Foundation, Befores And Afters

I want to give you some before and after shots of different parts of the perimeter of the house. This set is from the back corner, shot from under the house.

Before


After


Then, I have some shots from outside the laundry room. This is the current entrance to the basement, so some of this concrete (like the step) was there before.

Before


After


And here's the side of the house where you used to be able to see roots growing into the base of our world. This was the part of the foundation that convinced me that we had to do something sooner rather than later.

Before


After


Here is the same part of the house, but from underneath, instead.

Before


After


Then there's the basement room that will become the office.

Before


After


In case you can't tell, we are very pleased with the result. And now...Project Office!

Foundation Project Complete

Well, I didn't do a very good job of chronicling the foundation job as it was being done, but I did take pictures. Now that the project is done (Yes!! It's DONE!!!), I wanted to show you how it turned out.

First, though, I have to say that these contractors were amazing. I didn't know anything about foundations before (except that ours was bad), but they were happy to drop everything and learn me in the ways of French drains and footings and concrete forms and soil investigation and much more. My questions had to be terribly annoying and elementary, but I felt a lot better about the end result, mostly just because I was involved along the way. I couldn't believe how great they were about fielding the random additional requests we made along the way with no additional charge. The teams (we had two during the duration of the project) kept the area clean and picked up every day before they left. I even had a party in the midst of the construction, and no one would have even known. If anyone needs foundation work in the Santa Barbara area, please contact Joe at EGR. By all means necessary. It won't be your cheapest quote, but the work will be of the highest quality. I even had to have a gas line moved in the middle of the project, and the contractor who did that work (who we've worked with enough to trust, as well) made an unsolicited comment about what a great foundation they were putting in for us. He wanted to know who they were for future work he might need done on other of his projects. Needless to say, I have volunteered to be a reference for them.

And now, on to the project recap! First, they supported the house on stilts using two-by-fours and bottle jacks. This was incredibly interesting to me, since I've worked with these kinds of jacks previously. I knew they were cool, but I wouldn't have guessed they could hold up a two-story house. Once the house was stabilized, they jackhammered the old foundation out of the way, and dug a more even perimeter. The new perimeter met the requirements of the soils engineering review, as it got down to original packed down stuff. Coming from Texas, where bedrock is at 4-6 feet, it was weird to hear they just wanted it to be on original dirt, and not all the way down to bedrock. During this period of time, the house was suspended on the jacks and temporary support beams. It was surreal looking at these ditches in the ground with house above it. All the removed dirt and rocks from under the house went into this 15-foot-by-9-foot-by-4-foot dumpster. There were three completely full dumpsters for the first half of the new foundation, and after that I lost track. Since we also had some digging done in preparation for a future basement, my guess is something in the neighborhood of ten dumpsters were filled in the completion of this project. Then, it was concrete day! Forms had been put in place and the dark gray stuff was oozed into place to dry and make the switch from being something that had to be supported to something that was doing the supporting. I just can't tell you enough how big a project this was, and what a big difference it made in our comfort with the stability of the house. Now we can go work on fun projects that are more exciting, visually.

I also want to give you some before and after pictures, but I think I'll put those in future posts as I can get to them.

Earthquake Number Two

We've lived here for 15 months now, and we just had our second earthquake. This was a big one, but a lot farther away. It was a 5.4* magnitude just east of LA, probably 120 miles from where we live.

There was a long, low rumble, and I heard some moving of picture frames, maybe, and then it was done. Compared to the first one I was in, this was longer and lower and less generally thrilling. However, I knew what it was pretty quickly this time.

The first thing I did was to run down to check on the foundation that is currently in a state of limbo. More to come on that project, but for now just know that nothing shifted here, temporary foundation and all.

Post-posting edit. I was too quick on the draw with my post -- the quake was just downgraded from 5.8 to a 5.4.

Beginnings of the Fun

There is a whole team of guys working on my house while I work. It's rather surreal, sitting in my office while the noise below make the house shake like a minor earthquake is in the area.

Our first project has kicked off today. We are starting with a new foundation, since, well, that's seems like the base of all of it. And as part of that kickoff, I wanted to show you the "before" pictures of what it looks like now.

This is a very nice specimen of how the foundation was designed to be when it was originally done. On the dirt, we have this layer of stones from the site, cemented together. On top of that is a nice 2x4 that the wood planks of the walls come out of. This little section of the foundation is in very good condition. We will still be replacing it, as a partial foundation repair would not really do any good.

Here you can see some of the worst of the foundation. The 2x4 that is supposed to be on the rock base is no longer there, and the plants from the outside are growing into the remaining space. As such, the walls that the whole house is supported on are water-damaged and rotting away. Yikes! In other parts of the foundation, the 2x4 board is warped or rotted or otherwise not structurally sound.

Here you can see how the outside wall of the kitchen is just balanced precariously on some rocks that were set there. No cement holding the stones together, no 2x4 board that the walls are nailed into for support. Nice stuff.

Today is the day that all the permits are in place for the "Earthquake Retrofit" work that we're having done. I don't know why they call it a retrofit -- they will be completely replacing the foundation all the way around the house. But, whatever. I'll take it if it means that the house is ready for its next 100 years when it's all over. Regardless, today the 5-man crew is working to support the house on these 4x4 posts -- shoring up the perimeter, they say. What I understand is that this is the first step towards demolishing the existing foundation. It's sort of exciting, not because I like the idea of having a temporary foundation for a couple of week, but because I know what the next projects are once this is done, and those are the fun and exciting ones.

I'll have to publish posts chronicling the progress through our construction/remodeling phase of life. Any lessons you learned that you would like to share would be of great interest to me.