Work, work, work

Here are some pictures of the new project I have been assigned to. We have spent the past 2 weeks working on the foundation. The first picture is the only one with me in it. I am on the left working on the building layout and establishing grid lines which control everything layout-wise related to the building. You can see that we have had phenomenal weather. The first 2 days of spring have been top notch.Setting forms for the foundation. There is a 3 inch layer that goes down between the forms called void form that keeps the foundation up off of the soil. The clay soil here in Colorado is expansive and will push up on the foundation if this layer of "space" isn't allowed for. I don't have a picture of the void for on hand.This surveyor is "as-builting" the piers that were drilled down to the bedrock. You can see what he is standing on is cut out to allow the concrete to set up on the pier. The surface he is standing on is masonite which is covering the void form so the concrete doesn't crush it when we pour the concrete. You can also see that the rebar is starting to be tied here.This is what the pour looks like. The 2 workers at the bottom are finishing it and the guy standing on the form is placing the concrete with the chute. The other two are vibrating the concrete to get all of the cracks filled in and eliminate bubbles. They also make sure it is poured to the correct elevation.Here is the final product. It was backfilled a few days later so all you could see is the top. The black blanket on the right is covering the next day's pour to keep the heat in. This is what the foundation looks like after it is backfilled. This building has this funky radius that we had to layout. It was kind of time-consuming, but turned out really nice. The ironworkers finished tying the iron and it is ready for the wall to be formed up.

After we poured the entire foundation of the building we poured the Elevator slab in the center which you can see in the upper right of the picture above in front of the green backhoe. It was 2'6" thick. Today we finished forming up the walls and poured 60 LF of concrete. On the ground are an anchor bolt template (by the bucket) and a couple embed templates. If you look next to the paint cans you can see how the embed templates are put in the form. When the other side of the form is put on we put the embeds in their specific designed location and get them within 1/8" of where they are supposed to be. This is why I spend so much time working on layout. Everything is built off of those grid lines I mentioned earlier.

I am enjoying the project. My day is non-stop start to finish. I am on my feet all day so I have been exhausted at the end of every day. Janna probably wishes I wasn't so tired. I fall asleep on the couch almost every night, sometimes around 7:30. Good for me, not for her.