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Foundation
We began the Foundation for the House on March 11th. We had a particularly cold March, this year, so it was remarkable that everyone was willing to work! Midoram Concrete were in charge of this portion of the job, and they were great. Three fellows in particular worked on this project – Trent, Markus and Javiar. You’ll see them on the video – take note that Javiar (pronounced with an ‘h’!) is single! (Hey, if you’re in the market for a new man, Construction guys are great – they work hard and can build you a nice big house! Ha,ha!)
We started with a Frame around the Perimeter of the House – 24" X 8". These are called the ‘Footings’. The Lumber is put in place for the exact dimensions of the cement (‘cribbing’), then the cement is poured. They let the cement set for about a day, then remove the wooden frame.
After the Footing is Set, they can start to Crib the Basement Walls on top of the cement footings. The cribbed walls are made up of lumber and plywood to create a form for the cement to be poured into. Note the number of Support Beams in the Photo Gallery that are necessary to hold up the walls.
The Cement Pour happened on March 25th, two weeks after we first started the work on the Basement. Normally, this would have happened a week earlier, but the whole project was shut down by the cold. We had the coldest 1st Day of Spring in Albertan History – Minus 27 Degrees Celcius -- ridiculously cold, for anyone not sure exactly how cold that is!
Anyway, they started to pour the Cement in the afternoon, and were done before we knew it. Amazingly enough, it took less than 15 minutes to pour a full load of concrete! Our house is very large, so we required 7 Full Loads of Concrete. Also, we have 9 foot ceilings in the Basement, so that added a fair bit of concrete, too. They also filled Two 7 foot pilings for the Back Deck and all the pilings for the Garage Floor. (A piling is a large ‘tube’ you fill with cement.)
The following day, Midoram removed the Cribbing Walls from the Foundation. If you leave the Cribbing Walls on the cement too long, they may not come off, so they’re usually removed within a day of the cement pour.
One thing that I thought was fantastic during the whole ‘Foundation’ experience was that I saw another woman on the job site – Angela from Burnco Cement. She was one of the Drivers of the Cement Trucks.
Women in the Trades is fantastic! I wish more women could find out the kind of job opportunities and the wages they can make – often waaay higher than the wages in more ‘traditional’ jobs. Think I’m going to start interviewing some women in the trades to put them on our site! My husband, Dwight, often hires Raylene for work with his Company, D.K. Mechanical – she’s a Refrigeration Mechanic. She was over here a couple of weeks ago to fix our Fridge – she’s great! I’ll start working on this, right away!
If you’re a woman in the trades, or you know of a woman in the trades, drop us a line and let us know how you got there and how you like it. Just contact us through the site – buildyourownhouse@hotmail.com .
Hey, we're starting to get some good feed-back from other Women in the Trades! Isn't that great?!
Ailsa,
I just found your website. It is great. My sister and I are just starting to
get the information to build our own home. I am an IBEW electrician and have
been for about 20 years. Just thought I would drop you a line and let you know
there are more and more women in the trades all the time.
Shery.
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