We are still at the point where nothing visible is happening but behind the scene gears are turning and information is flowing.
South Industries made a site visit this week! They have a crew in South Carolina and the person in charge of our build flew up to CT to take site measurements and meet with us. It was great to get a chance to ask all the questions we could think of. This meeting kicks off the first step in Monolithic creating our airform. We got a gold star for our foundation work! This is a huge relief!
Last fall we double checked the measurements of our concrete forms before we poured and tried to use bracing to get them as true as possible. The key point is "tried". We knew they were up to an inch off in one section after truing them up as much as possible. Most of the way around they are within a 1/4" from what they are supposed to be. The curved forms are super strong once fully assembled and only had a little bit of give. The area that is almost an inch off turned out to be a non issue since they will be pouring a ring beam on top of our stem wall. The ring beam is what needs to be more accurate to the air form. Huge sigh of relief!
Our build schedule may be pushed even earlier in the spring. As soon as the airform is complete and all stays on schedule in North Carolina they will be finishing just in time to ship all the equipment up to our site. We were concerned about having them start too early in the spring because of our machine swallowing mud. Our winter has been mild and really wet. Not helpful if you plan to drive big heavy things around on soft ground.
We warned them that if they needed to drive around the foundation this would likely happen.
We do have an all weather driveway right up to the foundation BUT the area around the foundation is not even slightly all weather. Even driving on the undisturbed grass to turn machinery around is risky until at least May and some years June. The fear of mud seems to be just between Mr. Dometastic and I. The builder is not even slightly concerned. They do not need to drive around the foundation and instead use a concrete pump.
We have a little bit of homework to complete before they can start. We need to order the block windows that will be inserted into the shell and put a few loads of fill where our patio will go in front of the house. The construction of our large cut away window wall requires them to pour a temporary ring beam section out onto what will be the patio. Right now that area is 4 feet in the air. We need to add the fill for them to construct the throw away footing to attach the air form.
Stay tuned as things start moving! The builder could be starting in as little as 5 weeks!
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