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A New Year

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years break.  Thanks for all your continual visits to my site and interest in my build.

For my part, I hope to begin a much more expedited build this year now that the back breaking (literally for me) below grade foundation work is nearing completion.

Its been a couple of weeks since my last entry so lets catch up on the few tasks that were completed over the holidays.

  • Week of Christmas saw the removal of the garage slab perimeter forming and some general cleanup.  I also built some rough and dirty walls to rehang the tarp over the garage area (was previously attached to forming).
  • On the 28th, I began the task of removing the rented shoring below the garage slab (after letting it cure for 3 weeks). On the 29th I had Jason from Embers help lift out the shoring from the basement and load my trailer and truck.  This ended up being a mistake.  I should have saved the cost of a labourer and just hiring a truck with crane to lift the materials out and deliver back to vendor.  The load was way too heavy for my vehicle and a 30 min trip took 1.5 hours as I went through side roads at 10-20 kph.
  • With the break over, the first week of Jan saw some better progress. The east and south walls of the garage foundation saw the completion of the torch on membrane, ROCKWOOL insulation, and dimple sheet. I also completed the final backfill on the dwellings west wall and prepared for the final backfill around the garage. Unfortunately, I have exhausted my backfill stockpile of soil and will now need to have at least 5 loads delivered.  Hopefully Diamond will be able to deliver some sandy soil from one of their other excavation sites in the nest few days.

This brings us up to date.  Next tasks include:

  • Complete backfill around garage and topping off the south wall (wether permitting)
  • Build hanging shelves and move all stored wood from rest of basement into bonus room under garage
  • Above task required to clean out basement area so I can lay down poly over the gravel and try to lower humidity down there and start drying place out.  I will lay down some coconut coir mats (I picked up for free from https://canadianmattressrecycling.com) over gravel, then the VB poly and then another layer of coir to protect the poly and allow it to be used in the final installation below the slab.
  • Build formwork for basement walkout stairs and pour foundation.

I hope to get all of this done by the end of February latest and then will start work on basement plumbing.

Took a little faith to crawl between the 30" gap between the shoring and concrete slab above to unscrew the plywood from the shoring timbers.
Took a little faith to crawl between the 30″ gap between the shoring and concrete slab above to unscrew the plywood from the shoring timbers.
Not one of my smarter decisions.  This was too heavy and made for a harrowing journey.  I was driving within 2 blocks of the drop off location with the trailer anyway which is what suckered me in to this decision.
Not one of my smarter decisions. This was too heavy and made for a harrowing journey. I was driving within 2 blocks of the drop off location with the trailer anyway which is what suckered me in to this decision.
Picking up the coir coconut matting and Canadian Mattress Recycling
Picking up the coir coconut matting and Canadian Mattress Recycling
I once again used R-Guard Joint and Seam to seal around the foundation penetrations.  This time with a new tube and nozzle so looks a lot more professional!
I once again used R-Guard Joint and Seam to seal around the foundation penetrations. This time with a new tube and nozzle so looks a lot more professional! Note the two shaping tools laying on top.  These are made from spent caulking tubes and can be cut to any size (tip that came from James Bourget from RDH) .
I continue to have problems with condensation buildup on underside of tarp
I continue to have problems with condensation buildup on underside of tarp
This represents the ice I scrapped off approx 75% of the tarp one morning before the balance melted.
This represents the ice I scrapped off approx 75% of the tarp one morning before the balance melted.

Thanks for visiting.

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake…” —Sir Frances Bacon (1561-1626) Philosopher, Essayist, Statesman

“Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more. ” —Mother Teresa (1910-1997)  Founder Of The Missionaries Of Charity

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