Commercial Footers and Foundation - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

funk5stacks · 02-11-2008, 10:16 PM

Been working down at the local university for the past month. New "Union" bldg. Took some pics of the foundation digging i've done. Thought i'd share.

this pier footer was 14'6" x 14'6" and about 16' deep, the point being to bare the weight of the building below the concrete tunnel its next to. which holds the universities utilities. The ground next to the tunnel was saturated with moisture so it had to be undercut about five feet. almost every pier footer next to the tunnel had to be undercut. there was one long footer 15' x 55' on the backside of the tunnel that had to be undercut 4' and required about a 90 yd. mudmat.

concrete sup. getting measurements before a pour, the paint line is just a reference for the top of the pier footer. this particular one is about 12' x 12' x 7' deep. btw. the iron workers have the wrong bar in the hole, they had to chop a foot off.

this pier sucked. we had to backfill about 5 foot up the basement wall in order to track down the slope and dig next to the tunnel. i tracked down the slope of the basement excavation with a 307 cat, and was assisted out with a 160 LX L. Belt. There was no hitting of the tunnel either, ever, or it had to be waterproofed.

adjacent pier

laborers mucking out a wall footer, i'm in a 312C cat, weather sucks when it isn't freezing.

pier/tunnel/ basement pic.

distant shot of the basement, i can't recall how many piers we dug down there for the columns, 50, maybe more. dug the footer for the basement wall as well.

rino1494 · 02-13-2008, 09:47 PM

Nice pics and nice clean holes, especially with the soil conditions. Were there delays when approving the undercuts for the footers and are you getting paid the extra ??

**Cole** · 02-13-2008, 10:19 PM

Cool pics, thanks for sharing!

Post more if you got them.

funk5stacks · 02-13-2008, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rino1494

Nice pics and nice clean holes, especially with the soil conditions. Were there delays when approving the undercuts for the footers and are you getting paid the extra ??

thanks for the compliments. this time of year i just prefer the ground stay frozen but mother nature has not been on our side.
The GC has been nothing but johnny on the spot, once the soils engineer/inspector makes the call, the GC's there on the phone with the architects/engineers to determine a solution, i do my best to butter the inspector but this is his first job and he's like a shiny new penny.
We have a good relationship with this concrete contractor and our cost is just billed hourly. The concrete company has a unit cost per yd extra agreed upon with the GC.

**denick** · 02-15-2008, 08:01 PM

Funk,

That is nice looking work.

tgeb · 02-15-2008, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funk5stacks

this time of year i just prefer the ground stay frozen........

Same way I feel about the frost. Some days we will work only till it gets too warm and mucky, then we make sure to knock down the ruts so it's not so rough the next day.

Nice work.

**denick** · 02-16-2008, 08:01 AM

Funk,

What part of the country are you in?

Looking at the pictures your not one of those guys that doesn't know what a rock is? Those hard things that you find when digging from softball size to the size of a bus?

Thought I'd ask since there are some around here that don't know.

ch0mpie · 02-17-2008, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by funk5stacks

thanks for the compliments. this time of year i just prefer the ground stay frozen but mother nature has not been on our side.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tgeb

Same way I feel about the frost.

Come on guys I know you know better, can't pour footings on muddy OR frozen soil

tgeb · 02-18-2008, 01:45 PM

We don't pour on the frost or mud, but we can dig through the frost into good soil and pour footings the same day, or even blanket them and pour next day.

It is just easier to move around if the surface stays hard due to the frost.

rino1494 · 02-19-2008, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tgeb

We don't pour on the frost or mud, but we can dig through the frost into good soil and pour footings the same day, or even blanket them and pour next day.

It is just easier to move around if the surface stays hard due to the frost.

Eaiser cleaning tracks too. When the sun comes out and everything turns to mud, I basically strip down before I come into my house. I hate those days.

ch0mpie · 02-20-2008, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tgeb

It is just easier to move around if the surface stays hard due to the frost.

Got me there, I got stuck in a real mud hole on monday. Last week we had no problems, monday temp was up in the 50's, we were knee deep

. Drilling thou, no footings.

funk5stacks · 02-24-2008, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by denick

Funk,

What part of the country are you in?

Looking at the pictures your not one of those guys that doesn't know what a rock is? Those hard things that you find when digging from softball size to the size of a bus?

Thought I'd ask since there are some around here that don't know.

columbus, OH . yeah we run into boulders around here. glacial rock, some of them can get pretty big and frequent, but we don't run into solid rock too often, occasional slate seam. thanks for the compliments btw.

funk5stacks · 05-17-2008, 10:38 AM

heres some updated, before and after pics.

looking back from the opposite direction

tgeb · 05-17-2008, 11:56 AM

That is quite a project. Looks good.

neolitic · 05-17-2008, 12:32 PM

Almost makes me nostalgic for the olden days.

(I used to be the pinhead with the transit,
engineers tape, and the stakes.)