Pouring Da Crete

Now that we had a hole in the ground, it was time to put something in it.  Rolando and the boys were soon very busy forming up and pouring our foundation.  One thing I told him before he started was that if he was going to make an error then to err toward making the foundation too big rather than too small.  The Deltec prefab home design doesn’t allow any adjustments when you erect it.   So first he made a big template out of lumber.

Those of you who are familiar with concrete will notice that the footers aren’t too terribly deep in the foundation.  In Texas we would normally make 24 inch and sometimes 30 inch deep footers all the way around the foundation with 4 inches deep concrete in the middle.  In the USVI they tend to go with shallower footers but 6 and sometimes 8 inch deep concrete in the middle.  In Texas with our expansive clay soil we need the deeper beams to prevent cracking, but in this case there is no clay and in places the foundation is on top of solid rock.  The big threat in the USVI is the frequent earthquakes so they tend to go with thicker foundations.  Another big threat is termites.  So much so that most buildings are framed with pressure treated lumber, and doors and windows if wood are made of mahogany or some other resistant tropical hardwood.  And just to be sure we termite treated the foundation before proceeding further.

 

With the floor slab almost done this is a good view of the layout of the foundation.  At the far end of the foundation is what later will become the pump room where all the electrical equipment will live.  To the left of the photo and behind the worker is the two cistern tanks.  And the area he’s standing in is the bunker where we will store our golf cart and other stuff we don’t want to lose in the hurricane.

With the floor slab done it’s now time for the walls.

One thing that did surprise me about the USVI is that all the contractors are still making poured concrete walls using plywood forms.  So far as I know no one uses ICF (insulated concrete forms) or some of the other newer systems at least on smaller projects like this one.  There are a few fairly new buildings built using the Gigacrete system, but so far it really hasn’t caught on.  So the boys plugged away for about 2 weeks building the forms for the 8 inch thick walls.

As we were getting into September it got to be quite hot on the site, so the boys took a little time and built themselves some shade.  We also figured this would be a bonus guest room for later.

One thing I pulled my hair out over was pipe placement in the walls for our sinks, toilets, showers, etc.  I really didn’t want to be drilling big holes for pipes later through 8 inch thick concrete.  I finally came up with a plan and the boys did a great job putting the pipes where I wanted them.  Buttercup and I were able to be there for this pour.  We hired a pumper truck and soon pouring day came.

The pouring went like clockwork and the forms held together.  Rolando very carefully watched the forms as the boys filled them, if you fill them too fast they will burst open and then you have a real mess.  As the pumper truck cranked up an iguana came out of the boom of the truck and watched the action.  The driver told me he lives in the boom and rides around from job to job!

With the walls done the boys stripped the forms, then used the wood to make the ceiling form.  Within a week or so they were ready for the final pour.  On this one we also poured the slabs for the two 20 foot container foundations and the ramp leading down to the bunker.

In late October the all the concrete was done.  Left for later is 26 footings for the deck posts and some driveway work.  Up to this point we had used about 80 yards of $250/yard concrete.  Now we just had to wait about a year for the building to arrive.