Retaining the Hillside

Now that the foundation is backfilled and the driveway is graded, the hillside needs to be supported. We're dug in pretty close to the lane up there, which is driveway access for us and the neighbors.
Ground Contact and Kincaid got three truckloads of these massive blocks to build the retaining wall out of. These look a lot better than a concrete wall, and go together like Legos. The interlocking system is from Redi-Rock International, and forms a sturdy but good looking wall.
Here, they are placing the first run of blocks. They'll build a wall about 4 or 5 feet high, step it back and then run up the rest of the way. That will provide some planting spaces, along with a set of steps leading up to the upper level.



Robert guides a block into place, with Heath at the controls.



The back side of the retaining wall. This too will all be backfilled when complete.



The first run is placed. Heath (Ground Contact) is racking his brain to work in some stairs. It's a tough puzzle to figure out how to get them in, but we have faith!

Backfill Complete

The foundation is backfilled & most of the grading is also finished. Check out this before & after pic - its a shame to bury all that hard work!




Upper garage - foundation walls complete, along with the massive footing, before backfilling.



Upper garage, after backfilling.

Nice Touches

Robert worked out this detail at the front wall of the lower office. Since the concrete foundation wall is thicker than the stud wall, it would have left a ledge that probably wouldn't have looked so good. Instead, Robert had Chris (CMP Foundations) run this detail along the edge. A nice touch, and I wouldn't have known to ask for it. Thanks guys!

Foundation Walls Complete!

The crew at CMP Foundations are finished with the walls - and this is some really quality work. Chris Parish decided to go with a real smooth concrete (6 sack mix w/pea gravel instead of screened aggregate) - there is so much steel inside the walls that Chris wanted to make sure the concrete flowed readily. This produced a very smooth finish to the walls, with minimal rock pockets. For any of the concrete that remains exposed after completion, the finished surface will look great.

This is the "big wall" - 13 feet tall. This whole vault will be backfilled tomorrow, creating a compact surface for the upper garage slab.

This vault will be filled in to form the front yard and entry area. That black stuff is the sealer that is applied to the dirt-facing side of the foundation walls. Spray foam will be applied to the inside to form a moisture proof barrier.

Here's the other side of the big wall - note the bottom section is 1 foot thick!

In this pic you can see where the middle floor will be. They will backfill it for lower garage slab also. To the right, you can see the lowest level office space forming.



Here's a wide shot of the whole thing as it climbs up the hillside.

Foundation Walls Poured on Monday

Wall forms were finished last week, but I didn't have time to write a post before heading off to the peninsula for a few days. Here's a few pics from yesterday's pour. The pour required 5 concrete trucks, which is about 60 yards of concrete. So far we are well over 100 yards of concrete in the footings and walls, with four slabs to go...

Foundation Walls forming

This is the main retaining wall that holds up the garage slab, and forms the back wall of the 2nd floor. It's 12 feet high by 8-inches thick. A *lot* of concrete will go into this pour.

They'll take a couple more days next week to finish building forms for all the walls. They'll probably shoot for pouring concrete on Tuesday afternoon. After that, they'll backfill dirt up against this big wall, to form the surface for the upper garage slab.

I'll be in New York next week, so hopefully Dorrinda can post up some progress pics...