A Solid Foundation

After all the digging, groundwork, pipework, shuttering, bridging over and staking out, we were finally ready for the concrete pour of our new foundations!

Unlike with the underpinning, this time we hired a pump to get all the concrete around to the back of the house. Given the quantity of concrete needed and knowing how heavy it it to move, the pump was essential.

The 'Pouring Crew' consisted of three men, they arrived at 7.30am with the pump and two concrete lorries.

It took time to lay the pipe work around to the back of the house, but it wasn't too long before the pour began.

Every trench was 750mm deep and 600mm wide, apart from below the back wall of the side extension, which was 750mm deep and 700mm wide. The top of the stakes in the trench marked where the the concrete would fill to, which was 600mm deep. The 'Levelling Crew' consisted of Adam, Myself, Mum and Dad, so armed with rakes and shovels, we tried our absolute best to get the concrete level with the top of every stake.

It took a fair bit of work to get it level, being so thick it can easily develop a wave effect if you're not careful. We started at the furthest point and worked our way back around to the front of the house. We triple checked that it was all level, before the 'Pouring Crew' left. Working our way from the back to the front of the house several times, to make sure the level hadn't dropped at the starting point or anywhere else. In the end it worked really well and after 48 hours the concrete had gone off, so we could see how well level it was. Carl, our builder assured us that if we were slightly out we shouldn't worry as it can be corrected in the brickwork, thickening the mortar a little in places. It turned out he only had to do this in one of our smaller walls, which was hugely relieving as we'd worked so hard to get it all right. It is at the back of the garage and you can't even see the difference..

The concrete had gone off very fast, as it was a hot day, and slight cracks appeared from it curing so quickly. This was easily fixed with a little bit of dry cement and a garden brush. We poured on a little and brushed it into the cracks. The remaining water in the concrete set the cement, filling the cracks, so problem solved!

NB.These were not major cracks, they were on the surface. If your concrete foundations were developing large cracks it could be that the wrong type of concrete was used, so worth getting it checked.

As you can see from the above pictures, the trenches for the pipes had not been filled in yet and also the floor plate had not been dug out. Usually this is done during the digging out for the foundation walls, but we had many utilities and a whole lot of concrete around them to get out, so we waited until the next stage- after the builders had got us up to damp proof course.

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