An early and one of the most critical stages of building your new home is the foundation. A home’s foundation is responsible for supporting the entire structure so a strong and properly built foundation will prevent a number of problems from occuring 1,5,15 and 50 years down the road.
This week, we snapped a couple of photos of a customized Wildflower model which we’re building for one of our favorite customers!
Building the Pad
Here’s a snapshot of a formed house pad, the first big step in building your dream home! For this stage, dirt is typically trucked in from other locations. In some cases, customers prefer to build a pond in their yard and will utilize the local fill for their house pad. At this stage, it’s important that the pad is placed properly (location and elevation per engineering drawings) and compressed so that it can support the house foundation, walls and total structure weight.
Forming the Foundation
Next, the home foundation us formed using wood and other materials. Around the outer edge of the foundation, a footer is dug as the slab strength will benefit from extra thickness at the edges. Later on, the form boards will contain the wet concrete after it is poured (until it dries). After form boards are in place, steel rebar is placed and tied together (continuously) per engineering requirements to add additional strengthen the slab. A plastic barrier is also added.
Underground Plumbing and Electrical
Once the foundation form boards are in place, RJM’s electrical and plumbing contractors come in and run conduit (pipes) for any needed plumbing and electrical lines. It’s critical at this time to correctly position the conduit to avoid problems later in the build. RJM’s project managers will carefully inspect the positioning of underground utilities to ensure correct placement. To right, we’ve provide a picture of plumbing manifold and electrical conduit that will protrude from the slab after it is poured. This will mostly likely provide water and electric for the kitchen area. Also note the plastic vapor barrier that will sit between the poured slab and the termite-treated soil below.
Pouring the Slab
After all the necessary inspections are complete, RJM will pour the slab at one time to ensure a flat, strong slab which will support the weight of your new home. During the pour, several concrete trucks will be schedule to the job site and our experienced team will spread and finish the slab. We wait for ideal (warm and sunny) weather conditions for all foundation pours!
Finally, the finished product- A strong, monolithic slab engineered to support your new home for life! (Note: as the slab dries, water appears at the surface)
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