This weekend marks the end of a long struggle since the excavation that took place the last week August, 2009. It is now Thanksgiving Monday, October 12, 2009 and our basement has been back filled. Worries of spring run off turning the site into a muddy swimming pool are gone. We now have a covered hole in the ground that we can heat and continue to work in. We can take time to continue to play with the evolving design and raise the walls over the winter months.
We arrived Friday evening and settled into preparing for the skid steer that was due to arrive Saturday afternoon. We cut pins from re-bar and drilled holes through the sole plate into the footing. It was at least 10:00 at night before we were finished. Tired and hungry, we had a bowl of soup and crawled into bed.
In the morning we sealed the bottom exterior plate around the footing, shoveled sand on top of the footing and over the weeping tile to make a bed for the blue foam insulation. This involved many wheelbarrow loads to get things to where they needed to be. When this was done, we hung a 10' sheet of 6 mil poly around the three walls to be back filled. Around noon, Edie went down to make a fire and heat up some soup. The skid steer operator showed up at 1:30 to see if we were around. I busied myself finishing up laying the blue foam down, holding it in place with sand and clods of clay. The skid steer arrived within half an hour and began to place sand over the foam and along the footing. We worked our way up the wall placing at least 20 inches of pit run gravel against the walls followed by dirt/clay. I concentrated on keeping the poly from pulling down and shoveling each new layer of sand against the walls.
The skid steer disappeared at six o'clock, leaving the building site transformed. The basement is now buried and we have a large upper driveway area covered with gravel.We spent the evening by the fire, planning our work for the next day.
Sunday morning we were a little slower to rise than normal, a little stiff from shoveling sand and sealing walls. Our first adventure was to move the motor home from our neighbor's driveway after a month and a half of squatting. The first trick was to get her started, and then to keep her from stalling. Each time she stalled, we would have to boost her with the truck. After about six boosts and some leveling with blocks she sits in her resting place for the winter.(It is likely she won't move from her spot until next summer when we do more landscaping.)
We set to work sealing the top plates and perimeter boards. At the end of the day the basement was sealed on the exterior, clean and organized. We covered the decking with plastic in the remaining daylight and nailed plywood over the door.
We arrived Friday evening and settled into preparing for the skid steer that was due to arrive Saturday afternoon. We cut pins from re-bar and drilled holes through the sole plate into the footing. It was at least 10:00 at night before we were finished. Tired and hungry, we had a bowl of soup and crawled into bed.
In the morning we sealed the bottom exterior plate around the footing, shoveled sand on top of the footing and over the weeping tile to make a bed for the blue foam insulation. This involved many wheelbarrow loads to get things to where they needed to be. When this was done, we hung a 10' sheet of 6 mil poly around the three walls to be back filled. Around noon, Edie went down to make a fire and heat up some soup. The skid steer operator showed up at 1:30 to see if we were around. I busied myself finishing up laying the blue foam down, holding it in place with sand and clods of clay. The skid steer arrived within half an hour and began to place sand over the foam and along the footing. We worked our way up the wall placing at least 20 inches of pit run gravel against the walls followed by dirt/clay. I concentrated on keeping the poly from pulling down and shoveling each new layer of sand against the walls.
The skid steer disappeared at six o'clock, leaving the building site transformed. The basement is now buried and we have a large upper driveway area covered with gravel.We spent the evening by the fire, planning our work for the next day.
Sunday morning we were a little slower to rise than normal, a little stiff from shoveling sand and sealing walls. Our first adventure was to move the motor home from our neighbor's driveway after a month and a half of squatting. The first trick was to get her started, and then to keep her from stalling. Each time she stalled, we would have to boost her with the truck. After about six boosts and some leveling with blocks she sits in her resting place for the winter.(It is likely she won't move from her spot until next summer when we do more landscaping.)
We set to work sealing the top plates and perimeter boards. At the end of the day the basement was sealed on the exterior, clean and organized. We covered the decking with plastic in the remaining daylight and nailed plywood over the door.