8.29.2014

Jim spent the morning working mostly on the pilaster areas - these are the areas where the beams for the 1st floor will sit on so they have to be really strong because they will carry the weight of the beam down to the footer. 

Jim had to come up with these special stirrups to put inside....

 

...and then tie them into all the webbing and the vertical steel.  I failed to get a good picture of the vertical steel (look for that tomorrow!) but you can see it in this picture inside the pilaster. 

Then he used some of the cold formed steel to attach vertically - again to keep this area strong when we pour concrete.

 

After lunch, Jim wanted to finish making the brick ledges around the back side.  The ladder is better but still looks precarious!  Look at that gorgeous sky - we continue to have beautiful weather.

 

Obviously when you cut the foam like Jim was doing for the brick ledges, all the scrap and the little foam pellets drop inside.  The rep had told stories of contractors letting the scrap build up so much, especially in corners, that it was a huge problem when they started to pour concrete - you don't want your concrete sitting on foam instead of the concrete footer!  So Jim took the leaf blower and blew out all the forms.

It was kind of fun to see all the pellets and scrap come out the openings!

 

Back to shoring up the pilaster areas...here Jim is attaching a plywood bulkhead he made to cover the ends.

Attaching a bulkhead to the buttress wall area.

Fastening everything in place.

 

I had to run a couple errands this morning and went into downtown Saratoga Springs.  Of course, I just had to stop into the wonderful independent bookstore - I liked this stone in front of the door!