Foundation

Getting the foundation installed was a pretty stressful job. Nearly all of the work had to be hired out to other people, and we spent a lot of time being the general contractors: lots of phone calls, scheduling work around the many dependencies, etc. This foundation required extra care because our hillside has a very high water table. So we spent lots of money on crushed stone to be used liberally under and around the foundation.

The first step was to mark out the corners of the future house after the excavator (a neighbor who owns lots of machinery) had scraped a small amount of dirt away from the site:

Then the excavator dug the hole and the foundation crew came in to pour the footings, and then a few days later, set up forms for pouring the walls:

At this stage we had to make sure that all of the planned exit holes (for plumbing and electrical) had their locations figured out so that the foundation crew knew where to put paint cans in the walls. These cans would be punched out later, after the concrete was poured, so that pipes could be fitted through the holes.

After the walls were poured, we had the plumber come out and place the septic drain pipes that were going to be under the basement slab. We also installed pipes for floor drains, in the unlikely event that the basement got flooded in the future, and constructed a wooden box around the drain for a future basement shower. Then the excavator came back and brought loads of crushed stone into the site under the future basement slab. My partner spent many hours raking the crushed stone so it was level and ready for the slab.

The foundation crew came back a few days later and laid down blue board (2 inch styrofoam) on top of the crushed stone:

Then the plumber returned to lay down radiant heating tubes, stapled to the foam:

We are not sure how or whether we’re going to use radiant heat in the basement, but we thought it best to plan for the possibility. So we have five radiant zones plumbed in case we need them.

Finally the foundation crew came back one last time to pour the basement slab:

But before they could do that, we had to cut and place a sill plate (a pressure treated 2x10) on the edge of the foundation at the walkout basement end. You can see the sill plate in the foreground; it’s bolted to the foundation and overhangs the edge of the concrete wall by 3.5 inches, as will all of the sill plates used in the house.

As you can see, there’s a lot of coordination and planning that has to take place before the actual house building can begin.