Well first I just had to add this photo of mole – we went to Hawaii and found some really great vegan ramen. This is how happy we were.
Back to business: I finished chipping out the concrete and digging for the first part of the foundation. This is where one end of the steel frame will be supported.
So that means more sacks of soil. I’m becoming a regular customer for these guys. This time I was careful to try not overloading the sacks. It probably helped that it wasn’t raining any more.
I’d been dithering on buying this tool for a year or so because it’s so expensive: It’s an electric rebar bender. You can get manual benders, and I’ve done that before: It’s a lot of work, and not very accurate. And you can rent (or buy) bigger bending machines that weigh about 800lb, but can bend bigger bars. But then I’m either hauling it back and forth to the rental place, or trying to find a place to store it. This one is limited to no bigger than #5 bars, but I’m only using #3 and #4 on this project.
Here I’m starting to lay out rebar. In the future, the foundation will continue from here, so I made a bar long enough to “lap” the rebar, and covered half of it tightly with electrical tape, and drove it into the soil. When I excavate for the new footing, hopefully the bars will be there and protected by the tape…
Here I’m starting to bend bars. It’s a really great tool – very glad I got it. It even has a cutter built-in.
One of the really tricky things about rebar is that there are layers, and lots of pieces that interconnect. You have to be really careful to put things together in the correct order, or it won’t be possible to get some of the pieces in. I had to take it apart a couple of times to get it right. Here I’m about halfway through.
These are the anchor bolts for the moment frame. I’ll have to extend them with couplers but this part is firmly held in place so it can get poured into the footing.
All the rebar ready for a concrete pour.
A concrete pour is a big event: You have to schedule inspectors, concrete delivery and pump truck all to be there at the right time. And hopefully there’s space on the street (the whole road was closed most of May while they replaced the sewer lines under the street).
So much work, and it’s all hidden:
Oh I just realized I’ve been really going on a bit of a splurge with tools. This machine is definitely more of a frivolous purchase. But it’s oh so nice.
My brother (in law) and sister, nieces and nephew came to visit and we all hiked up to the top of the nearest hill.
