4230 Raleigh Street Construction Update – 12/10/08
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 by Dave
We are making steady progress over at 4230 Raleigh Street. Nothing incredibly glamorous or exciting has been going on but we are making steady progress and should optimistically be framing in the next week or so. As you can see below, the job site signage is up. A more legible PDF can be found here.
Below is an overview shot of the foundation progress to date. The dark gray coating is external waterproofing. The window wells for the basement windows barely squeezed in between the foundation walls and the shoring piers.
Here is a closeup shot of the foundation wall and the counter-fort at the front entry of the home. The fabric for the soon to be installed perimeter drain is in place.
Here you can see the brick ledge that was formed into the foundation walls. The framing will anchor to the interior of the wall and the brick ledge will support the weight of the exterior brick cladding.
A view towards the rear of the basement. The optional finished basement will fill the front half with a guest suite and a family/media room. The back half will be storage space and a small mechanical area.
This incredibly exciting photo shows the voidform in place beneath the completed foundation walls. Our soils on the site have a moderate swell potential so we designed the home to be supported by the drilled piers and allow moderate expansion of the soils without disruption of the foundation. The voidform is actually made of cardboard with just enough strength to support the weight of the wet concrete at the time the walls are poured. Once the walls have cured and the wall forms have been stripped, the cardboard will slowly weaken. If the soils expand the cardboard will simply crush and leave the foundation walls floating between the support of the foundation piers.
Below you can see the utility trenching underway. The new water service will run from Raleigh Street to the front of the home and the new sewer line will be run from the rear of the home to the alley.
Assuming the weather cooperates with us we should be preparing for our basement slab pour and be on our way with some more visible progress in the short term.
