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 ).
Guys,
Our set day is here and I just wanted to make sure I sent my thanks. Bartley has certainly come through for us and it is truly appreciated.
-Jason Flood
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!
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.
Now why would anyone want 22 foot concrete walls? Any guesses?
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.
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!
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.
Given the go ahead from the other contractors who set their wall penetrations, the Bartley crews returned to finish setting the wall forms. Unlike the typical concrete wall for a foundation, the plans called for two kinds of insulated walls; one insulation system that is cast in the center of the concrete wall and one that is cast on the outside of the wall.
The first system, Thermomass (http://www.thermomass.com) is a rigid foam insulation that is placed in the center of the wall with fiber composite connectors that keep the insulation in place. The major benefit is the insulation eliminates thermal bridges which improves the thermal mass effect of the concrete wall. The effective R value of the system is 20.4 in the Washington D.C. area. Pictures that contain blue insulation are showing Thermomass.
The white insulation is a system called ThermaEZE (http://www.certainteed.com/products/foundations/foundation-insulation/311483) where the insulation is set on the inside or outside of the wall. The expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation is set against the concrete panels during installation and the concrete is poured normally. In this application ThermaEZE was placed on the outside of the wall in order to assist the steel decking and support design. The R value of ThermaEZE is 9.4 for 2 inches of the material and a 10” wall.
Moving along the wall, the crews placed insulation, the rebar and then the exterior concrete wall panels. At this point, the walls were ready for the next critical step, the concrete wall pour. Get excited!
Forming the interior of the wall helps our whole team get the wall penetrations correct. The typical penetrations (or wall sleeves) are needed for connections from one side of the wall to the other. The Plumbers, Electricians, and HVAC contractors are the usual suspects that need wall penetrations. In most cases when forming a foundation, Bartley can insert pieces of PVC as blockouts and then form both sides of the wall. With this concrete house, Bartley decided to give full access to the HVAC, Electrician and Plumbing contractors, which is why only the inside of the wall is formed. Although forming one side at a time takes a little longer, the other contractors can easily set their penetrations correctly which is important when working with a solid structure like concrete walls.
In concrete homes, electrical outlets (with conduits) are often placed inside the forms before pouring. This allowed the electrical wiring and outlets to be furnished within the wall which is smart when leaving the concrete interior walls as the finished product in lieu of drywall or another wall finish. This way the electrical outlet covers can be applied directly to the electrical outlet and rest against the concrete. If you look closely in some of the pictures you can see the blue electrical outlets that the electrician placed and drilled into the panels.
In the final two pictures, Bartley Corp is not onsite which allows the Plumber and Electrician to get their work done without interference. Once all the contractors, builder and architect say the penetrations are good, Bartley Corp will return to set the outside panel of the wall, insert the Thermomass insulation and place cast-in-place concrete walls.
