Construction - Footings
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Marking out the Footprint with the Surveyor
We put in the pins to mark where the corners of the footings were and then attached a string line. I'm pouring out the lime so that the excavator can dig the footings.
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The Final Footprint
This is my wife standing at what will one day be the front door. This is the first time that we got to see the house at 1:1 scale : )
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Clearing Rubble from the Footings
When we were digging the footings we hit a fair bit of rock in the area and the excavator driver got confused as to where he was going. While most of the trenches were fine, the front of the lounge and library didn't line up properly. We decided to get the surveyor back to double check the pins before pouring the concrete. This worked out to be very fortunate as there was a fair bit of work done on recovery.
My wife hard at work! The footings have to been cleaned of all loose material. She ended up taking to the trenches with a broom! A little over the top but it was the only way she could get them clean. We didn't have power or I am sure that they would have been vacuumed instead : )
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Meshing up Footings
The trench mesh in place with the bar chairs. You have to make sure that the mesh is at least 40mm from the sides of the trench otherwise in years to come you end up with footing with no steel. This sounds easy in theory but as we were excavating in rock, the footing widths and depths varied. We spent a little over a day getting everything positioned correctly. It was well worth the effort when they were inspected as the general consensus was that they were the neatest and cleanest footings anyone had ever seen.
Thankfully a friend lent us a tool that ties the trench mesh together. My wife tied of all the mesh in little over 1hour (at 6:00 in the morning the day of the inspection and pour)!
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Digging Footings in Rock
Our 'crazy paving' footings after the concrete was poured. Because the footing were in rock we decided to fill them completely with concrete (hence the wiggly edges) rather than forming them up. It cost extra for the concrete but saved us time and effort and we KNOW these footings are never going anywhere.
We also spent the extra money for a concrete pump. If you are pouring footings we can recommend hiring a pump (around $400-450). It made life a lot easier and only required us to handle the hose and to smooth the footing. This photo is of the garage and lounge room area.
We would highly recommend getting the surveyor to check footings again before pouring as well as afterwards.
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Securing Formwork!
The formwork for the indoor pool area. We put this up the night before the pour (with caving lights and a gas lamp) Unfortunately it moved slightly during the pour and we had to adjust the curve on the plan very slightly. Make sure that your formwork is secure before pouring, there is a lot of weight in concrete!!!
Tips and Tricks
- Book the surveyor for three visits;
- Mark out the footings for excavation
- Check that the footings are in the right spot after excavation (we had to fix quite a few walls)
- Pin the corners for the brick layers after the concrete is poured.
- If you think that you will hit rock, ensure that you place some check points away from the footings so that you can check them after the rock comes out!
- Borrow a wire tying tool (not the official name) to tie the trench mesh together. This saved a huge amount of fiddly work and is MUCH faster.
- Double check all your formwork to make sure it won't move during the pour.
- Hire a concrete pump and save yourself a lot of time and effort.
- If you are putting your meter box into the garage wall be sure to run two additional 25 mm conduit pipes through the footing, one for the earth wire and one spare just in case you want external power from the house.