Basement project

no turning back now . Got beams set . lifted 1/4 inch and knocked out blocks on one corner . Little un nerving working under there now . I know it"s not going anywhere but still ! Found lots of these beer cans in the block cores .

Git 'er done. Man,that looks haywire. How much weight on those hollow blocks? Oh well,it is holding,that's the main thing. Good luck, you're very motivated.

Brian,

I dug a basement under the house on the
farm next door. he got a house mover to jack
it up about a 1/2 inch and set the whole thing
on beams ( 10" H beam) 3 or 4 under the whole
house and they carried two chimneys as well.
he tried to dig with a skid loader ,couple
hours in he came to get me and I dug it with
a 1000 case crawler loader,sawed the stack
off so I didn't have to dig so deep , still
it was 9' finished height, was 35 years ago.

george

lol ,,My dad did same thing years ago with a TD9 dozer ,had to take exhaust stack off.

The weather here in Iowa has been with you. I hope you can beat the winter. I did mine in a similar fashion. Lotsa hard work. A poor man has creative ways.....gobble

That's a great project.
Was there just a crawl space under the house before?. You'll gain a lot of room relatively cheaply that way.
I added a 16'X18' addition on my house about three years ago. Excavated, poured the footings, laid up the block and went on up from there.
I know for a fact that there is a 6 pack of pale ale bottles in the cores.

Yea,just crawl space with about 6x6 area dug out for water heater . Part of that had collapsed is why I decided to tear into all this . I 'm sure I'll leave a few empties too. Once I learn all I can about laying block .

Don't get to much beer in the mix. It makes for wavy block walls! Mark

Looks like quite a bit of work to get to this stage, just you working on it or have you some help?

That conveyor ought to be some labor savings, close quarters in there, lots of hand work yet to come ?

Probably not a lot of weight on those CMU/concrete block, wood framed house, though hardwood cribbing is better, could be 2000-3000 psi block, at least you have them set up correctly and the point load on them is a lot less, I'd be more concerned with keeping the soil under the slab and or the slab edge itself.

Whats next, place forms, concrete to height and then steel wedges to the sill plate to take up the space and make a tight fit ?

Beer was synonymous with building houses, always find cans in walls, under porches, I found a nice unrusted steel can in my old house, between 2 studs in a wall.

The I Beam sitting on the blocks is more of a piece of mind beam . The channel iron and jack/cribbing carry all the weight . Was just to darn scary looking ,so added I beam to keep wife happy ,lol. Got to dig down to 9 foot or so top of footing height . Then set "Form A Drain" Footing forms, then inspection , then pour footings. After that I learn how to lay block . Conveyor was a lifesaver ! After I get this corner done and some of the jacks out of the way I can get my lil 310 mustang skidloader under there and use it to feed conveyor . Weather is getting cold so not sure how much I'll get done yet this year . But summer was nothing but rain ,so really put me behind schedule . Thats for all the encouragement,it goes a long ways !
Bryan

I need that conveyor when you are done with it for my basement!

Well, if the super is nervous what the heck, a little extra support will keep 'er happy LOL!

Laying block is not all that difficult, just make sure to look at the layout, the courses with mortar joints and see where your height ends up, you may want to make a story pole, use a string line, level, set your corners etc. Basically place your mortar, set the block, tap down to the string line, check with a level, almost common sense.

You will probably want some vertical reinforcing from the footing or slab, #4 deformed bar is most common, you can fill that cell up to height, forget what is common spacing on those filled cells, 4'-0" O.C. or what your building code calls for, or if you were required to have plans, architect/engineer should specify, you can also use a ladder mesh, every or every other course, take a look at Hohmann-Barnard masonry accessories, all kinds of horizontal reinforcing etc.

Don't forget any electrical conduits, and similar things within the wall if applicable, same with wall penetrations. Nice to have a wet saw for the cuts to make your coursing, some just use a masons hammer. CMU/concrete masonry units come in all kinds of sizes and compressive strengths, which are certified by the mfr. Also don't forget to fill cells anywhere you need to attach something to a wall, filled cells are much stronger when using expansion bolts etc. vs. hollow cells, though you can get heavy duty CMU like 4000 psi-5000 psi, with 75% of the cells filled, which means the block has thicker and stronger cell walls. Hopefully you know someone who has some experience, really not to bad to learn, little at a time, keep your mortar mix design uniform or use a good bagged mix, should go ok. Don't make too much at one time, better to keep fresh material flowing.

Been hot and dry here all summer sounds like you guys got all the rain this year !

Seen several with this type of project, Wondered why somebody just wouldn"t dig a basement next to and build any thing from a ground level roof to a one-two story addition on, or build the basement next to it then move the house on it.

Brian,
How long have you been at this job?
George

You have a real chore on your hands. That is alot of work you are taking on there, but the added space will be worth all the work. Good luck, and hope all goes well for you.