7.12.2014

Today was more final prep on the footers.  Jim was working on footing dowels - those are pieces of rebar that will be put in the concrete vertically when it's poured and they extend into the insulated concrete forms to provide strength to the wall from all the weight of the dirt when everything is back-filled.  They have to be so far apart so Jim measured and marked the spots where they will go with paint so they are easily seen when we are pouring concrete.

Jim's plans call for different strength rebar depending on which part of the structure it is - the below pieces are from 5/8" rebar.  You can see they have to be bent to bond with the concrete in the footer and also have to have a hook on the top - both for better bonding to the foundation wall concrete as well as so that no one gets hurt from that sharp piece of rebar sticking up out of the footer!  In all there are 32 footing dowels in this first pour!

 We also got all of the gravel work done around the footers.