Friday was a great day, after all those weeks of digging, removing dirt, building forms and setting rebar we finally got to fill ‘er up. My South Park Modern Craftsman is finally coming out of the ground. It took a little more mud than I expected because of the 6 foot deep footing at the rear of the garage. 6 trucks delivered a total of 49.5 yards of 3000 PSI “big rock” concrete and we used a pump truck to get it into the forms. The whole process took about 4 hours and then the next day we ripped off all the wood forms and started stacking the CMU block. In any area where the stem wall was higher than 30″ I stepped down the forms so I could stack block.
When you use block for any portion, the City requires a special inspection by a third party inspector. He comes by periodically to check mortar mix, rebar placement and then finally the grout mix that you fill the walls with. Once we get all the block stacked and filled we’ll move right into pouring the garage floor, and then removing all the extra dirt and doing more minor grading to get ready for the framing material delivery which we’ll drop in the driveway location. Once we get ready I think its only going to only take 2 weeks to frame her up.
Great post! I haven’t met many people in San Diego who are doing development. Love the South Park area and look forward to seeing this come along.
Thanks Justin. Rarely do the numbers make sense to build new in San Diego but this house is for my family. Tear downs go for top dollar in these trendy areas. It’s not cheap to even demo an existing house. I happen to get a great deal on this lot and am also able to build for less than most. Ive noticed about 10 more new infill houses getting built lately.
Awesome, so cool. I really like raised foundations over a slab, let’s the house breathe, and gives you access to everything. I just piped my house for propane, pretty easy since we have a crawl space, would have been a huge job without.
I’m curious after completing the foundation, would you do anything differently next time?
That’s a great question. After all, we all learn more from actually doing it. One thing is next time I’m making sure my concrete pour is early in the morning so there is time to take off the forms while the concrete is still green. I waited until the next morning and it was a bitch. In this case I knew it but couldn’t get an earlier delivery.
What’s the purpose of using block for portions instead of 100% concrete?
Block is cheaper. Most guys stop the concrete pour at the footing and then stack block everywhere. In places where the stemwall wasn’t that highi just figured its easier to pour the whole thing. The areas with block are four feet high almost. I already used way more concrete than I should have. Either way is fine as long as the footings at the bottom are correct because that’s what’s carrying the load. You won’t see the change from concrete to block because I am stuccoing the stem wall.