Why I'm not getting anything done on my own boat..

[bntii]

and damn little done on clients boats as well.

Well it all started one day when I wandered into the basement of our old house looking for some stored boat parts..
It seems that the slowly collapsing foundation needs attention NOW:




After days of slicing with a diamond saw and breaking out the concrete with a sledge hammer I finally got
smart and rented a jack hammer.
It worked so well that I bought one- Don't usually buy Makita gear, but their 1 1/8" hammer is a beast & worth
owning for this sort of work. I have hung the hammer on a static line with a climbing ascender to hold it up for
the breaking out the wall.



I have hauled out all the rubble and am digging out for footers. A helpful engineer friend let me know that the
hard clay I am burrowing through comes in at 120 lbs per cubic foot. I put a sample in a graduated cylinder
and came up with 109 lbs at my site... little better it seems as I need a pick axe to dent it & have ended up
buying a clay bit for the demo hammer to get the job done. I hope to pour footers for the first part and start
laying block this week.
Yikes! Looks tough to get anything done on the boat this winter.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Yup, judging by those photos- you really arent going to get any other work done.

Good luck

[tuantom]

A helpful way to schedule these projects is to figure how long it should take to do a job - double that - and then plan for at least a week on top of that. This will get you in the ballpark.

And don't forget the while your at its or the midaz wells.

[hoytedow]

May God help you.

[TeddyDiver]

Atleast you got a good excuse.. I can blaim only winter..

[hoytedow]

Winter is settling on bntii as well, just not to Finland frigidity. Frozen clay is not eay to work with.

[gonzo]

I went through that in my house. A drain pipe from the downspouts had been leaking for years and the freeze cracked the foundation.

[hoytedow]

Ah, Florida! of course, we have very few cellars or basements because of the high water table. We do have sinkholes which swallow whole houses, however, and sometimes, parts of major highways just fall out of sight.

[bntii]

Pesky sinkholes..
Sitting at my desk in the wee hours musing about concrete submarines I can hear the framing creak as the house settles into the basement.

If no word is heard from me, send the cadaver dogs.
Just have them look under the house.
Bring beer in the odd chance that I can be revived...

[hoytedow]

Maryland is too large a search area.

[gonzo]

Look for the house with the busted basement

[hoytedow]

Make the next basement from a concrete submarine.

[masalai]

Widen the footing and use lots of reo - you may have to do the whole house as on clay they usually set the foundations up to float as it moves over time with moisture content and a rigid "floating" foundation leads to a more stable structure...

In this illustration, the footings go down about 3 feet, there is more reo to go between the foam panels and heavy mesh on top of the foam - here they are still fixing and tieing the reo-bar... The foam just reduces the volume of concrete in the pour, - which covers the foam by 4 to 6 inches - - see the second image... Apart from the footings, the slab sits on top of the ground (no one in Aussy seems to do "basements" as basements are bad news in a termite zone and bloody expensive to build down when going up is easier and catches the view and cooling breezes)...

[mydauphin]

I do this for a living. Send me a private message with your email, and you can send me pictures. I will give you advice. Many solutions hard to see which is best from pictures here. Dig around foundation a little to take stress off while you work on fixing it. Also be careful of rain storms. I just lost a wall because it would not stop raining and drainage was and issue. You should be able to dig out wall and repour a reinforced concrete wall there. Skip the blocks. I also use pvc sheet panels bolt then together and pour concrete within. Make rebar cage inside.

[liki]

We are also currently buillding a new house. Decided to use steel foundations.