Formwork and Plumbing

Wow . . . I'm almost glad to come back to work after such a tiring weekend. Adam and I spent 12 hours working on our site Saturday, 8 hours on Sunday, and about 7 hours Monday. We're sore and tired - but made a lot of progress.

We stopped by to look at the formwork on Friday night - it looks great and we're very excited to have some wood in place on our lot.


We got out to the land at 7:30 am on Saturday. We checked the dimensions on the form boards to make sure it was right. We found one mistake - but it should be easy to fix. Then, we checked all our interior footings and pads. We had to adjust these a bit in some places, but they were overall in the right place. Then, we began to scrap the grass/weeds off our dirt. In our inactivity and rain the last few weeks, the green stuff crept up on us. So, we sprayed Round-Up everywhere, then dug it up with a shovel and removed it with a rake. Not too fun - but it worked. We also picked up trash and some tree debris and put it in the dumpster. This was Clint's job and he did great! He moved a whole tree by himself, and didn't want any breaks. We checked the elevations and moved more dirt. Then, we compacted the whole foundation again. Thus, Saturday ends with blisters and dirt everywhere.

Clint moving the tree.

Our dumpster and portolet.

Our Doc Box.

Formwork from the master bedroom corner.

Formwork from the front porch and hall bath.

Compacting the dirt.

Adam and I stopped by before church for a little bit to start marking wet-walls for the underground plumbing. After church, we researched our plumbing fixtures and marked dimensions on the plumbing drawing. Then, we got to the land and started digging plumbing trenches through the house. We started with the sanitary line. This has to have a slope of 1/4" for every 1 foot. This makes the line about 30" deep by the time it exits the house. So, we measured, ran string lines, and dug some more.

Trench for the Sanitary line.

The hired help (Adam and his dad) hard at work. I dug some too - but, admittedly, they did most of the grunt work.

I take a peak at the sanitary pipe.

Adam came out there Monday morning to do some more digging by himself. We had a family get together for Memorial day with Adam's mom's side. It was a very nice break and a fun time. But, afterword, it was time to get back to work. We picked up a couple things from Lowe's and started digging some more - checking to make sure we had the right slope. Finally, about 7 pm, we started laying out plumbing fittings and cutting pipe. We laid out the main line and the y's that branch off - for about 40 feet. We packed up about 9:30 last night.

A much deeper trench at the right slope - ready for pipe!

Adam used his truck as a work bench to cut the pipe.

The plumbing fittings laid out.

Starting to set the pipe in place. We did more - but it got too dark for photos.

It's been a long weekend, but the work's not done yet. We plan on getting out there after work every day this week. We hope to finish the sanitary lines tonight and do the supply lines later this week. Then, Adam will need to run the electrical conduit - he will be our electrician as well. Then, we need an inspection. The concrete guy will place the rebar, visqueen, and wire mesh - and then we'll place the concrete. We hope to place it next week. Yay!