Pouring Concrete!

Here's the concrete truck backed up to the foundation. They're using a concrete pumping rig to get the concrete to the far corners of the house.


Yet another shot of the pumper in action.


A close-up shot of the footing that's part of the wall system.


The concrete folks pounding on the forms to get air bubbles out of the concrete.


This shot shows the pumper boom and the fellow controlling it (directly below the high point of the boom). He's using a wireless controller to move the boom. It looks like the end of the pumper is about 6 feet above the form. Pretty good aim (you can see the concrete coming out of the end of the pipe)...

They did several "lifts" to avoid blowing out the forms. But they really didn't have to wait for the concrete to set up: one pass around the foundation walls took long enough for the concrete to get hard enough for the next pass. The weather was cool and rainy so the conditions were about ideal for getting a good "set" on the concrete.

After the concrete sets up, the next steps will be installing the drains (for a future bathroom and wet bar) and putting the Radon mitigation system in. We're going to leave the basement unfinished, so the wet bar/bathroom will just be the rough-in --- putting in the drains after the slab is poured would be a really big deal, so we're doing what we can to reduce the hassle/cost for future owners (this includes putting in a waste-water storage tank, which has to be below the floor level, too). The Radon mitigation is a proactive step -- we're not sure if we will need it or not, but the odds are pretty good that we'd need to do it anyway. A number of homes in the area have tested very high for Radon, and at least one person has gotten lung cancer from it. This way, we can do it "right" rather than after the fact.

After the drains and Radon stuff are done, the floor will be poured, and the utilities will be run. That all should happen in about 2 weeks. Now, if the rains can just hold off until we get the roof on (fat chance)....