The Big Dig

grumpy wrote:
Oh yeah, big ones..

This is big footer, re-barred as well which was beyond code. The really wide part is for the chimney.

out here 8" wall needs 24" wide footer...

Those are 12's except the top one. like I said it's almost 3 foot across is some places. The contractors point was he could spend just as much on the concrete as he would hauling around and setting up forms, make sense to just pour a bigger footer. The original plan had been all the 12's would be under ground with two courses of 8's for knee wall. That got changed and is actually the reason for this image because we needed to see the height . We ended up building a bit of retaining wall because of the elevation. They had to retrofit vertical rebar into the footer and filled the entire wall all the way around with crete. As I understand it this is built for two story structure but it's only single story.

I'm still tripping, but I call this money well spent. And keep in mind they will dig down another three feet for a nine foot joist to floor.. Then I will have a lot of work to do.

Are we on an extended break? Lets see the progress!

Good question Jeff. Hope he didn't run himself over w/ that fancy diggin machine.

Well Ok, I stopped posting because there didn't seem to be much interest. Anyway I have been on the road but thanks to Greg who stopped by the house today to check things out I have the latest photos, Thanks Greg !

It's about to get deeper..

Looking better my friend & yep, deeper she goes. Hey Greg, you coulda done some digging.

Getting there. My son says it looks like a cave. A coworker of mine dug half of his out by hand and 1 five gal. pail at a time. He gave up after getting about half of it done.

here on the cape you could never get that close to the foundation...
without collapse...
had to dig out half of the front foundation by hand...
used an excavator to pull it out of the hole...
back cottage had a walk out...
just barrowed it out...

Update

http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc495/greg129 ... ?start=all

Now that's what we're talkin about. Lookin good my friend.

Makes me want to start digging mine out .... but I'd be too tempted to leave it all dirt, with no concrete.

I'd have to go down an extra foot and fill that in with crushed stone - otherwise I'd have a REAL swamp down there. You normally hit water on this property just 4' down.

Then there's the hourly rate for a bobcat ......

On second thought, I think I'll leave well enough alone.

Really, The boards work good don't they?? Suggestion on how to save money on Bobcat rental. the house should land back on the foundation don't ya think???

Ahhh no. The house is barely on the foundation as it is.

Have a looky at this!