Stem Wall Forms Are Off

So many little things to get done before scheduling our foundation inspection and ultimately back filling before winter hits. We kept the pedal to the metal and got it done!

The stem wall came out great! At least we think so. Hopefully the town inspectors and dome builders will think so too. We have been super busy since pouring day. Removal of the forms was pretty painless. There were close to 3000 screws to remove but at least it all came apart fairly easily. The harder part was cleaning up all the forms and sorting though all the wood to decide what we would keep and what to trash. My pack rat nature comes out sometimes and I just need to let it go....just let it go. There were wood piles everywhere. Mr. Dometastic and I compromised. We saved more than he wanted and not as much as I wanted. Since we have a future green house and garage to build I want to make sure we don't have to buy it all over again. Then there is the problem of storage. Now we have a back barn full of wood AND a huge burn pile. I promise that at some point Mr. Dometastic will say "Why didn't you make me save that (insert thing I tried to make him save)?"

Step one was to seal the surface where the spider ties were visible on the exterior of the foundation. Our foundation picture looks striped from this step.

In this photo you can see the black spider ties on the left. The middle shows the mesh tape and the right shows the spackled strips. This material is there to seal any areas where water might work its way in next to the spider ties.

Step 2 was to put in the conduit and basic plumbing so when we back fill we don't need to dig it all up again to put in the big stuff. We will still have to dig some of it up but it will be much easier if we do the big runs now.

Step 3 was to paint the black sealant on the exterior of the stem wall AFTER we had to get rid of all the leaves in the trench.

Step 4 was to put our second curtain drain in. (in the above photo) It is very hard to see in photos because it is a black flexible hose up against the black stem wall. We opted to run a second pipe around the dome on top of the footer. There is one already next to the footer per the plans. In the future we plan to connect these underground drains to a cistern.

Step 5 was to add stone over the drain and cover it with cloth to keep out silt.

There! We are ready to set up our inspection with the town. Fingers crossed we did everything right!

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