Feel the burn

On Monday I called Steve from Atlantic and he came out with a batch of concrete. We slugged buckets around to the top of the wall and filled in the bond beam course. The bond beam was prepared with rebar and anchor bolts tied into position.

The bolts weren't firmly affixed, so many needed to be adjusted just after pouring to ensure they were plumb and at proper height. We poured just below the top edge of the wall, so I can place a skim coat of mortar on top to smooth it out. That would be done already, but..

I managed to cover myself in concrete from slugging around buckets of it. That concrete soaked through my clothes and got onto my skin. It was a hot load, and I got some bad chemical burns on my stomach and leg. I've been cooped up at home since then.

So, next up is to top off the wall with mortar, then mark out perfect square for the sill to lay along, then lay the plates, build the floor. Then I can waterproof below grade, place rigid foam, set the drain pipe, backfill with gravel & dirt.

And keep hot loads off my skin from now on..

on to the hole

today, with the blocks adequately dry from the previous rains, i laid the 6th and final bond beam course on the left, rear, and right walls. tomorrow, i'll fill in the hole at the front door wall.

i'll wait a bit between setting each course, to avoid overly compressing the bed joints of previous courses. i suppose i'll cut and bend rebar for the bond beam during the down times.

the corners of the bond beam are very tight, which will require tight rebar bends. the rebar bending setup used for the foundation does not produce bends of adequately small radius.. i'll have to modify the bender to give tighter bends. i think this is doable. supports around the bending bolt to prevent the bending section from bowing out, combined with some method of preventing the bar from sliding during the bend. a clamp should work. *fingers crossed*

a 40% chance of showers wednesday.. i'll have to cover the walls with plastic to keep the bond beam from becoming an elevated moat.

as of today, i've been working on laying the block foundation wall for three weeks. sheesh.. someone remind me to pour the walls on the next foundation!

kitchen window oops

i just created basic outlines of all windows and doors in sketchup, to get an idea of how they size up visually. then, i noticed there wasn't much space under the kitchen sink window. i measured downstairs - the countertops here top out at 36". plus space for backsplash, a good rough opening position would be 42". if the rough opening top is at 80" (which i assume the windows will all be at) then that window can only be 38" in height, not the 42" i spec'd. whoops.

bond beam on approach

currently, five courses of block are up and i've set about half of the bond beam corners. it was a little rainy today so i couldn't get as much done as I'd like. hope tomorrow's weather is better.

i found the tripod i was using for the laser is too unsteady. with the laser set upon one of the central piers, a clean, steady line is visible on my framing square from just the right angle. the bond beam corners i've set so far are with 1/8" of each other. excellent.

this morning i cut out the corners for the bond beam course. i used single corner block and scored them with a diamond blade in a 4.5" angle grinder. then i whacked them with a mason's chisel and a rubber mallet. a few blocks broke during the process. lots of dust during the cutting.

i also had to cut down the vertical rebar to the proper height at points. i only cut those necessary today, i'll cut the rest with a proper face mask tomorrow.

slowly but surely..