completely loose. What you can't see in the picture is that the builders had to secure the porch in place (temporarily) by wrapping rope around the top of the porch and tying it to my house and that of my neighbor. The cost of repairing the porch falls under the "unforeseen expense's" category all homeowners face in home renovation. Oh well.