Thursday, January 22, 2009

Working on the basement walls, part 2

Well, it was time to replace the left wall of the house. It's the same as what we did in part 1 except one of the walls had to come really close to the original foundation of the house. Because of that I shall be brief with the comments.

Thanks to all who helped, The Fredericksons, Arcands, Mark, Josh, Conrad, Stephen, and Mark again.

I've taken off the lose dirt and poured mortar over what was left to help hold it in place till we have the new wall in. Also note the smashed up wall to the right, as well as the wooden support that will be removed once the wall has cured.



Another picture of the same, different angle.



Stephen, our very competent mason, standing next to the dirt that the old wall was previously holding up.




The new wall going up



We extended the footer a little under the existing foundation to make it stronger. You can see the lines we drew on the foundation wall here to check for shifting at any point in the construction process - a process that, thanks to the 2 week cure times for the mortar and concrete, took over a month.



Conrad pouring concrete into the new hole



Josh, giving the wall a stern talking-to, and placing rebar




Block going up!




See that happy new corner?





Here is what the basement looks like now . . . bit of a mess, but at least that rear wall is looking better.




The basement IS clean now, I just didn't take that picture yet :)