We have been busy for the last week working towards and putting up the stem wall forms for the house as well as the footing forms for the garage.John S. has been very generous both with his time and materials. John had done some concrete work for another contractor some years ago. As a result he acquired a set of concrete forms that we are putting to use. Unfortunately the forms have been out in the weather for several years and require some TLC. Similarly, the threaded rod that we are using to hold the two opposing form panels together needs a fair amount of personal attention in the form of cleaning off rust and re-threading the ends.
In addition to the threaded rod, the forms are held in place with ramset nails to the footer and buttress braces to the ground.
On Monday the 16th we took off the footing forms and brought in the stem wall forms. We also put on the two horizontal courses of rebar that run through the stem wall.
John and John hard at work cleaning up the old threaded rod.
John S. (hard at work) and Spartan put up the first stem wall forms. Please note: John S. works very hard... even when he is posing with shovels.
Detail of the connections between the stem wall forms. The threaded rod is inserted through a plastic sleeve (recycled plastic pipe). The sleeve allows us to remove and reuse the threaded rod as well as serve as a way to space the panels apart the required 6".
Adam working on the garage footing forms. Stepping the forms up and around the ledge is somewhat challenging. On the other hand, stabilizing the forms is really easy--just drill a short piece of rebar into the ledge.
This is how far we got by the end of Tuesday the 17th. By Wednesday we were getting in the swing of things. We wrapped around the Northwest and Southwest corners.
Design & Construction of Spartan & Hannah's Home 