Above Grade Walls of Concrete Home Complete

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Until now, the Clifton Concrete Home was just a concrete foundation. With the hard work of setting and pouring the above grade insulated concrete walls, the project now is uniquely in a category that the industry calls a concrete home. The advantages are documented (http://www.concretehomescouncil.org http://www.cement.org/think-harder-concrete-/homes http://concretehomesmagazine.com to name a few) and getting to this milestone will reap ongoing rewards for the homeowners for decades to come.

 

To accomplish above grade walls, Bartley Corp started by tying rebar per the structural plans. Next, one of our crane trucks brought in our large commercial “gang” forms. The larger panels provide a bigger finished area, can increase the efficiently of setting the wall and are stronger than stacking several panels to boot. Only one side was initially set to allow the other trades (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, elevator etc.) to place their blockouts and material in the walls.

 

Next the Thermomass insulation was placed in the center of the wall which is key to creating an energy efficient concrete home. The crane truck returned to set the other side of the concrete wall panels. The first pour consisted of 90 cubic yards of concrete followed by 26 yards of concrete the next day in order to separate the concrete at the flashing (a specification that took Attention to Detail). After stripping the walls, a solid concrete home was revealed. Beautiful!

 

2014-04-02 First Floor Walls Start

2014-04-08 Gang Aluminum Forms

2014-04-14 First Floor Set One Side Walls

2014-05-09 Thermomass Insulation Installation

2014-05-13 Set Concrete Panels

2014-05-16 Pour First Floor Concrete Walls

2014-06-08 Above Grade Concrete Walls

 

Super Speed Concrete Home Construction Video

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Check out a video of the Foundation level of the Clifton Concrete Home! This entertaining 51 second time lapsed video shows the unexcavated site through the basement slab pour.

 

Bartley Corp is back on site, so stay tuned for some more progress that will show the 1st floor concrete construction! Please enjoy, share and Like !! Yes this is the same video that was leaked from Vimeo last week (its also on YouTube.com ).

 

Seasons Change but Concrete Remains

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It has been months since Bartley Corp has worked on the Clifton concrete house so we wanted to share an update. In the Summer, Bartley successfully prepped and poured the basement level slab (first picture: concrete slab is not visible from the Work Zone Cam angle). This marked the final stage of Bartley’s “typical” concrete foundation package. To recap the concrete foundation package, here were the steps: Excavation, Footings, Walls, Waterproofing, and Slabs. After the slabs, Bartley turned back the job to the builders.

Complicated jobs can take more time and effort by the whole construction team and this project is no exception. In the Fall, the builder and framers have been backfilling and installing the first floor deck. In the bleak midwinter, mother nature brought some snow and kept construction workers off the job (see last picture). Soon enough, Bartley will be back at the site to work on the first floor walls, which is the true difference between a regular stick built home and a concrete home!

2013-09-04 1030 Basement Slab

2013-10-03 1200

2013-11-06 0730

2013-12-04 1100

2013-12-11 0800

Property Management

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Property Management Concrete Repair
• Stabilize foundations using helical piers or concrete underpinning
• Strengthen damaged basement walls using reinforced concrete or structural steel
• Renew settled or deteriorated floor slabs
• Remove and rebuild failing retaining walls

The Bartley Corporation is your best bet for repairing common foundation problems. Our diverse knowledge of new construction and foundation repair makes us the area’s expert. Our services include but are not limited to:
• Underpinning
• Helical Piers
• Helical Anchors
• Push Piers
• Slab Support
• Basement Wall Repair
• Drain Tile
• Drain Board
• Underslab Waterproofing
• Blindside Waterproofing
• Horizontal Waterproofing
• Crack Injection
In short: If you have a problem, we will fix it correctly.

Related Posts

Backfill Matters

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Backfilling a foundation is an important step in building a home, but it can come with pitfalls. Once the concrete walls have cured, the foundation is waterproofed, draintile (and preferably drainboard) is installed, a qualified equipment operator “back” “fills” the area between the exterior wall and the designed grade level.

The fill can vary but a coarse, well-draining material  is recommend to help keep the basement dry. Builder Magazine says “Site soils are fine if the natural soil in the area is mainly sandy or gravelly, but don’t use the existing soil from the site for backfill if it contains clay or organic material.” The backfill material can be specified in the plans.

Bartley Corp typically includes backfilling in the excavation scope of work. In this case, the backfill design called for a loose crushed rock so the builder decided to complete the work as it is a more time consuming installation.

The big mistakes made when backfilling can cause a cracked wall or a long-term water problem. A qualified equipment operator places the proper loads and moves the equipment in a safe manner not to cause too much pressure against the concrete walls when compacting. In some cases bracing the walls is necessary to ensure the loads are not too much for the concrete walls when they are still curing.

2013-07-23 1430

2013-07-24 1300

2013-07-24 1800

2013-07-24 Backfilled

2013-07-25 1400

2013-07-26 1300

Waterproofing the Foundation

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Waterproofing is an important part of Bartley’s foundation package.  We are happy to use the EPRO Waterproofing system (www.eproserv.com) consisting of ECOBASE , ECOSHIELD, and ECODRAIN. Shown in black, ECOBASE is a water-based polymer-modified asphalt emulsion application which is sprayed directly onto the concrete wall. Next, ECOSHIELD, a blend of polyolefin copolymers, provides a vapor barrier protection over the first waterproofing membrane.  Then pictured in grey, ECODRAIN is a polypropylene filter fabric and dimple board combination. The filter fabric promotes proper water drainage and the dimple board protects the fabric.

Exterior Drain Tile is also installed along the base of the wall by our waterproofing team. The drain tile is perforated PVC drain pipe that helps keep water from building up at the base of the wall.

The EPRO system combined with the expert waterproofing installers makes it a Bartley foundation!

2013-07-17 Epro Waterproofing

2013-07-18 Draintile Shooting Stone

2013-07-18 Drainage Board

2013-07-24 Backfilled

Concrete Walls Poured

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Measure thrice, pour once. Bartley successfully poured a 152.5 cubic yard wall in the heat of the summer (88 degrees). Inside the wall contained rebar, PVC blockouts, electrical boxes, Thermomass, ThermaEZE, wall spacers, wall ties, insulation blockouts and pressure treated window and door blockouts. All this material and labor added up to a price tag of $74,797 for the foundation wall portion of the contract.

The pictures show the wall pour assisted by a concrete pump and 16 ready-mixed concrete trucks. The next day, the wall crew was able to strip (remove) the panels off the foundation walls to get ready for the waterproofing.

Concrete is not a very forgiving material so all the work that went into getting the walls set correctly was worth the effort! Attention to Detail and Production meet value is our motto and it holds true especially in this case.

2013-07-15 Pour Foundation Walls

2013-07-15 Concrete Pour

2013-07-15 Pour Foundation Column

2013-07-16 Strip Foundation Walls

2013-07-16 Strip Walls & Remove Panels

2013-07-17 Concret Wall Reveal