Footer Fetish

A good bit has happened this week. And today, if all goes as planned, it may actually start to look like a house is being constructed! On Monday, Bartley Corporation had to re-do some mud excavating work they did not properly do in the area way. They admitted their mistake and corrected that, at their expense, and finished placing the #57 crushed stone. The good folks at CIS had caught Bartley's mistakes and after they were fixed, CIS signed off on the soil stabilization. That cleared Bartley to set the forms and pour the footers for the foundation. On Thursday, Huntley Nyce Associates came to do the brick pointing. Today Bartley is scheduled to set the foundation forms and pour the foundation. See the progress:


This is the area way that clearly had not been properly cared for per the engineer's instructions; mother earth eventually would have won this water battle if this hadn't been fixed before the footers were poured:
Brick points:

Brick point close-up:

No River Too Deep

On Thursday, Bartley's team was back on the lot to start scraping the 6" of mud. They finished the mud scraping and removal on Friday then laid the geotextile material. Truck after truck backed into our driveway to dump the first deliveries of #57 crushed stone from the Loudoun Quarry of Chantilly Crushed Stone. Using a Bobcat, they moved the stone from the construction entrance into the excavated pit, covering the entire area with approximately 4" of stone. On Monday, the crew will return, and more trucks will deliver much more stone, and they'll sling the stone from the trucks into the excavated pit for a total of 18" of stone to mitigate mother nature's high water table in this area.

When looking at the pictures, you can see the grey markings around the side of the excavated area. I stopped at the lot today on my way to the gym, to check on Bartley's progress, and Tim Gary - the Vice President of CIS Engineering - our soils consultant, happened to stop by at the same time I was there. He explained to me that the grey markings show there was a river that went through our lot and that's the sediment that was deposited at the bottom of the river. He was a super nice guy and extremely knowledgeable. You don't think about how water moves underground, but it clearly does. It's not confined to streams, rivers, lakes and the ocean, but Mother Earth is moving water all the time, right under our feet.

There's still a little bit of water showing in some areas, but there's no stone in those areas yet either. I'm guessing that Bartley noticed water seeping from the side walls of the excavated area and they decided to let it collect in spots order to pump the water out on Monday, scrape some more mud, then add the stone to ensure stability. The good news is that water level was below the 4" of stone that surrounded it and when there's another 14" of stone, we're confident that the water will remain well below the footers and foundation of the house. That's the goal!