House Footings

Ready to start Footings

Entering new territory, it's time to start working on the house footings. For people that don't know what a footing is, it's what the house sits on and it transfers the weight of the house to ground. Mine were going to be 2 ft wide and 11.5 inches thick. My plans called for 8 inch thick footings but I decided to go with extra  because I won't be doing it again. The main reason was the a 2x8 piece of lumber would only give me 7.5 inches. I like the phrase "Go big or go home" so I used 2x12's which would give me 11.5 inches. After the footings have been poured, I could re-use the 2x12's for something else (decks, docks etc...). I paid a little extra to have pressure treated wood instead of ordinary lumber.
It pays to get a good operator to dig the basement, as the end result was very even ground. This made it easy to level the forms. A friend of mine who is a contractor gave me a hand to form the footings.  Since the footings have to be on undisturbed soil, it was necessary to do step footings in some areas.  It only took 2 days to finish and level the forms.  I had use of an electronic transit to make sure everything was level and that made things much easier!

Setting Forms for footings

Footings over Canadian Shield

Next step was to call the building inspector to come out and inspect the footings. I remember when the inspector showed up, he got out of his car with a big stick. I said to him "you will not need that, I'm a nice guy". He said it wasn't for me but to check how hard the ground was and to see how far he could push it  into the ground. Knowing how hard the ground was, I said to him if it would go into the ground more than an inch I would give him 5 bucks (I know, big spender!). He walked around the footings, poking around and needless to say I didn't have to pay any money. The inspector signed off on the footing and I was okay to proceed.
Since I was using 2X12's, the weight of the cement was a concern. Extra supports would be necessary to ensure we did not blow out the forms. I decided to fill the centre of the basement with stone and then support the outside of the footings. The only way to get the stone where I wanted it, was to hire a stone slinger.  If you haven't seen a stone slinger in action, it's something to see.  Now with the stone in place and the outside of the footings braced it was time to order the cement.  Since access to the footings from the driveway was going to a problem, I would have to order a truck with a conveyer on it. The conveyer would reach to the middle of the basement then we would need to wheelbarrow the cement into the forms.  I had calculated how much cement I needed (the cement company has the formula on their web site) but wanted to confirm it with them first. I gave them all the measurements and they calculated what I needed and I was right on.

Waiting for the cement trucks

 The day had arrived to pour the footings. The trucks were on route, family and friends on their way, the weather was overcast and rain was forecast-ed for early afternoon. I had a fire going and a tarp set in case the rain came early.  With 3 wheel barrels going and 2 trucks arriving at the same time, it took no time moving all the cement into place. We made sure that the rebar was in place as we all started at different corners to smooth out the cement. Marty, Bill and myself were moving along pretty well, we were just about finished when we looked at the corner my brother had been working on. We noticed that he was a bit further behind but his cement was as smooth as silk. Just as we were finishing up the rain came and it came down hard making his smooth silky cement look no different than ours,which gave us all a little chuckle.  Lunch arrived (this is where my wife comes in) just as we were putting the anchors in the cement.  The anchor would attach the basement walls (Nudura) to the footings.  We ate lunch cold and wet. When lunch was done, clean-up was quick and my help headed home. I felt pretty good, the job went without a hitch!

Eating Lunch

I waited a few days for the cement to set up, then proceeded to remove the forms. They came off much easier than expected.  Now comes the big job, ordering all the Nudura material for the basement. My next blog will explain what Nudura is, what it's benefits are and how you install it.

Money flying out of the account

 2010 was going to be an exciting year, now that the lot had been cleared, we could start building the house. We had the winter to investigate and gather information on basement types (poured, block, insulated cement forming etc...) I really enjoy that. You can never have too much information.  There were two things I was not involved in when I built the house I am in now, the footings and the building of the basement.  I was determined to do this as I wanted be a part in each phase of building my house.  ICF (Insulated Cement Forming) was the only one I could do by myself and in my mind the most energy efficient.  There are a few companies that manufacture ICF but with a lot of research and talking with contractors that have worked with ICF, I decided to go with Nudura.  I will get into that further in following blogs.  Now with the basement decided upon, I approached  a friend that was able to draw up plans for me. I gave him all the information that Lisa and I had decided upon and he performed his magic. A few weeks later after countless phone calls and emails, the plans were ready to be picked up.  Only a few minor changes had to be made.  Spring was on the horizon and I wanted to start digging in early May. Many people are afraid to deal with the town offices for some reason? They are a wealth of information that make your building experience a  more enjoyable one.  I asked what was needed to build a house on flood plain in Bracebridge and what costs I could expect. "Sorry I asked!!"  Here is where the money started flying out of my account.  911 sign-$22.65, driveway permit-$350.00 (and I already had a driveway), flood plain survey-$1400, lot survey with house location-$1076.25, building permit (involved a few things), house plans-$600, heat loss calculations-$500, septic permit-$300, the building permit itself came to $2256 ( total calculation of sq.ft and value). The big shocker was the lot levy ( there are many other names for this). I had to pay the Town of Bracebridge and the District of Muskoka the grand total of $ 7,725, ouch!!  Before I even put a shovel into the ground I had spent $12,229.90

Working on the driveway

Removing Oak stump

.  It's always a good idea to get a few quotes for anything that you aren't going to do yourself. I had 2 contractors give prices to dig my basement and do some work on the driveway. It was nice that the contractor I chose had previously done some work at my parents cottage, and had done a good job.I still wanted to be sure he was in the ball park, and he was.

Keeping it level

Time to start digging the basement, and digging in the Canadian Shield is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. All we were hoping for, was enough room so we could could put our laundry room and our utilities down in the basement and if we got more room that would be a bonus.  We did hit some bedrock but we were able to dig and brake it up.  We lucked out and we ended up with a  full basement in depth and in area.  It took 3.5 days and $5,500 later I was ready to start the footings. Approximately $18,000 spent so far and I haven't bought any house material.