LAKE ROESIGER - MITCHEL HOUSE PLAN

Waterproofing the Foundation

With the concrete in we needed to waterproof before putting in our footing drains and backfiling. We hired a company to spray an elastomeric material on the walls the seals off all the cracks and spaces. Then we had them install a drain board. The drain board helps the water so when it comes in contact with the wall it drains easily to the bottom where the footing drains pick it up and drain it around the house. Living in Washington, drainage is very important with the amount of rainfall we get.

Basement Slab

We got a break in the weather and we were able to get our basement slab poured. Andrea and I dug out the footings for our load bearing walls. We found out we over dug the footings and since every wall in the basement is load bearing, we dug out alot of sand and ended up using a lot of concrete. Yeah, 40 yards (4 trucks) of concrete went into our slab, so our house should be plenty solid!

After the slab was poured as screeted, it started raining and the concrete wouldn't set up. We went out to check on it that evening and it looked like the consistency of peanut butter. We were freaking out and called up the concrete guys and they said it was raining so it wouldn't setup. They ended on coming out at 11 pm and working through the night to give us a smooth, slick finish. We plan on staining the concrete and using it as the floor, so we wanted a very nice finish.

Underslab Insulation - Radiant Tubing

In true Washington fashion the rain melted all the snow, so the snow was only around for a few weeks. With the snow gone, we dug the footings for the load-bearing walls, installed the underslab insulation and stapled down the radiant tubing. Now we are ready for the concrete!

2 Feet of Snow

After the sand was in and we compacted it, the plumbers did the groundwork plumbing. The day after the plumbers were finished, it snowed. Then it kept on snowing and we ended up with 2 feet of snow. Since the ground work wasn't buried because it needed to be inspected, we had to insulate the pipes with pipe warmers and insulation so that the water in the pipes wouldn't freeze and ruin the pipes. That was alot of fun.

Sand, Sand and More Sand

After we were finished with the footings and foundation, we had between one and two feet of space we needed to fill to raise the level of the ground before we poured the basement slab. With the location, there was no way to back a dump truck up and dump in it, so we had to "throw" in sand. It was pretty crazy. They load up the sand at the quarry in their truck that has a conveyor belt at the end. Then they just run the belt at a high speed and it throws it where you want it (for the most part . . . we had a lot of sand that didn't quite make it in the hole). The operator just stands there with his remote control and moves the conveyor belt and adjusts the speed to fill in different areas. Much easier than trying to wheelbarrow it, especially since it took 8 loads to fill!