Utilities Planning

Concrete Curing

Here is a nice photo of the foundation as of Oct 23. The second photo shows the locations for the water / sewer / miscellaneous connections between the house and the garage.

Here's me on Oct 30 trying to keep the tarps installed. No, I'm not on my knees!

There is a lot of information on the internet about concrete curing at low temperatures. Here are just a few:

http://groundheaters.com/news/pca_technology_today.pdf http://www.rinkermaterials.com/ProdsServices/downloads/CIP/11p.pdf http://www.ce.memphis.edu/1101/notes/concrete/concrete_properties_slides.pdf

Locals say that as long as you stay above -5C, for the first few days, everything will be fine. If it gets below -5C, the concrete should be covered and possibly heated.

Here is a graph that shows what the temperature was in Calgary around the frost wall pour. The pink line is the date/time that the concrete was poured. The yellow line shows the timing for the tarp installation.

The Foundation Walls

On Oct 22, the cribbing was completed for the foundation walls.

A fair bit of rebar was installed, as can be seen in the second photo.

A few hours later the concrete arrived. The pumper trucks are pretty amazing.

The Footings

We were away in Fairmont when the footings were poured on Oct 3. Murray took a few photos. A copy will be posted when available.

The Excavation

The excavation for the foundation was completed on September 28.

There is a 4-6 feet deep by 4-6 feet wide trench around the perimeter of the garage.

17 truck-loads of clay were hauled away from the site. Unfortunately, it looks like many of those truckloads are going to be hauled back later.

A trench between the garage and the house was dug at the same time to facilitate sewer/water connections as well as a conduit for telephone/data connections.

Although I don't have a photo, a the wall of the basement was cored out to allow passing of the sewer/water/conduit.

The Permit Process

This is a very long story:

1. I'll tell it to you when I am recovered.

The Project

We are having a carriage suite (studio suite) built along with a garage in the back yard. The purpose of this blog is to capture the process and progress.

McKenzie Towne is one of two communities in Calgary that allows these garage suites, and our lot happens to be zoned for it. Getting a permit from the City of Calgary should be a snap!

I guess the starting point is to show a few pictures from September 18, the day after I first attempted to "go pick up a permit"...


(By the way, does anyone want to buy a 1993 24' Terry Resort travel trailer?)

The plan is to build a 22x26 garage with a self-contained suite on the second floor. The suite will also be 22x26. The garage area will house the mechanical room for the suite.
We are thinking that the suite will be rented out for now, but may use it as an office / guest room in the future.