Fresh slab (d15)

Foundation is done. Took the family around to have a look, it seems we hav reached a huge milestone in the construction process. May not look like much but this is the foundation, and is critical to the strucural integrity of the house.




Look how close we are to the fence
Garage
Entrance
French doors will go here
Recessed areas for the showers
Watertank slab
Outdoor area. It's all outdoor.


footings for the bricked piers




foam pods
Proud kids
Here's a picture I took when they just laid the slab. The guy is flattening the top surface.

Pour my waffles (d14)

Week 2.

We see they are ready with the concrete pump to pour the slab. Mmmm waffles. Termite protection on, and formwork is in place.

Slab prep (d13)

They are preparing the foundation now. The waffle pods have arrived and so have the reinforcing steel. Plumbers have come and run the pipes and drainage into the stormwater and sewer system.

I see the electricians have roughly run their power cables to the house too.
Missing piers here still haven't been bored.
Foam pods
cables
plumbing

Piered Footings (d6)

I was right about the soil on top of the retaining wall footing. It was soft as a sponge. The guys boots were sinking into the soil like quick sand. Metricon excavated a trench for the footings around the alfresco area. I can count 4 missing footings that have not been piered. I will address it with the SS. They scraped the soil off the footing. They will come in with a concrete cutter to cut the footings shorted so they can make the house edge beam wider.



Edge beam rebate should be in line with the footing.

I hindsight, I should have put up a sleeeper wall here. Elliminating the need for waterproofing, large footings, and it could have been installed closer to the fence. We wouldn't have had the drainage issues either. It slightly cheaper, but doesn't look as nice. I'm kicking myself, now, as I'm not sure what implications this causes to the drainage of the land.

I will be paying for variations to cover the costs in this too.

Start Surveying Foundation (d1)

Walls are finished, and we got rid of the excess fill. The SS was very disappointed in the wall builder for not getting rid of it before he said he could have access back onto the block. We cut it close, because the day we had the bob cat running around leveling the fill onto the neighbouring block, it started to rain. And it rained for a couple of day. Which made the block damp and soggy. If any of you have worked on a clay site, it's very difficult. The clay builds up on the bottom of your boots, and you feel like you're wearing lifts, or platform shoes.

The excavator guy didn't do the job I wanted. I wanted the neighbours block to be flattened and level, not sloping the way it is. But I guess he did the best in the circumstances. It was pretty much raining during the work. But also I asked him the compact the soil around the footings of the wall which had the footings directed at the house. The soil when it gets wet will absorb the moisture and make it really soft like a sponge. If it's compacted properly, than the amount of moisture it absorbed is minimised. As we can see this is why the surveyors stopped, the site was too wet to work with. The pegs would not stay put. He only got partially the way around and stopped work.
Got top soil on top of the yard space, it will level at handover and turfed. I also concerned that the yard area is not properly compacted. Once we recieve rain and the soil looses the aeration, the soil will drop, more so because it's clay type soil. Highly reactive.
Some survey pegs

That fill was flattened as best it could be


The soil is very wet.