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Posted by Renata on September 13, 2007, 9:28 am
A house up the street is being built and they've done something that
doesn't seem to be logical.
The lot slopes a bit. No basement per se, but they had to remove soil
in ~20' length x 30' width, sloping from 5' high to 0 along the 20'.
They then poured footers - along the perimeter, and several interior
ones as well.
Then, they built CMU walls about 5' high in the area described above
(20'x30'). In doing so, they "made" a couple rooms - without doors.
Not small ones, either as the one is about 20' x 15'. One is probably
8x8.
These are on the front side of the house. The back side of this
section will be at walk out level w/back yard, and (presumably) have
regular frame walls.
Now a dump truck came along and dumped dirt, partially into this "room
sans doors. The next day, the "room" was totally filled in with dirt.
Haven't gotten around to seeing if the smaller room is also filled in,
but I would guess so.
What are they doing?
Why not just do regular footers (30" deep, and stepped, or w/basement
area), instead of digging a hole, then filling it back in - after
going to the trouble of building walls that are going to be buried
(but, presumably, serve as the base for walls above)?
Thanx
Renata
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Posted by willshak on September 13, 2007, 9:51 am
on 9/13/2007 9:28 AM Renata said the following:
> A house up the street is being built and they've done something that
> doesn't seem to be logical.
>
> The lot slopes a bit. No basement per se, but they had to remove soil
> in ~20' length x 30' width, sloping from 5' high to 0 along the 20'.
>
> They then poured footers - along the perimeter, and several interior
> ones as well.
>
> Then, they built CMU walls about 5' high in the area described above
> (20'x30'). In doing so, they "made" a couple rooms - without doors.
> Not small ones, either as the one is about 20' x 15'. One is probably
> 8x8.
>
> These are on the front side of the house. The back side of this
> section will be at walk out level w/back yard, and (presumably) have
> regular frame walls.
>
> Now a dump truck came along and dumped dirt, partially into this "room
> sans doors. The next day, the "room" was totally filled in with dirt.
> Haven't gotten around to seeing if the smaller room is also filled in,
> but I would guess so.
>
> What are they doing?
>
> Why not just do regular footers (30" deep, and stepped, or w/basement
> area), instead of digging a hole, then filling it back in - after
> going to the trouble of building walls that are going to be buried
> (but, presumably, serve as the base for walls above)?
>
> Thanx
> Renata
>
Footings for a garage entrance apron and a door apron.
--
Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @
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Posted by willshak on September 13, 2007, 10:06 am
on 9/13/2007 9:51 AM willshak said the following:
> on 9/13/2007 9:28 AM Renata said the following:
>> A house up the street is being built and they've done something that
>> doesn't seem to be logical.
>>
>> The lot slopes a bit. No basement per se, but they had to remove soil
>> in ~20' length x 30' width, sloping from 5' high to 0 along the 20'.
>>
>> They then poured footers - along the perimeter, and several interior
>> ones as well.
>> Then, they built CMU walls about 5' high in the area described above
>> (20'x30'). In doing so, they "made" a couple rooms - without doors.
>> Not small ones, either as the one is about 20' x 15'. One is probably
>> 8x8.
>>
>> These are on the front side of the house. The back side of this
>> section will be at walk out level w/back yard, and (presumably) have
>> regular frame walls.
>> Now a dump truck came along and dumped dirt, partially into this "room
>> sans doors. The next day, the "room" was totally filled in with dirt.
>> Haven't gotten around to seeing if the smaller room is also filled in,
>> but I would guess so.
>>
>> What are they doing?
>>
>> Why not just do regular footers (30" deep, and stepped, or w/basement
>> area), instead of digging a hole, then filling it back in - after
>> going to the trouble of building walls that are going to be buried
>> (but, presumably, serve as the base for walls above)?
>>
>> Thanx
>> Renata
>>
> Footings for a garage entrance apron and a door apron.
>
Replying to myself...
also could be for a garage slab, and an entrance lobby slab.
--
Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @
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Posted by Renata on September 14, 2007, 9:12 am
wrote:
>on 9/13/2007 9:51 AM willshak said the following:
>> on 9/13/2007 9:28 AM Renata said the following:
>>> A house up the street is being built and they've done something that
>>> doesn't seem to be logical.
>>>
-snip
>>> Thanx
>>> Renata
>>>
>> Footings for a garage entrance apron and a door apron.
>>
>Replying to myself...
>also could be for a garage slab, and an entrance lobby slab.
Garage is on the other side of the house. A small part may, indeed,
be an entrance slab.
I just don't understand why they went to the effort of digging a hole,
only to fill it back in. Why not go ahead and make a basement. A
garage, of course, would make sense, but I now for a fact, that the
garage is (was?) on the other side. Unless they modified the plans...
Plus, I'm not sure the soil has been compacted. But, they went ahead
and poured some concrete - kinda sloppily though.
Renata
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Posted by marson on September 14, 2007, 10:56 pm
> wrote:
>
>
>
> >on 9/13/2007 9:51 AM willshak said the following:
> >> on 9/13/2007 9:28 AM Renata said the following:
> >>> A house up the street is being built and they've done something that
> >>> doesn't seem to be logical.
>
> -snip
> >>> Thanx
> >>> Renata
>
> >> Footings for a garage entrance apron and a door apron.
>
> >Replying to myself...
> >also could be for a garage slab, and an entrance lobby slab.
>
> Garage is on the other side of the house. A small part may, indeed,
> be an entrance slab.
>
> I just don't understand why they went to the effort of digging a hole,
> only to fill it back in. Why not go ahead and make a basement. A
> garage, of course, would make sense, but I now for a fact, that the
> garage is (was?) on the other side. Unless they modified the plans...
>
> Plus, I'm not sure the soil has been compacted. But, they went ahead
> and poured some concrete - kinda sloppily though.
>
> Renata
Sounds like slab on grade with frost footings. It is often a debate
in areas where the frost depth is deep--if you go down 5 feet, why not
go down 8 or 9 and make a basement? Well, some people don't like
basements. Some sites have too much potential for moisture issues.
Basements do cost money. As to why they don't just dig the footings,
I don't know that either, but there could be many reasons. Masons
need room to work--a lot easier for them to have the entire hole
excavated. Also, when running an excavator, it is a challenge to get
the holes in the right place. Might be a better bet just to dig a
hole that is surely in the right place than digging footings, finding
out they are in the wrong place, coming back, etc. Thats what our
excavator does. Maybe it was old fill that they wanted to get out of
there. Maybe the architect just specced it because he thought it was
a good idea. Usually the soil is usually compacted--how do you know
it wasn't compacted? Alternatively, the concrete could be spanning
from footing to footing so settling isn't an issue. Can't really tell
from here if it's sloppy or not. What do you mean by sloppy? rough
finish? Maybe it's going to be covered with tile or carpet. Concrete
is slopped around? so what? Maybe they are complete hacks, I don't
know, but they might know exactly what they are doing, too. Why not
ask them instead of us?
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