Waterproof?

Not it's not monsoon season in Flagstaff yet...but construction progress has gone from a stand still to rapidly moving backward. Things were moving fairly well last week with completion of the block walls and the second round of the waterproofing. On our daily afternoon walk around the lot, we noticed a little puddle of the black tar stuff that seemed to have seeped under the bottom of the block wall. We were curious and asked the builder if that meant that the wall wasn't really sealed if the tar could run from the outside of the wall to the inside. The builder wasn't overly concerned so we decided to investigate further over the weekend.

The little puddle of black tar

Andy shoveled out all of the clinkers (small rocks they dumped in on top of the drain tile) behind the section of the wall where the drip was. We then hooked up a hose to the neighbors spigot and let it run behind the wall on top of the drain tile. A few minutes later we saw water trickling through the wall. Not to the spot where the tar had seeped through, but three other spots a few feet away! This was pretty alarming since those spots appeared to be fine before we saw the water coming through...the natural question was, "how much more of the wall leaks?" Not exactly the waterproof foundation that we paid for!

The water was rapidly trickling through the wall in several spots between the footer and the block wall.

So after stewing over it this weekend, Andy called the builder early this morning to discuss. Steve and Kip were soon out there running water behind the rest of the wall to see how bad the leaks really were. Steve was shocked at the many leaks he found between the footers and block walls. A crew of "Labor Express" folks were out there all day today shoveling out the rest of the clinkers from behind the walls. This is no easy task...it's a very narrow and deep trench between the wall and the cut in the rock. Steve had the waterproofing done in two sessions so that it'd be easier to get the clinkers in over a half built wall instead of a full height wall like we have now.

Buckets and short shovels were scattered around the lot this afternoon. Looks like they at least have another day of digging to go until they expose all of the drain tile.

The pile of clinkers that they dug out today...

We'll see what Steve and the waterproofer come up with for a fix to this one! Another delay in building but this one is worth fixing right to make sure that the basement stays dry (even though we live in the desert, we get plenty of rain to cause a problem during monsoons).


Words of wisdom for those who ever consider building:
#2 - Go ahead and test even the seemingly obvious things about the house yourself. Apparently it's not routine to actually test things like waterproofing. Imagine how bad this could have been had they finished backfilling, grading and started framing! Andy's persistence is good for times like this :)

Taking shape - Foundation progress

Even there have not been any updates the building has progressed (slowly as it may seem!). We're back from traveling and vacation to keep a closer eye on everything. The big hole in the ground is starting to look more like a geometrically shaped perimeter of some sort. The walls definitely make the hole seem smaller though. A quick summary... After the footers were poured, the masons started laying block for the foundation. They work quickly! They stopped halfway up the back wall in order to allow the waterproofing company to come in and treat the bottom half of the wall and do the drain tile. And now they're back to laying the block for the remaining height of the walls. Then on to the slab next (after some more excavation of course).

The footers are finished and drying. All of the re-bar has to be left with the orange caps on top because of the safety hazard.

The big footers and bolts for the steel garage beam are boxed off and protected.

Steve's mason crew is impressive! This was only a day or two of work and they had a good portion of the back wall done.

The angled wall and the fireplace on the front of the house (a little extra challenge with the strange shapes!)

Looks like it's time for another load of block...

All cleaned up and ready for the waterproofing company to come and treat the outside of the foundation walls in order to keep the garage and shop dry (yes it's still important even though we're in the desert).

The joints between the blocks were caulked and then the walls were coated with the waterproof asphalt coating. The green drainage board was then stuck onto the asphalt coating. The narrow area between the dirt and the foundation walls made it a little challenging.

Next they put in a drain tile (PVC pipe with holes on one side) in the bottom of the ditch. The pipe had a sleeve (looked like a long piece of pantyhose) over top of it to keep the dirt out of the holes. Then they filled in over top of the drain tile to the top of the green drainage board with rock.

The masons were back on Friday for more block work. The scaffolding is up to do the higher layers.

Only a few courses below finished floor height. Almost ready for the next round of waterproofing!

Concrete pouring videos

Check out the videos from pouring the footers on Friday

Plans

For those of you curious about the floor plan and the strange shape of the hole in the ground, here are some images of the plans. (You should be able to click on the images to make them larger.)

The main living level.

Andy's (and the dog's) garage/shop space downstairs.

The site plan to show the layout on the lot.

Filling in with concrete

I think we have started to progress upward finally! They poured the concrete for the footers today (I guess it was just filling in part of the hole that they dug, but that counts as upward progress, right?) Andy and I took a long lunch break today so that we could watch. They finished putting in all of the re-bar and the forms to control the concrete and had cleared off some of the mud/dirt/rock that was in the driveway area. The truck was there with the third batch of concrete for the day (took 4 truck fulls in total!). It was interesting to watch the transfer from the truck to the pumper to the hoses. The guys were moving quickly to make it all happen. Steve was out there supervising and moving a shovel around to make everything right. We took some videos to show you how it all happens.

The plumber put in some PVC sleeves for the sewer and water lines to be able to cross through the footers.

The re-bar taking shape on Thursday.

The neighbors have a similar rock flower bed that will blend in well with our planned rock gardens on the front. For now we have a pile of rocks an a bunch of dirt!

The muddy mess after the day of rain/sleet/snow. But it's Flagstaff so it all dries out quickly.

Sunny Friday with some snow on the peaks!

The back crawlspace area.

The massive footer for the stairs.

The bolts on each side of the two car garage that will be used to fasten the steel columns to the footers.

Costa was out at the end of the day and ready to jump into the concrete pits. I thought doggy footprints would be cute in the footers, but she would have been a mess to clean up! I guess wet concrete is something difficult for dogs to understand...


Words of wisdom for those of you crazy enough to ever consider building a house:
#1 - Hire an ARCHITECT to do your plans. In the end it's not that much more expensive. One person designing the floor plan, doing the structural analysis/engineering, having a cost effective design in mind, and making it all come together is best. It is worth it. In hindsight, many headaches, hours of time, and dollars could have been saved by going the architect route.