August 8th - Pouring Concrete in ICF Walls

Jeff worked just about every day over the past week finalizing the walls to be ready to be filled with concrete. Inspection by the engineer was quick and easy. And, we are fortunate to have become friends with the senior building inspector at the city, which has been helpful. This came about after I had visited the city, dropping off plans and a woman there said, there is a guy here that has a son about Brooke's age. So, his wife and I started spending quite a bit of time together and now we have gotten to know her husband Micah, the inspector. We don't get any special breaks, but he frequently stops by the property just to chat and point us in the right direction and it helps to know we can ask plenty of questions. Anyway, his inspection was no problem as well.

So, finally Friday August 8th we were ready to pour concrete. I got a babysitter for Brooke, we had the ICF guy Russ there to help and oversee, and Jeff hired a few laborors. We were a little stressed that morning that all would go smoothly, both waking up at 3:30 AM in anticipation of the big day. I was supposed to pick up the concrete vibrator and meet Jeff there. Despite getting the wrong size vibrator and having to drive back and switch it and worrying that the laborors weren't going to show up, we were ready. The concrete pumper arrived around 8:30 to prepare to start pumping around 9:00. I helped carry hoses up the hill, which was quite exhausting. Eventually, the laborors showed up and we started to relax a bit.

The pumping began right away. My job was to go around the outsideof the walls as the concrete pumped in and by smacking the foam and listening for hollow vs solid, tell the pumper when to move on and when to pump more so that there wasn't too much in one place at one time.

The laborors helped the pumper maneuver the hoses and the vibrator, Russ and Jeff ran around doing things here and there, overseeing things.

After going through three concrete trucks, we had just a little left to go. All had gone well, no blocks had popped out, which can happen. This was when I had to leave to pick up Brooke. It looked like there was just a little left to do and Jeff would be home shortly.

But, unfortunately they underestimated the amount of concrete needed by only 1/2 a yard. So they had to order another truck. In the meantime, the concrete hose had clogged. The entire concrete pumping crew had to come out and work for quite a while to get the hose unclogged. All in all it took a few more hours than necesary. Everyone was exhausted, but it was done, we had walls!

Next- Removing all the scaffolding and hoisting the support logs to the corners.