A house is only as strong as its foundation. And Green Oak Farm’s foundation starts with a relatively slim ribbon of concrete. It is 6 inches tall and 2 feet wide. The building rests on these pads.
The basement for the bedroom wing has been dug and a layer of gravel laid as a base. Form-A-Drain was preassembled on the lot, then reassembled in position within the basement. This rectangular, perforated plastic tubing serves as the form for the concrete footings, and, left in place, provides connected interior and exterior foundation drainage. Furthermore, it becomes integral to our radon removal system. This base was allowed to cure, then rebar was set into it vertically. Fox Block ICFs were then placed on the footings, reinforced with horizontal and vertical rebar, and any damaged areas were foamed. Steel plate which will form the base for joist hangers were secured into the foam and plastic webbing of the ICFs. set.
Finally a specific mixture of concrete with 30% fly ash from a local power plant and local gravel were added to the cement by Keystone concrete. It was delivered to our site, put into a concrete pump and pumped into the ICFs, forming a solid, tight, well insulated wall for our bedroom wing. Larry Crane tells me that it will be 6 months before it is totally cured.
Next, we repeat this process over the next two weeks to form the foundation for the Main Volume of the house which will house the kitchen, the dining/great room, and the pub room, and then the office wing housing my office, the theater, and a reading nook.
In Allen County, it is necessary to get the soil tested at the footings to ensure a strong and stable foundation. The footings for the Bedroom Wing passed but some areas of the other parts of the house required additional excavation and more concrete.
We are hoping the nice weather holds!
Next step: Finalization of window schedule and construction of the crawlspace walls, damp-proofing and waterproofing.