Digging the Foundation Footing

The lot we have is fairly sloped and was going to require a fair amount of fill in the south east corner of the building. When I stood at the location of the the corner of the house after the hole had been dug, I realized that with a 4' frost wall, backfilling the rear yard would be impossible. We therefore opted to step the footing and backfill to 4'. The foundation wall will then have about 3.5' exposed.

In any case, the wall would have to be stepped and stepped in several places. Armed with our plan we had the surveyor mark the foundation corners. We started digging and taking grades with the transit as we went. The digging went smoothly. all the rock that we brought in for the pad was excavated and placed in the centre where it will be used to fill in the foundation for the slab.

The footings are now completely dug out and have been "tracked in" using the excavator. Tomorrow I will tamp the footing areas for a couple of hours so we have a good stable base for the footings. The surveyor will mark the final positions for the foundation and we will start forming for the footing on Wednesday....weather pending!

Comments

Building the Air Tight Barrier: Door Flashing Details.

It took us a while to wrap our heads around the door details on my plans. The main exterior wall is composed of 2x8s. The rough stud opening was substantially larger than the door. Because the walls are much deeper than a standard door frame for a 2x6 wall, the interior of the 2x8 opening was studded with double 2x4s. Outside of these 2x4s, there is 1.5" of foam and another 2x4 on face which brings the door frame opening flush to the exterior 3" of EPS foam. The brick mould of the door will sit against the exterior of the wall. The ganged 2x4s which define the opening will allow the door to open a little further than that of a 2x8 wall. With the door details finalized, I had to flash the opening as per the plan. I specified the size/shape for aluminum sill pans and CBS Eavestroughing made them for me. The sill pans have a kind of end dam to prevent water from entering under the under the stud opening should the door ever leak. (Photo 1-1). After verifying t

Choosing an HRV...My Thoughts....

So, which HRV do you want for your home? This is a question not often asked by the homeowner. When the house is built, somebody installed an HRV and that was it. The home owner is rarely involved in anything other than turning a knob on the HRV wall control if they dare fool with it at all. An HRV is probably one of the most important appliances in your house; it expels moisture, eliminates odours, evacuates stale air from bathrooms, provides clean air to keep you healthy and it recovers a lot of heat that would have otherwise been blown out through the vent on the house. It serves three main functions: 1. Supplies the home with fresh dry air. 2. Removes stale air and removes excess moisture. 3. Recovers heat or heat/moisture For a low energy home we need an HRV that is as efficient as possible. With the ventilation unit taking care of exchanging most of the air in the building, having an efficient one will pay for itself in the energy saved over it's lifetime. Zeh

Introducing: The Flatrock Passive House

So...after 8 1/2 years in our home, we have decided to move on. Well, not right away! We have quite a bit of planning ahead of us. With the likely onset of a 233% hike in the cost of electricity from Muskrat Falls (when compared to todays rate of $0.0972/kWh) we decided it was time to take energy consumption seriously before its too late to do anything about it. The land has been acquired, the planning has started! I am planning on nipping my energy bill in the bud before it becomes a major sinkhole in my pocket book. Upon investigating current building standards, I realized that the Canadian Building Code is below the standards necessary to really make a difference in energy consumption. There are some standards like R2000 which can make a difference to total energy usage. A R-2000 home can use up to 50% less heating energy compared to a code built home; if built properly! A blower door test will reveal the truth about that. Now....Imagine living in a home where you have em

Flatrock Passive House: A Passive House in Newfoundland

Search This Blog