Footings

The engineer had a look at the soil and gave us the go-ahead. No need for another soil report. According to regulations the footing depth can decrease by one third if the foundation is rocky. So the engineer's advice was, "See how you go".

So, away we went. Site fenncing erected, hurdles in place to mark out the position of the house and machines on the job to dig the footings.

Here is a nice view of the security fencing. As of this year all building sites are required to have this kind of fencing installed for the duration of the build. It doesn't actually stop intruders getting in but it does get in the way of those trying to work on the building site. All in all a perfect piece of beaurocracy that cost me $2000 for the inconvenience.

Now, here's a lovely straight, perfectly formed trench in our rock-free soil!

....and here is a slight problem.

The strip footings to the perimeter of the house were scaped free of rock, passed by the building inspector and the steel reinforced concrete footings were placed. The photo above is the front of the house. Verandah & lounger oom wall footings.

The pipe with the wire out the top is the power connection. Eventually this will be the position of the meter box on the garage wall. Until then it will be the temporary power supply to the site.

This is a nice round hole in the ground. A pad footing hole for the stumps. Some of these holes have rock in them believe it or not but we're looking good for having stumps in them by the end of next week.

In the meantime I have to have a few discussions with the window manufacturer about a couple of our 'special' windows so we can get them ordered.

Our home is progressing very well at this early stage. It's great to see the design emerging from the ground.

Stay tuned for next weeks blog.

Greg.

Under way

Welcome to my blog.

The blog is all about the construction or our house from start to finish.

I won't be writing anything too technical about the process, just an account of the goings on along the way. Feel free to drop by from time to time to check up on our progress.

This is where it all starts. Me, my wife, my boys and the block.

Last week the boys turned the sod to mark the start of the building process. With consecutive days over 40 degrees the ground was like concrete so the resultant hole in the ground was only about 5mm deep.....It was all about the ceremony really.


As you can see the excavation crew made a slight improvement on the hole the boys dug. I'm sure they were glad that we made a start for them.
Due to the amount of rock on the site and the fact that the site cut reaches the required founding depth at the back corner, we got the engineer back to have a look to see if we could amend the soil report to accommodate a shallower footing design. I should find out this week then the laying of the footings can commence.

Greg.