8.4.2014

The big cause for celebration today was...ZERO!  After getting this first section of insulated concrete forming done, we had to make sure everything was level.  Jim was kind of worried about this - if you have to level the forms, that requires a lot of work and could really delay progress.  You would have to either put a shim in places to raise the forms up or cut off some of the keys - definitely not an easy task now that things are in place with steel inside.  Before we got started, Jim said that an elevation error of +/1 one-quarter inch is excellent and we wouldn't have to do anything.

So we got out the surveying equipment and took a deep breath.  Jim gave me a pen to mark the variance on the inside foam for reference.  The first 3 spots we measured were each 1/8" too high - so definitely in the zone where we wouldn't have to do anything.  Every other spot that we measured was ZERO - meaning it was perfectly level!  We were beyond thrilled - that means that we really did a good job on all the footer prep work! 

Jim started putting into place his idea for using steel channels to make support brackets for the foam - he wanted to prevent any raising of the forms when the concrete is poured.  Here he's clamping pieces together and then he used self-drilling screws to hold things in place.

Using a jig, I marked the places where he would punch a hole and then screw it into the web flanges on the foam.

 

It took a couple trips back to the apartment waiting for the UPS delivery, but finally his new punch tool came.  It took some elbow grease to punch holes on the markings but it worked great.

Then Jim attached them to the forms.  There is a punched hole at the bottom foot of each of these pieces - he will have to drill a hole in the concrete and use a special screw to fasten the bracket to the concrete.  That will be tomorrow's job!

Next, Jim got a piece of steel channel, marked all the flange locations, punched a hole at each of those spots, and then screwed it onto the top of the form just to insure that everything is totally straight.

By the end of the day, we had the side and front wall in really good shape.