How to Waterproof Your Foundation
Well now that the foundation if poured and has been left to sit a few days the forms were pelled back and voila, we have a foundation and things are going to start to go quickly now.
A couple of things that should be tended to now. Waterproofing. Basic waterproofing is done by spraying on a tar substance on to the foundation just below the sill. The going rate around our parts was $ 1000.
You will also notice that the french drain has been covered with 3/4 clean stone, prior to the stone a 10 mm plastic was laid to prevent any sill from sifting threw and cloging the french drains. These drains are not the typical corugated ones that are typically used with a sock to prevent sill, this one uses a smoth run of pipe since we will be including clean outs due to Red Ochre in the area.
Here are the clean out pipes installed.
Once all of this is done we jst have to back fill to the foundation withthe existing excavated land fill. Now on next to the real nitty gritty..building.
Pouring Your Foundation – Make It or Break It !
Well its the start of the real deal. Its foundation time. A couple of things to remember.
1. Ensure that your boundaries are well calculated so that the positionning of the foundation is acurate and within the city limits of encrochement.
2. Personally go over the measurements with your surveyor, and be on site when your footings are placed, they will be calculating the positionning themselves.
We had the surveoyor comme back on site once the footing bases were setup to make certain of the accuracy of the layout. We were off by a 1/16th of an inch ! The reason we were so pertrified is that the encrochement we had do to the size of the home was 6 inches either way. That is what our allowance for error was.
Once the forms are up its time to pour the cement. Your cement supplier will recommend the hardness of the cement to use or MPH value. They will test it upon arrival. We had to call in a pump as well to be able to pipe the cement in the form cavbities an additional expense usually about $ 800 for 4 hours.
The next day you can see that the guys came early and pelled back the forms and the foundation is exposed and the new phase starts.
You will notice the rebar sticking out of the foundation, this is for the cold room, in order to be able to pour a cement top and tie into the top of the form that will be built. Actually we have 2 cold rooms once in front as well under the porch. An addtional expense that you should review seriously before going that route.
Concrete Crack Repairs – How to Avoid Them
Basement concrete crack repairs can be avoided if the footings and foundation are well drained and engineered. The plans that were drawn up that we spoke about earlier, should have been drawn by a professional and stamped by them as well. A requirement by most cities prior to most construction today.
In this photograph that I took, you can see how large the footings are. They should be, since the foundation will be 10 inches thick. That’s a lot of cement to hold up. These footing were engineered to support the foundation in order to avoid any concrete crack repairs in the future. Re-bar was strategically placed in the footings, as well as the foundation ( particularly the basement windows ), to avoid any issues long term with premature concrete crack repairs.
As well if you look closely you can see the white french drains that connect to the sump pit via black corrugated plastic pipe. The sump pump pit then evacuates any water away from the foundation walls and collects it and sends it on its way out to the city pluvial below the street. Ours is gravity fed no need for a sump pump here what a relief.
The bobcat is spreading the 3/4 clean crushed stone around the foundation floor area to accept, at its appropriate time, the cement for the basement floor. In the upper right hand side you can see the garage which is just sand. To avoid any significant concrete crack repairs there, we used an ultra clean fine sand in addition to the coarse sand available on site that can condense and pack extremely well with the help of water and a Caterpillar with a hammer plate that pounds the area until flat and strong, ready to accept a strong cement with high MPH.
Another issue in our area is Red Ochre. It is a naturally present mineral in the ground throughout the world. Once combined with water and oxygen and a certain bacteria it forms a sluge that can block a french drain system if it is continuously flooded with water as some homes are in rather wet areas. Presently most contractor have opted to include french drain clean outs, a small price to pay for the ability to clean your french drain if in deed the Red Ochre becomes present. These clean-outs can be seen as stacks attached and rising vertically up the foundation wall.
All of these precautionary measures are required if you really want to be able to avoid concrete crack repairs in the future.
Pouring Foundation & How to Fix a Bad Pour
A real nightmare if you ask me. This is the reason why you must go with firms that have a proven track record when pouring a foundation. I went with a outfit that did mostly commercial pouring foundations, so the house although large was peanuts for them despite an MPH of 25 and only 3 guys working it from 7:30 Am to 7 PM.
Excavate Your Lot to Build Your Home On
Prior to starting the excavation of the lot we sat down with our designer to establish the height of the top of the foundation relative to the road and the adjoining homes on either side of us. This is crucial. You do not want to be the ugly duckling either to high or too low.
Here is the draft of the height requirement on a sketch we used with the excavator to establish a height. After looking and measuring the homes on either side we sat the foundation in between both at 4 feet providing a nice balance to both.
The process for the excavation starts from the pickets your surveyor has inserted to establish where the foundation is on the lot. Quite simply he stakes out 4 pegs at the four corners of your foundation and writes on the pegs how many feet inward the foundation is from this peg, next to the peg is a piece of steel reebar which is the mark itself. Do not move these pegs they will be useful on a few more occasions as things progress along.
Excavation of Your Home – Steps in the Excavation Process You Need to Follow
During the first steps in excavation of your home you will have several keys things that will have to be completed. One of the first is finding the main city water line and connecting a 3/4 inch copper supply line that will be used to feed the house with potable water. As can be seen by the photo it was excavated below the frost line since being out east we do not want a frozen water line during the winter.
Water main supply line in copper
You will also notice that the line is flexible providing us with the ability to move it into the proper position within the foundation wall to our exact location that we chose prior to the start of the process. The second part of the excavation of your home is connecting the pluvial. Pluvial you say? Our area was somewhat damp and the city imposed that the developer install a pluvial to help the exit of unwanted water around the house helping the french drains be more efficient. Having connected the french drain to the pluvial and having it exit the foundation threw gravity at the proper slope eliminated the need for a sum pump. A back up valve was installed after the exit of the foundation preventing any water from penetrating the house if the city pluvial portion should go wrong.
Pluvial 4 inch connection to city and water main
Once these crucial steps of excavation of our home were completed we started the excavation of the foundation.
First Step Excavating Your Lot
Now that you have your permit and a budget for financing, its time for the first steps in building your own home and that’s excavating your lot. We received 2 quotes and yes I know 3 would have been better but the circumstances were just right let me explain.
At times there is chemistry and issues that dictate you move your project forward. In this case we had received and communicated with a first firm for excavating our lot but he was also interested in doing more then just the excavation.
This firm was one of the several companies that were accredited to install the septic system we had chosen ( Bionest ) a more sophisticated unit that would be appropriate and in keeping with our perk test results. This firm also quoted on the foundation of our proposed bungalow.
Now the more quotes the better, however you have to be able to sort threw the details in quotes to make a sound apples vs apples analysis specifically when excavating your lot. Once his quote came in and after we looked at the details by calculating the cement used and our cost of cement we determined that his price seemed high. So My cousin Allan called a friend who is a major excavator in this area and land developer and provided another rate for excavating the lot and the specific septic system we needed ( Bionest ) as per the perk test results. Well it seemed that the first excavator was nearly $ 7000 more expensive. Needless to say we went with our second choice. He was to start excavating our lot the following week
If you have never seen the detail in an excavation quote ours read like this:
OFFER OF SERVICES
RESIDIENTIAL CONSTRUCTION
Description of Work:
Inclusions:
- Excavation of basement area for the footings of residence.
- Transport of eight loads of stumps to dump included. Extra loads will be charged @ 125.00$ per load.
- Backfilling after cement walls are poured. Rough grading only.
- Installation of the water line from the property line to the basement. Includes 3/4” copper line.
- Supply and installation of the French drain.
- Supply and spreading of gravel (3/4” clean), over the French drain and external perimeter of the footings.
- Supply and spreading of gravel (3/4” clean), around the internal perimeter of the footings leveled with the top of footings (sixty tons included).
- Filling of the garage area, with sand excavated from basement. If the quantities excavated are insufficient, sand will be brought in as an extra charge per load.
- Supply and installation of the septic system, type “Bio-Nest SA-4”, including concrete tank (3.9 cubic meters with prefiltre), septic field of 44 sq. meters and municipal inspection. Pumping station is required according to plan provided but we will try to eliminate the need for a pump if possible. Septic system is as per plan supplied by client’s consulting engineers for four bedrooms.
- Supply and rough grading of two loads of gravel (30 tons included), to facilitate access to job site.
Exclusions:
- Backfilling to final grade condition.
- Surplus quantity of gravel to obtain finished driveway (thirty tons included) or in the basement (sixty tons included).
- Removal and transport of any surplus excavation material OR supply and transport of any surplus material needed on the job site.
- Extra sand to backfill house and septic field.
- Excavation in bedrock or large boulders is to be charged extra.
Method of Payment:
- At completion of backfilling of basement 50%
- Final installation of septic system Balance
Additional Charges:
- Gravel for driveway (60 tons approx) @ $18.50 per ton.
Cost: $1,110.
- Gravel for basement (30 tons approx) @ $20.50 per ton.
Cost: $615.00
- Sand for garage and backfill (250 tons approx) @ $13.00 per ton.
Cost: $3,250.00