Blogging Blues - The complete update
Well, clearly I've not been keeping up with this blogging thing the way I thought I would. I will try to improve as we go forward.
So first, an update on where we are. When I last wrote we were mired in delays related to contractors and weather. The skies cleared and Athens Excavating got on the job and we were able to get our retaining wall and building foundation laid. As often happens in Athens, the dirt was not what we hoped it would be. Our geological consultant recommended we dig deeper to dirt that had never been disturbed and set our concrete on that. This neccessitated a lot more concrete be put in the ground than we planned but what can you do. If you don't have a solid foundation you won't have a very solid building. No choices there.
Like so many jobs, big or small, getting the first steps completed is often the most time consuming part. Getting a proper footer (which is like a foundation) for the retaining wall was critical and took several weeks from start to finish. The wall footer is over two feet thick and is filled with very thick steel "rebar", some of the bars are over an inch thick. The wall footer turned out to be a fortress.
Next the "great wall of Stimson" began to rise from our little plot of land. Section by section Athens Excavating poured the wall itself using a product called "gang forms", a set of interlocking panels that can be moved in 9 foot sections, twenty feet high. That allowed each section of wall to be poured to it's full height without removing and re-setting forms which saved considerable time. The concrete itself is pumped through a giant pump truck directly into the forms. With only a few breaks to allow it to set up, the entire twenty foot height, sixteen inches thick, was poured in more or less one step. Check out the pictures in the gallery.
The retaining wall is also filled with lots of thick steel courtesy of our friends at RJV Rebar who tied it all up meticulously. It would be safe to say that civil engineers are concerned as much with liability as they are with structural integrity and thus the amount of steel in the wall and footer exceeded almost everyone's imagination. This is a very strong wall.
The retaining wall is what allows us to re-sculpt the land on the property to achieve an interesting design, efficient land use and harmony with our surroundings. The larger section on the left supports the upper parking pad which will be accessed through Montrose Avenue. This area will have a walkway directly into the third floor apartments.
The right hand section (now obscured by the building) actually forms the back wall of the building and provides a resting place for steel beams and other structural members.
The gang forms are toted around with a large backhoe and set in place carefully.
The forms, which are smooth on only one side, interlock together to create 1/2 the wall form. An identical set is placed 16" away from the set shown here. Concrete is then poured into the gap, around reinforcing steel, to create the wall.