Our concrete floor contractor was scheduled for the first week of November, but with the rain delays on the roofing we had to put him off a while. Now he's getting anxious because he needs to plan his work too. We promised him that the floor area would be ready by Wednesday, November 16, for him to begin setting rebar and laying out for the floor. Before that happens we have to finish all our below the floor stuff. Our drain and waste plumbing has to be installed, inspected, and reburied. Our water line and electric conduit from the well to the utility closet has to be in. The combustion air duct for the wood stove has to be installed. And lastly, we have to install a radon mitigation system consisting of 4 inches of round gravel with vent pipes in it, and covered by 6-mil plastic. That's a lot of stuff to finish by Tuesday. Go like heck.

Here are the recent photos, beginning with a couple of morning shots showing where we started the week. .

We finished the roof on Thursday afternoon. Just when I thought I might get an hour's rest the gravel guy who had promised us a load of bedding sand by "9 or 10 tomorrow" phoned at 7:00 AM wanting to deliver it immediately. We got out to the land, told him where to dump the sand, and had just enough time to get our shop and other stuff out of the building before the next work began. The backhoe contractor showed up at noon to start the excavation for drain and waste lines. It's a big house. Drive right in and start digging. In this photo Brad is holding a tape measure to check the depth of the trench.

There is about 140 feet of 4 inch sewer line in the house. A sloping trench has to be dug from the west side to the east side, and then turn north to where it exits the east side to connect with the outside sewer. Side branches go to various bathroom and kitchen fixtures and floor drains. In the background of this photo you can see the pile of bedding sand with the wheelbarrow ready. The diagonal line in this photo is one of the "X" cross braces that hold the structure square. You can see them better in some of the other photos.

On Sunday morning we find that it's snowing, but our new steel roof is keeping us dry. We're expecting the weather to warm up this week. By "warm up" we mean near 40 in the afternoons with occasional sunshine and little rain.

We worked all weekend trying to get the site ready for the concrete contractor to have the building on Wednesday. Here is the main sewer line going toward the center of the east side and out to the disposal system.

Here is the plumbing for the guest bathroom, the temporary laundry, and the kitchen. We are leaving the west 3/4 of the house unfinished initially, and intend to move the west 1/4 as soon as it's done.

We extended the main sewer line to the west end where the future master bathroom will be. We are leaving it without any branches at present.

We had the backhoe dig a trench from the well to the house so we can install a pipe stubbed up through the concrete floor. Naturally the ditch uncovered a stream of water that flooded the ditch. 480 feet of well, and the ditch fills up with a stream.

We put perforated drain pipe and drain rock in the foundation excavation before we backfilled it. Until today it didn't go anywhere. While the backhoe was digging we had a ditch dug from the SE corner to install the outlet for any ground water or rainwater that fills up our drain lines.

On Monday afternoon we rented a Bobcat skid steer loader. Here Justin is filling in the plumbing ditches. We spent all of Tuesday filling in and leveling the ground inside the building.

After backfilling the plumbing we spent most of a day regrading and leveling the dirt inside the house. Justin got pretty good at scraping off an inch here and adding an inch there.

We had a bit of extra dirt in the house so we added it to our road to cover rocks. Here Brad levels the driveway.

Once the dirt is filled and level it has to be compacted. Compaction prevents future settling which would crack the concrete or cause some part of the floor to sink. Here is Brad running a vibrating plate compactor.

The building code here now requires radon ventilation. We have to put 4 inches of small round rock, like pea gravel, under the slab. Buried within the round rock has to be a perforated pipe connected to a vent pipe that will go to the top of the roof. In the old days houses had natural ventilation (drafts) that brought in fresh air. Now the codes want houses to be built so tight that toxic fumes build up inside. The radon ventilation rock costs thousands of dollars, mostly for delivery charges on the rock. At least it will give water vapor somewhere to go, so eventually the ground under the slab will dry out. That's one thing useful I can see from the cost.

Justin did most of the spreading and smoothing of the radon rock. Here he buries the vent pipe. It took 2 days to spread and level gravel, 7 loads, 12 yards per load. We didn't finish in 2 days, and 3 days rental of the Bobcat is the same as the week rate, so we're keeping it for a week.

By Thursday we have the floor shaped up, graded level, compacted, and a layer of 6 mil poly plastic covering it. The concrete flatwork contractor will be here Friday morning to install rebar and prepare his floor work. We will not be as frantic the next few days. The concrete floor man gets the building for about a week. We could do some outside trim and such but it will be a much needed rest with some slack time to catch up on paperwork and procurement.

In our rush to get moved in as quickly as possible we are not going to construct the master bathroom until next spring. In order to facilitate the delay we have blocked out the floor in the portion of the building that will eventually get underground sewer and drain pipes. Sometime after we have moved in we can finish the west part of the building. For now it's a blockout in the floor.

On Friday the concrete subcontractor's crew installed #3 rebar on 36 inch spacing each way, and they installed saddles for their grade bars. We came along after they were done and added some additional #4 bar ourselves. Two extra bar tie across from each pair of beams. We're going to put fiberglass in the concrete in addition to the steel bars to be really strong.

Here is another picture of the floor with rebar waiting for concrete.

A mat of #4 bar adds strength to the center of the east end in front of the large doorway where cars or delivery trucks might drive in. It took us an hour or so to add our bars. There isn't much of anything we can do in the house now until 3 days after the concrete is placed. We can do a little work outside, but we're catching up on rest, procurement, and paperwork.