Friday, February 20, 2009

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.

3 comments:

  1. Beaurocracy seems to be getting worse!
    Getting the footings in must be exciting though.

    BTW, you don't have to reply to my comments. Just keep posting as you go.

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  2. Hiya! I work for a building company and am building my own house too so I am enjoying this blog. Good luck with it all!

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  3. so the journey has begun. We're renovating right now (taking a little longer than we expected!!!)
    check out our progress at my blog
    http://thehousethatbenbuilt.blogspot.com.
    Pop in some time!

    ReplyDelete