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.