As other contractors drive slowly by our house with their heads turned to the side, this man and his crew work steadily on getting the ECO-Block forms for our walls done.
Meet Brian. He's been an international trainer for ECO-Block installations and he recently went back to doing what he loves, building ICF houses. Brian and his crew have been working hard since last week with excellent weather supporting their work. With all of our windows and doors selected he has just about everything (sorry, we're still working on that rough opening for window C) to finish building the forms for our house. See the picture gallery for more pictures of the walls going up.
At last, this theoretical thing we've been working on for three years is finally starting to look like an actual house. I would be remiss without mentioning that each day when they finish their work, the site looks neater than my house will probably look when it's finished.
Our ECO-Block materials are being delivered this morning and the wall forms will start going up very soon! For details on how the walls are going together, visit our January post on ICF. It explains how the walls are assembled and then filled with concrete.
Because so many people have started asking, I'll be posting a list of vendors on the right side of this blog shortly. Starting of course with our brillant contractor, Rick Vinyard.
Here is a picture of some of the smoothest concrete I've ever seen. It's really beautiful. The pour went off really well today and as you can see Rick's team did a wonderful job preserving our slab for scored and stained concrete floors. With our slab done and ready to go, the Eco-Block materials are being delivered tomorrow and Rick estimates our exterior walls (weather permitting) will be done in 2 - 3 weeks.
We've been blessed with some beautiful weather, especially today when the unseasonably cool weather made the air just a bit drier than usual allowing our concrete to set up flawlessly.
In a highly regarded abundance of caution, awesome builder R
ick Vinyard delayed our concrete pour until next Tuesday. His concern was about the rough weather scheduled to pass through the area tonight on the leading edge of a "cold" front. High winds and rain are expected and that could mar the surface of the concrete making an impact on our scored and stained concrete floors.
The wire forms for the post-tension slab are in place and Kenny, the guy from Post-Tension Slabs, Inc., was putting the finishing touches on today thanks to some engineering re-reviews by Rick and co. For more information on post-tension slab creation, visit the Post-Tension Slabs, Inc. website.
More pictures from today are in the slideshow gallery.
Our slab form was inspected yesterday and we are ready to go on pouring concrete. If the weather cooperates, we'll get the slab poured this week. In talking with Rick yesterday, he explained to me in more detail how the slab was going to work. In what is called a "post-tension" slab, those trenches you see in the picture are going to become concrete beams. Wire is run throughout them and pressure is put on the wire to pull them as supports for the slab. It's an amazingly strong foundation, which every house should be built on.
So today I went by the lot after Leadership Class and the VIPS Golden Apple Picnic (sorry, didn't have my camera handy), and there was a ton of wire and re-bar run throughout the form. It's supposed to rain later in the week, so I wouldn't be surprised if Rick was ready to pour concrete before Friday. Rick and his team must be exhausted because they've really been working hard these past two weeks!
I had not been out to the site since the last post in March, thinking it was going to take Rick's team longer to get the land ready. However, blessed with the gift of relatively good weather, Rick's team has been rocking and rolling on getting the slab ready to pour. Hopefully his team will be pouring concrete next Friday, April 11.
Here's a picture of the form for the slab being pieced together by Rick's team. We also finished all of our window selections this week, nailed down the plumbing fixtures and have already done all of the paint colors for the interior. We're finalizing some guidance for the electrical contractor this week for placement of the floor outlets in the gameroom and any additional outside stubs we may want before they pour the slab next week. After all this time of our house being purely theoretical (on paper and in our heads), it was really exciting to see some actual forms in the ground!
Keep checking back... if the weather cooperates, we'll keep moving along quickly.
