Garage addition, 2004 Part II, December 2 & 3

Back to Part I,  p3,   p4

B & B's big shovel in the background and the smaller attachment which will do the footers this afternoon.  Hopefully only one day's work because they charge by the hour, not the job.

From my back yard.  The truck is in the alley and the trackhoe in the middle of the excavation.  The wires that are visible were a problem because they were low enough to be in the way.

That is tarp along the right side of the picture to help prevent cave-ins from the rain, but at the bottom is water.  This is Dec. 3 in the early morning and there has been no rain since B&B finished the trench, but I'm told that because they hit shale, the hole will keep refilling even without rain.

Now the crew is measuring to be sure of depth for the bottom of the footer.

The truck is lined up and starting to pour cement.  That's Greg, my contractor, standing beside the trench and pushing the cement forward.  Part of the time he stood on that board over the trench to do the same thing.  I guess it requires sureness of foot to be a building contractor.  I couldn't watch that for very long.

Now they have moved to the front of the trench, closest to my original porch.  They are pouring on the "wrong side" of the board they form against.  I'm guessing that will give stability to the pillars of my back porch which are just behind that tarp.  You can really see what a front discharge truck can do in this picture.

Here comes page 3

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Garage addition, 2004 Part III, December 5 - 9

This is the trackhoe Bartley & Bolen will use.  It is huge, but runs so much quieter than the smaller shovel which was really straining.  It's small potatoes for this monster.

This is the view from along the alley.  When we are done, there will be mounded beds between the alley and the addition.

The operator could move that giant machine with precision.

Things are really happening today.  It's still Dec. 3, later in the morning and B&B has returned with a rubber tire backhoe to clean out the mess at the bottom of the trench.

Here it is, the cement truck!  It's a new front discharge truck, which means a much easier job for the driver who has to fit it into a narrow space to line it up with the trenches.  This is the back of the truck.

This is Harold Mercer, I am told a very  expert concrete man, and his crew working on the forming of the footings.  Harold in brown jacket.

The crew actually forms the footers by hand against a board placed in the trench.

That truck is just beautiful.  It's even clean!  They started pouring about noon or a little before and looked to be nearly done when I had to go to the real estate office at 1:20.  Ron DuPre from Building & Zoning checked twice to be sure all regs were followed, so I think we are in good shape and just need to wait for the cement to cure to go on to the next step.