Saturday, November 6, 2010

Taking The Forms Off And Back Filling

After finishing the stonework, we had a date with the scaffolding one more time. We had to get all those forms off. It took some time but it felt good to be done with form work for the year.

Now that the walls are up we decided we better get the back filling done before winter rears its ugly head. The code book has a chart containing the R-Value and dimensions of the insulation required for frost protected shallow foundations. The chart references the amount of heating degree days in your area. You don't have to understand heating degree days, just be able to read a map.

We put in a loop of drain pipe around the footing to drain water away from the foundation. In order to maintain the right slope, our method was to snap a chalk line and then make a ridge out of gravel to rest the pipe on. It worked pretty well.

We also insulated the berm wall.

Then we called on Jenn's Uncle Tom to help us out once again. It was only fitting that the man that made the hole, filled it in.

He did a great job and this is what it looked like at the end of the day.

Here's our stonework with the forms removed and the sand washed off.


1 comment:

  1. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your work! It is amazing~~Will be looking at this when we go to work on our slipform basement build, AND our masonry fireplace~~WOOHOO! Thanks for sharing your journey. I am chronicling our log home build at www.therearecowsinthekitchen.com if you want to check it out. We haven't started digging yet, but in the next few weeks, we should begin! SCARY!

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