Stripping

This week is all about stripping – the forms that is!

Ted came by yesterday and we got a good start on pulling up the rental stakes and I was able to return 100 at lunch time.  After lunch we continued pulling up the stakes and got all done except for those used on the batter boards.

I continued today and finished delivering the final 74 to EMC Form Rentals.  EMC have been awesome! One of the owners even came back after hours on a Friday night to put out the final 20 stakes I needed to finish the internal footings.  If they had not done so, I would not have been able to work through the weekend and then pour last week!

I also stopped in to see Happy at Fwd Engineering today.  Happy is designing my perimeter water pump up system for the sump. I will have the conventional 4″ perforated perimeter drain system, but I wall also be draining the thick granular layer that sits below all of this which will not only enable me to keep the water table much further below the slab, but also provide for a HUGE reservoir to store the water should a pump cut out (I would imagine I would have over a day’s storage capacity during the wettest season of the year, but it may end up being even more.

By the end of today, I had finished stripping over 85% of the forms and should easily finish the strip by tomorrow.  Tomorrow I will also pick up the rebar I need for the ICF foundation.  I am getting this from Heritage Steel Sales who have excellent prices. Not only are their base steel prices the best I could find, but their labour costs are next to free.  I ordered 90pcs – 10M x 24” x 24” 90° Hooked Corner Bends, 16pcs – 10M x 180° Hooked Stirrups, and 8 pcs – 15M x 9ft and the labour costs to form and cut these is only $18.  Renting the cutter and bender is close to $100 per day!  Anyone who is building in the Lower Mainland and who does not give Heritage a chance to quote has money to burn!

By the end of the week I hope to get the site cleaned up (forming lumber stacked) and 1 if not 2 rows of ICF placed.  I have 9 rows total, so should be able to get all the ICF in placed over the next 2 weeks.  Onward and upward!

Thanks for visiting.